Earlier this week, poker pro Nikolai Yakovenko, co-creator of the ABC Open-Face Chinese Poker iPhone app, introduced the 2-7 variant of Open-Face Chinese — a.k.a. '2-7 OFC' or 'Deuce Pineapple.' Today he offers some strategy help for those getting started with the game.
Expanding the OFC Mix
- Welcome to Pineapple OFC, the version of Open Face Chinese Poker in which players make hands that are twice as big in half the rounds, where Fantasyland is not just possible but standard, and where.
- We are the most popular Open Face Chinese Poker game on iOS, with tens of thousands of active players, and hundreds of thousands of hands played every month. And no two hands are ever the same. This app supports Regular and Pineapple Open Face Chinese Poker (OFC), and now with Deuce (2-7) Middle Pineapple, with in-app purchase.
How to Play Open-Face Chinese Poker with 2-7 in the Middle, or 'Deuce Pineapple' Nikolai Yakovenko, creator of the ABC Open-Face Chinese Poker iPhone app, offers rules for Open-Face Chinese Poker with 2-7 in the Middle, or Deuce Pineapple. Open Face Chinese Poker April 11, 2014. Red rock casino geyserville.
As a mixed games player, I get a Pavlovian rush whenever my hand is . I draw one, and squeeze a for the wheel then peek over to see if my opponent is reaching for chips. There's something magical about playing a game where the nut-nut hand comes in so often, yet not often enough to make it any less exciting every time it does.
The thrill of 2-7 lowball (played as triple draw, no-limit single draw, and in variants like badeucey, badacey, or even razz-deucey) is that so many hands are almost great, oftentimes just one card away from the coveted wheel. Many times a player is obviously drawing to such a hand, while his opponent is pat with a pretty good hand, betting on the wheel draw to miss this time around.
Especially heads up, limit 2-7 lowball is probably the closest we've got to a face-up poker game. That said, it seemed like it was only a matter of time before the game made its mark on open-face Chinese poker.
The variant is played deuce-to-seven low in the middle and is dealt just like OFC Pineapple, just with a low hand swapped in. For example:
As in high-only Pineapple, you're making three hands — a top, a middle, and a bottom hand. Except that here the middle hand is played 2-7 lowball, while the top and bottom hands are high hands.
To make sure that there's a balance between risk and reward, the middle low hand must make a 10-low or better. If not the whole hand fouls. There are points bonuses for making a nine-low (+1), an eight-low (+2) or a seven-low (+4), and the wheel sends you to Fantasyland.
The top-hand Fantasyland minimum goes up to kings (+), since it's a little easier to make big hands on top when you aren't needing to make a strong high hand in the middle as well. For a final twist, if you make both kings up top and a wheel in the middle, that takes you to 15-card Super Fantasyland.
The 15-card super bonus has been tried before as a bonus for really-hard-to-make hands in high-only OFC, but it especially makes sense for a game where you are trying to improve both your low and high hand at the same time.
It's hard to make both on top and a wheel in the middle. Whenever you're close… go for it.
Okay, enough rules. Let's have a Q&A.
Q: There seem to be different OFC variants popping up from time to time. What makes this one special?
Playing for a low hand in the middle is fundamentally different from other variants. Meanwhile, thanks to well-chosen rules and bonuses, 2-7 OFC still feels like the same game with fast-paced play, instant regret, about one-third of hands going to Fantasyland, and another one-third that foul.
Q: Where did the 'Deuce Pineapple' rules and concept come from?
Like all the best card games, this game emerged from small tweaks tried by multiple players. But word on the street (i.e., Twitter) is that these specific rules and bonuses were made famous by a couple of pros on the tournament circuit. I'll leave it to them to claim credit if they so choose.
Q: The middle bonuses seem kind of low. What's up with that?
Yes, since the game keeps the top-hand bonuses from high-only OFC, and it's easier to make big pairs on top, the game definitely skews more toward the top hand. However, don't get caught needing two low cards on the last draw to make a qualifying ten-low in the middle. You'll miss two-thirds of the time. Worth it for trips on top… but perhaps not for a smaller bonus.
Q: I feel a strategy section coming on..
That's not a question at all. But yes.
A Look at Some 2-7 OFC Strategy
The game is new. Nobody really knows how to play, and it's not likely anybody has played more than a few hundred hands of it lifetime — unlike the millions of hands of high-only Pineapple OFC played on my ABC Open-Face iOS app every month.
We've just released the Deuce Pineapple variant in the app, however, so that will soon change. Heuristics will emerge, and various strategies and shortcuts will bubble up. Until that happens, you can practice the game against our Deuce computer opponent. It plays far from perfectly, but here are a few principles that have stuck out to me thus far.
1. Start making the low hand early
Like writing a term paper, don't wait until the night before to throw together an outline. By far the easiest way to foul in Deuce is to leave too many middle low cards unplayed with one or two rounds left to go.
Everything is context specific, but as noted above if you need to make two low cards on the last draw, you will foul two-thirds of the time. If you need one card, you're less than one-third to foul. And that could be a lot less than one-third if your low draw is live.
Projecting it out for two draws left, a hand with one spot left in the middle is very unlikely to foul, a hand with two spots left is moderately likely to foul, but if you need three or four more low cards to qualify, you're gonna run out of rounds.
So do try to make a good low. Hold out for a wheel if you can get one, but otherwise make sure that you don't get caught without some Custom golf poker chips. sort of low hand, or a least a four-card low draw heading into the last round. Unless you're drawing to a massive hand on top, the risk isn't worth it.
2. Try to make aces or kings up top, but don't forget about trips
This is a tricky one. In general, aces and kings go up top, as they get you at least +8 bonus points as well as take you to Fantasyland. But if you don't get one of those cards early, leave yourself the possibility of backing into top trips, and a straight or flush on the bottom.
These situations are hard to spot, but you can notice them if you pay attention.
And a good job out of you, Dr. ABC!
Trips on top don't come in often, but with bonuses starting at +10 for three deuces — and a hand that takes you to Fantasyland — even a 1-in-3 shot at trips makes for a nice value. So don't be shy about playing that small pair on top if you can freeroll for trips, and are taking no foul risk to do so.
3. Play aggressively, as it's still all about The Land
I spoke to a few serious players with a lot more Deuce experience than myself, and there was a wide range of disagreement about the value of Fantasyland.
That said, it's still a bonus round worth pursuing. Because of the 10-low in the middle rule you can actually foul in Fantasyland, which is strange and unwelcome. But this happens less than once every 10 hands, and so it's not substantially different from just making a very weak Fantasyland hand in high-only Pineapple Open-Face.
When in Deuce Fantasyland, it's easy to make trips up top or a wheel in the middle, so you stay in Fantasyland more often. It's not unusual to stay for two or three hands in a row, and I'm sure that once it's on the ABC app, we'll have people telling us about about their opponents staying for six or seven Deuce hands in a row. The bonus for trips up top add up, so the bottom line is keep shooting for Fantasyland as you would in high-only Pineapple.
4. Discards are face-down
As the pot-limit Omaha player sitting on never fails to remind you, blockers are a thing. Your opponent can't catch the cards that you discard face down, even if you can't use them yourself.
The face down discard is a only small part of high-only Pineapple strategy. You're glad to catch the cards that your opponent needs, even if you throw them away, but it's rare that you will change your play in order to hide information from an opponent.
I think that Deuce OFC strategy will be different. Making wheels and qualifying low hands is a big part of the game. If your opponent needs a for the wheel, and you catch a four yourself, you should absolutely throw it away face down if possible.
If he thinks his wheel is live your opponent will hold out for it just a little while longer, increasing his chances to foul. This matters, especially if it makes the difference between him making a seven-low (with a six in it), against fouling the whole hand by staying for a wheel. A single live card can swing those probabilities by 20% of more, and whenever your opponent makes a mistake you benefit. So if you're going for a nine-low already, it may be right to put a worse low card in your hand, just to toss a wheel card face down from your opponent.
Deuce Pineapple will appeal to some poker players more than others, but it's a good, well-balanced game without an obvious dominant strategy. I look forward to exploring the nooks and crannies of this new twist on OFC.
Thanks for reading, good luck, and see you in Fantasyland!
For more OFC strategy advice click here and follow me on Twittter at @ivan_bezdomny.
Get all the latest PokerNews updates on your social media outlets. Follow us on Twitter and find us on both Facebook and Google+!
Tags
Nikolai YakovenkoOpen-Face Chinese Pokercash game strategyChinese PokerRelated Players
Nikolai Yakovenko
Table Of Contents
Introduction
Open-Face Chinese Poker with 2-7 in the Middle — a.k.a. '2-7 OFC' or 'Deuce Pineapple' — is a turn-based card game that is played heads up, or sometimes three-handed. Players take turns, drawing cards and placing them into three separate poker hands. Each of these hands is played face up, meaning that players can see all of the cards that have been played, and these cards can't be moved between each player's three poker hands once they have been placed.
The 'Deuce' designation means that the middle poker hand is played according to the rankings used in 2-7 lowball, while the other two hands are played as regular 'high' poker hands. The game might sound complicated, but it really isn't.
Objective
The objective of 2-7 Open-Face Chinese is to place 13 cards into three hands: a five-card bottom hand, a five-card middle hand, and a three-card top hand.
As noted, the game plays just like high-only Pineapple OFC, except with the middle played as a 2-7 lowball hand. This means that your bottom hand is a regular five-card poker hand (with flushes, straight and full houses), the top hand is a three-card high hand (including pairs, trips, but no three-card straights or flushes), while the middle hand must contain five low cards with no pairs, no straights, and no flushes. The lower these cards the better.
Taking Turns and Discarding
The game is called Open-Face Chinese Poker (or OFC for short) because you're building these three hands face up a few cards at a time.
As with all Open-Face games, you start by getting dealt five cards and place them all. On subsequent turns (following the procedure used in Pineapple OFC), you get three cards face down and place two of them in any of the available rows (bottom, middle or top).
The unused card then gets discarded face down. Discards are out of play, and not shuffled back into the deck, and your opponents are not allowed to see your discards. Therefore there are only enough cards in a deck to play Deuce Pineapple OFC either heads-up or three-handed.
Fantasyland and 'Super Fantasyland'
If you make a qualifying hand with kings or better up top, or a wheel — — in the middle, then on the next hand you enter Fantasyland. Just like in high-only Pineapple OFC, in Fantasyland you get 14 cards right away and set 13 of them into three rows face down while discarding one. Your opponents then play out their hands normally, and the result is scored against your hand.
You can stay in Fantasyland, earning another round in this advantageous position, by making a big enough bonus. For Deuce Pineapple you need either trips (three of a kind) on top, a wheel low in the middle, or quads (four of a kind) or better on the bottom to remain in Fantasyland.
Meanwhile, in a twist from high-only Pineapple OFC, you can also earn a 15-card 'Super Fantasyland' round by qualifying for Fantasyland twice in the same normal hand. Here, for example, the player qualifies for Super Fantasyland by making both aces on top and a wheel in the middle:
This double-bonus is rare, but well worth it. If you stay in Fantasyland, 'Super' or otherwise, you get a normal 14-card Fantasyland hand.
Qualification and Scoring
To make a qualifying hand, your top hand must be no better (as a normal poker hand) than your bottom hand. And your middle low hand must be at least a ten-low, meaning that your biggest card is no higher than a ten without a pair, a straight, or a flush. As with other Chinese Poker variants, a disqualified or 'fouled' hand automatically loses every row.
The three rows are scored against your opponent with the winner of each row getting +1 point. If you win all three rows, this also results in a +3 scoop bonus. In addition to winning, scooping, and possible Fantasyland qualification, you also get points for any bonuses earned by a qualifying hand, even if that hand loses the row.
Bonuses for the bottom hand start with a straight, the low middle hand with a nine-low, and the top row with a pair of sixes. Full bonuses are listed here:
Conclusion
There you have it. Welcome to Open-Face Chinese Poker with 2-7 in the Middle — or 'Deuce Pineapple' — now available at TonyBet Poker.
Open Face Chinese Poker Pineapple Rules
OFC rules have been contributed by Nikolai Yakovenko. Known as 'Googles,' Yakovenko is originally from Moscow, Russia and is now a poker player and software developer residing in Brooklyn, New York. Yakovenko has made both World Series of Poker and World Poker Tour final tables. Meanwhile after several years at Google New York working on ranking algorithms, he's been developing independent software projects ever since. He also helped create the ABC Open-Face Chinese Poker iPhone App. You can follow Yakovenko on Twittter at @ivan_bezdomny.
Must Have Rooms
Home to the biggest tournaments online, these rooms also have the largest player base, great bonuses, tons of action and the best software. If you don't have accounts here, you are missing out on the best that online poker has to offer.
PokerStarsgold
Chinese Pineapple Poker
100% up to $600
RATING
9.7 ★
Pineapple Open Face Chinese Poker Appearance
Earlier this week, poker pro Nikolai Yakovenko, co-creator of the ABC Open-Face Chinese Poker iPhone app, introduced the 2-7 variant of Open-Face Chinese — a.k.a. '2-7 OFC' or 'Deuce Pineapple.' Today he offers some strategy help for those getting started with the game.
Expanding the OFC Mix
- Welcome to Pineapple OFC, the version of Open Face Chinese Poker in which players make hands that are twice as big in half the rounds, where Fantasyland is not just possible but standard, and where.
- We are the most popular Open Face Chinese Poker game on iOS, with tens of thousands of active players, and hundreds of thousands of hands played every month. And no two hands are ever the same. This app supports Regular and Pineapple Open Face Chinese Poker (OFC), and now with Deuce (2-7) Middle Pineapple, with in-app purchase.
How to Play Open-Face Chinese Poker with 2-7 in the Middle, or 'Deuce Pineapple' Nikolai Yakovenko, creator of the ABC Open-Face Chinese Poker iPhone app, offers rules for Open-Face Chinese Poker with 2-7 in the Middle, or Deuce Pineapple. Open Face Chinese Poker April 11, 2014. Red rock casino geyserville.
As a mixed games player, I get a Pavlovian rush whenever my hand is . I draw one, and squeeze a for the wheel then peek over to see if my opponent is reaching for chips. There's something magical about playing a game where the nut-nut hand comes in so often, yet not often enough to make it any less exciting every time it does.
The thrill of 2-7 lowball (played as triple draw, no-limit single draw, and in variants like badeucey, badacey, or even razz-deucey) is that so many hands are almost great, oftentimes just one card away from the coveted wheel. Many times a player is obviously drawing to such a hand, while his opponent is pat with a pretty good hand, betting on the wheel draw to miss this time around.
Especially heads up, limit 2-7 lowball is probably the closest we've got to a face-up poker game. That said, it seemed like it was only a matter of time before the game made its mark on open-face Chinese poker.
The variant is played deuce-to-seven low in the middle and is dealt just like OFC Pineapple, just with a low hand swapped in. For example:
As in high-only Pineapple, you're making three hands — a top, a middle, and a bottom hand. Except that here the middle hand is played 2-7 lowball, while the top and bottom hands are high hands.
To make sure that there's a balance between risk and reward, the middle low hand must make a 10-low or better. If not the whole hand fouls. There are points bonuses for making a nine-low (+1), an eight-low (+2) or a seven-low (+4), and the wheel sends you to Fantasyland.
The top-hand Fantasyland minimum goes up to kings (+), since it's a little easier to make big hands on top when you aren't needing to make a strong high hand in the middle as well. For a final twist, if you make both kings up top and a wheel in the middle, that takes you to 15-card Super Fantasyland.
The 15-card super bonus has been tried before as a bonus for really-hard-to-make hands in high-only OFC, but it especially makes sense for a game where you are trying to improve both your low and high hand at the same time.
It's hard to make both on top and a wheel in the middle. Whenever you're close… go for it.
Okay, enough rules. Let's have a Q&A.
Q: There seem to be different OFC variants popping up from time to time. What makes this one special?
Playing for a low hand in the middle is fundamentally different from other variants. Meanwhile, thanks to well-chosen rules and bonuses, 2-7 OFC still feels like the same game with fast-paced play, instant regret, about one-third of hands going to Fantasyland, and another one-third that foul.
Q: Where did the 'Deuce Pineapple' rules and concept come from?
Like all the best card games, this game emerged from small tweaks tried by multiple players. But word on the street (i.e., Twitter) is that these specific rules and bonuses were made famous by a couple of pros on the tournament circuit. I'll leave it to them to claim credit if they so choose.
Q: The middle bonuses seem kind of low. What's up with that?
Yes, since the game keeps the top-hand bonuses from high-only OFC, and it's easier to make big pairs on top, the game definitely skews more toward the top hand. However, don't get caught needing two low cards on the last draw to make a qualifying ten-low in the middle. You'll miss two-thirds of the time. Worth it for trips on top… but perhaps not for a smaller bonus.
Q: I feel a strategy section coming on..
That's not a question at all. But yes.
A Look at Some 2-7 OFC Strategy
The game is new. Nobody really knows how to play, and it's not likely anybody has played more than a few hundred hands of it lifetime — unlike the millions of hands of high-only Pineapple OFC played on my ABC Open-Face iOS app every month.
We've just released the Deuce Pineapple variant in the app, however, so that will soon change. Heuristics will emerge, and various strategies and shortcuts will bubble up. Until that happens, you can practice the game against our Deuce computer opponent. It plays far from perfectly, but here are a few principles that have stuck out to me thus far.
1. Start making the low hand early
Like writing a term paper, don't wait until the night before to throw together an outline. By far the easiest way to foul in Deuce is to leave too many middle low cards unplayed with one or two rounds left to go.
Everything is context specific, but as noted above if you need to make two low cards on the last draw, you will foul two-thirds of the time. If you need one card, you're less than one-third to foul. And that could be a lot less than one-third if your low draw is live.
Projecting it out for two draws left, a hand with one spot left in the middle is very unlikely to foul, a hand with two spots left is moderately likely to foul, but if you need three or four more low cards to qualify, you're gonna run out of rounds.
So do try to make a good low. Hold out for a wheel if you can get one, but otherwise make sure that you don't get caught without some Custom golf poker chips. sort of low hand, or a least a four-card low draw heading into the last round. Unless you're drawing to a massive hand on top, the risk isn't worth it.
2. Try to make aces or kings up top, but don't forget about trips
This is a tricky one. In general, aces and kings go up top, as they get you at least +8 bonus points as well as take you to Fantasyland. But if you don't get one of those cards early, leave yourself the possibility of backing into top trips, and a straight or flush on the bottom.
These situations are hard to spot, but you can notice them if you pay attention.
And a good job out of you, Dr. ABC!
Trips on top don't come in often, but with bonuses starting at +10 for three deuces — and a hand that takes you to Fantasyland — even a 1-in-3 shot at trips makes for a nice value. So don't be shy about playing that small pair on top if you can freeroll for trips, and are taking no foul risk to do so.
3. Play aggressively, as it's still all about The Land
I spoke to a few serious players with a lot more Deuce experience than myself, and there was a wide range of disagreement about the value of Fantasyland.
That said, it's still a bonus round worth pursuing. Because of the 10-low in the middle rule you can actually foul in Fantasyland, which is strange and unwelcome. But this happens less than once every 10 hands, and so it's not substantially different from just making a very weak Fantasyland hand in high-only Pineapple Open-Face.
When in Deuce Fantasyland, it's easy to make trips up top or a wheel in the middle, so you stay in Fantasyland more often. It's not unusual to stay for two or three hands in a row, and I'm sure that once it's on the ABC app, we'll have people telling us about about their opponents staying for six or seven Deuce hands in a row. The bonus for trips up top add up, so the bottom line is keep shooting for Fantasyland as you would in high-only Pineapple.
4. Discards are face-down
As the pot-limit Omaha player sitting on never fails to remind you, blockers are a thing. Your opponent can't catch the cards that you discard face down, even if you can't use them yourself.
The face down discard is a only small part of high-only Pineapple strategy. You're glad to catch the cards that your opponent needs, even if you throw them away, but it's rare that you will change your play in order to hide information from an opponent.
I think that Deuce OFC strategy will be different. Making wheels and qualifying low hands is a big part of the game. If your opponent needs a for the wheel, and you catch a four yourself, you should absolutely throw it away face down if possible.
If he thinks his wheel is live your opponent will hold out for it just a little while longer, increasing his chances to foul. This matters, especially if it makes the difference between him making a seven-low (with a six in it), against fouling the whole hand by staying for a wheel. A single live card can swing those probabilities by 20% of more, and whenever your opponent makes a mistake you benefit. So if you're going for a nine-low already, it may be right to put a worse low card in your hand, just to toss a wheel card face down from your opponent.
Deuce Pineapple will appeal to some poker players more than others, but it's a good, well-balanced game without an obvious dominant strategy. I look forward to exploring the nooks and crannies of this new twist on OFC.
Thanks for reading, good luck, and see you in Fantasyland!
For more OFC strategy advice click here and follow me on Twittter at @ivan_bezdomny.
Get all the latest PokerNews updates on your social media outlets. Follow us on Twitter and find us on both Facebook and Google+!
Tags
Nikolai YakovenkoOpen-Face Chinese Pokercash game strategyChinese PokerRelated Players
Nikolai Yakovenko
Table Of Contents
Introduction
Open-Face Chinese Poker with 2-7 in the Middle — a.k.a. '2-7 OFC' or 'Deuce Pineapple' — is a turn-based card game that is played heads up, or sometimes three-handed. Players take turns, drawing cards and placing them into three separate poker hands. Each of these hands is played face up, meaning that players can see all of the cards that have been played, and these cards can't be moved between each player's three poker hands once they have been placed.
The 'Deuce' designation means that the middle poker hand is played according to the rankings used in 2-7 lowball, while the other two hands are played as regular 'high' poker hands. The game might sound complicated, but it really isn't.
Objective
The objective of 2-7 Open-Face Chinese is to place 13 cards into three hands: a five-card bottom hand, a five-card middle hand, and a three-card top hand.
As noted, the game plays just like high-only Pineapple OFC, except with the middle played as a 2-7 lowball hand. This means that your bottom hand is a regular five-card poker hand (with flushes, straight and full houses), the top hand is a three-card high hand (including pairs, trips, but no three-card straights or flushes), while the middle hand must contain five low cards with no pairs, no straights, and no flushes. The lower these cards the better.
Taking Turns and Discarding
The game is called Open-Face Chinese Poker (or OFC for short) because you're building these three hands face up a few cards at a time.
As with all Open-Face games, you start by getting dealt five cards and place them all. On subsequent turns (following the procedure used in Pineapple OFC), you get three cards face down and place two of them in any of the available rows (bottom, middle or top).
The unused card then gets discarded face down. Discards are out of play, and not shuffled back into the deck, and your opponents are not allowed to see your discards. Therefore there are only enough cards in a deck to play Deuce Pineapple OFC either heads-up or three-handed.
Fantasyland and 'Super Fantasyland'
If you make a qualifying hand with kings or better up top, or a wheel — — in the middle, then on the next hand you enter Fantasyland. Just like in high-only Pineapple OFC, in Fantasyland you get 14 cards right away and set 13 of them into three rows face down while discarding one. Your opponents then play out their hands normally, and the result is scored against your hand.
You can stay in Fantasyland, earning another round in this advantageous position, by making a big enough bonus. For Deuce Pineapple you need either trips (three of a kind) on top, a wheel low in the middle, or quads (four of a kind) or better on the bottom to remain in Fantasyland.
Meanwhile, in a twist from high-only Pineapple OFC, you can also earn a 15-card 'Super Fantasyland' round by qualifying for Fantasyland twice in the same normal hand. Here, for example, the player qualifies for Super Fantasyland by making both aces on top and a wheel in the middle:
This double-bonus is rare, but well worth it. If you stay in Fantasyland, 'Super' or otherwise, you get a normal 14-card Fantasyland hand.
Qualification and Scoring
To make a qualifying hand, your top hand must be no better (as a normal poker hand) than your bottom hand. And your middle low hand must be at least a ten-low, meaning that your biggest card is no higher than a ten without a pair, a straight, or a flush. As with other Chinese Poker variants, a disqualified or 'fouled' hand automatically loses every row.
The three rows are scored against your opponent with the winner of each row getting +1 point. If you win all three rows, this also results in a +3 scoop bonus. In addition to winning, scooping, and possible Fantasyland qualification, you also get points for any bonuses earned by a qualifying hand, even if that hand loses the row.
Bonuses for the bottom hand start with a straight, the low middle hand with a nine-low, and the top row with a pair of sixes. Full bonuses are listed here:
Conclusion
There you have it. Welcome to Open-Face Chinese Poker with 2-7 in the Middle — or 'Deuce Pineapple' — now available at TonyBet Poker.
Open Face Chinese Poker Pineapple Rules
OFC rules have been contributed by Nikolai Yakovenko. Known as 'Googles,' Yakovenko is originally from Moscow, Russia and is now a poker player and software developer residing in Brooklyn, New York. Yakovenko has made both World Series of Poker and World Poker Tour final tables. Meanwhile after several years at Google New York working on ranking algorithms, he's been developing independent software projects ever since. He also helped create the ABC Open-Face Chinese Poker iPhone App. You can follow Yakovenko on Twittter at @ivan_bezdomny.
Must Have Rooms
Home to the biggest tournaments online, these rooms also have the largest player base, great bonuses, tons of action and the best software. If you don't have accounts here, you are missing out on the best that online poker has to offer.
PokerStarsgold
Chinese Pineapple Poker
100% up to $600
RATING
9.7 ★
Pineapple Open Face Chinese Poker Appearance
Key features
- State-of-the-art software
- Unrivalled selection of cash games and tournaments
- The site is busy 24-hours per day every day
