Looks like the app developer tweeted about the problem and acknowledged it and said its been patched in an update that is waiting Apple approval, so I'm guessing you are right Coelacanth and they weren't transmitting the card data with some security protocol. Still don't know how they managed to change the cards, shouldn't the random card be generated by the server and not locally?

quick question if i set 3 of the same suit up top (3 card pile) or a 3 card straight is that considered a high hand or a flush/str making it a foul if my middle does not beat it?

How do you play 368AA out of position? Do you go for the flush or put the AA in your back hand? What do you do with the remaining cards? How does the strategy changes when you are in position and you get a different number of live cards/draws?

How about a hand with many more different draws like 678TJ?

only time the top 3 card plays as a straight/flush is when you have a st/fl-st/fl-st/fl The top st/fl rank can be bigger than middle or bottom. Or else its just a 3 card High card up top. The bottom straight/flush has to be bigger than middle straight/flush or it's a foul hand.

A flush - flush - flush hand pays a different royalty.
A str - str - str hand pays a different royalty.

how much are those royalties worth since i know flush in the middle is 2 x 4... any bonus for clearing it up top? damn all this time i've been playing 3 card flush/str up top is auto foul since it is impossible to get the order you just described lol

thanks for clarifying!

On the st8-st8-st8 or fl-fl-fl is the extra royalty on top of the bottom and mid royalties or is it all together. Ex: we play 25pts for either so if you hit fl-fl-fl would you get 25pts or 37pts (25+4+8)?

We finally had it come up the other day and we paid just the 25pts.

On a side note- one of my opponents was playing and running terribly already down 1k at $5 a pt and he hit quads on the bottom the same hand and actually lost points... it was great even though I lost $ in the hand.

OOP, I would be conservative and keep the AA together. I'd hate to see 5+ dead diamonds before we've even drawn a card. Also: AA, drawing to Aces up is pretty powerful.

I would make 6 / 8 / AA3. We want a small kicker to put with the bottom pair to give us an extra draw at making 2 pair. I think a lot of people would put both the 6 and 8 in the middle, but there are problems with this. If we draw a 7 or a card from 9-K, putting this card on top will be bad, as we essentially cap our top hand as a high card. Putting it in the middle is also bad, as we now have 3 in the middle, nothing on top, and can run into bad situations. There are fewer problems if we make 6 top, 8 mid. If we draw a 7-K, we put it in the middle as overcards to the 6, and preserve the chance of making a pair up top. If we draw two low cards (2, 4 5), we can put one in top, one in mid, and still preserve a chance at pairing on top. Life is more flexible with more slots available in the middle. The only problem is if we draw a 6 early; then we have to concede and put the drawn 6 in middle and break a pair.

This hand is a perfect example for a question I have..... Lets assume you agree that the AA3 goes on bottom and now you have to consider what to do with the 6&8. Or you can say any xxx on bottom with cards like 6-8,7-8,6-7,7-9 etc.

Is there any merit in putting the 8 on top and the 6 in the middle? In this hand if we hit any 9-K cards next were prob putting them in the middle so we will most likely be shooting at pairs bigger then the 8 in the middle.

I think it's similar looking but actually very different situation when your hand is something like 2-2-4-6-8 and you start with the 224 on the bottom and now have to decide what to do with the 6-8. Thoughts on this spot?

different rules depending on who you play against.

normally how we play:
3x flush/straight is a natural royalty so you get 15 points from the other players and don't have to pay anything to the other players even if they have the regular royalties. It's basically an automatic 15 points from the other players. The other players continue their hands as usual.

I found this interesting too. Barry is quite vague. I have been hearing he isn't doing as well as he was during the glory days of poker. The article looks like more of a FUD (fear/uncertainty/doubt) article put out as a shill for stars. Not a sincerely written article. AFAIK you can't just load up apps in the apple emulator without source. (the emulator is more of a compiler/not a iOS virtual machine) All you can do is sniff packets.

I am not surprised that it is easy to tell what the next cards are, but to deal the cards wouldn't work unless one app is the host and gamecenter is just more of a communication server without game logic. There are tools out there that lets to capture packets and replay them. Just because Barry was given KKK uptop and made a screenshot, doesn't mean this could necessarily happen in a game and have it remain functional.

That pokerstarsblog is intentionally vague and seems written to convince people how easy it is to cheat. (His nephew hacked it in 30 minutes!) Then he compares it to pokerstars, with their secure "team" which couldn't catch longterm collusion in upper limits with stoxtrader etc. Give us a break.

The only real plausible thing to me that could have happened is having the deck transmitted at the start of the game. That way a player could know how to set their hands optimally.

Please keep this thread focused on strategy. There's another thread solely for the app. Thx

How good do you think the apps bot is on a scale of 1-10? How many of you regularly beat it?

On a scale of what? 1 being random play and 10 being game theory optimal play?

I haven't played the app but using an educated guess on the maturity of the game and the skill of the devs I'd guess about a 1, where an expert player today is maybe a 2-3. Assuming you somehow prevent the AI from cheating.

Open Face Chinese Tutorial

This will be super boring and long-winded for anyone who has been playing OFC for a while and understand how it works. I made this to be for beginners trying into understand how the game is played, scored, and the thought process behind making decisions.

For people on this forum, you may find the ShowMe App useful in making strategy tutorials. Just take screen shots and then you upload them when making the ShowMe.

Make a lot of royalties.

Setting 44 up top is a huge mistake. 44 is not a royalty pair, and putting it there not only blocks a potential royalty pair in the future, it could easily cause a foul should you fail to pair the middle.


IMO the set would be either:

"Go for pairs"

8
J
K44

The idea is to build a 2 pair+ hand on the bottom, spike a J for the middle, which then gives us a chance to make a nice royalty with a pair of 8s up top. We are faced with a tough decision if a J comes early and we see that a K or 4 is out with our opponent. On the other hand, this top down increasing value set allows us to place an A in the middle, and a T or lower on top without fouling risk.

This give us a better chance to win the back hand, as well as scoop - This is more conservative than:

J
K
844

While we have a higher potential top royalty, we have a greater chance of fouling, and a reduced chance of winning in the back should we make an inferior two pair (less likely to scoop).

Consider that a scoop is worth 6 points instead of 1, and consider than the increase in royalty from 8 to J is only 3 points. Consider than if we foul, we lose 6.



"Go for flushes"


8
J4
K4

In this version, we ignore the small pair, and instead set up for flush potential, with the long shot of making a middle flush and the Hughes royalty therein.

Because we are so far away from a flush, though, we will start taking pairs should the flushes fail to gather any steam.

Hand one I'd suggest going for the flush with the 3- flush, A in mid and 8 on top:

8
A
A36

This will encourage your opponent to either go for a full house, or their own flush. If they make the full house (which they would always go toward if they had 2 pair to start anyway)' we can reduce their royalty when we make the flush.


We go for the flush in the second hand too, NOTE that putting a 4 card gutshot in back is VERY BAD, as if we miss the gunshot and have to settle for a pair,it will be a single, weak pair. It is far too easy to foul, and the royalty if we do make a straight is poor.

NEVER SET A 4 CARD GUTSHOT IN BACK.

Breaking aces with no knowledge of the dead cards seems bad. In worst case scenario with the flush draw we have ace high and few outs (we kill our own out!), in worst case scenario with the aces we still have aces.

I agree, and in general I find breaking pairs rather poor, because going for boats in back is both less risky and higher scoring than flushes/straights. It also enables higher middle settings (although I find this not particularly valuable).

I actually find the scoring unbalanced (full houses too valuable, and straights/flushes not valuable enough from a reward/risk ratio), but that's just me and I'm a newb.

I'm more likely to break aces than I am to break slightly smaller pairs.

Taking advantage of the "unbalanced" scoring is kind of a major part of the strategy of the game. Change the scoring, and optimal play changes.

The difference between hu play and 3-4 handed play is very striking to me. Still working on my thoughts though. Most of my experience at this point is hu.

I think AlienBoy's posts were actually quite good, although I would recommend being a little less dogmatic. There are a lot of different situations that come up in OFC. Occasionally (rarely) it is best to set a gutshot in the back.

OFC has me back in the 2p2 mood. I need some number crunchers on my side because I'm incapable of figuring these probabilities. I have lots of thoughts to offer on concepts and aggression and things like that, though.

This game is perfect. Very skillful, very fun and gamble-y, and enough variance to make everyone who plays it believe they're the best. With the huge number of decisions you make per hand, I am firmly convinced that the skill element is very important.

First to act heads up with

4 6J 78

Hero?

Wouldn't argue with either flush/flush set

-/467/8J