It has been a busy few years for the game of Open-Face Chinese Poker and all of its fans. This game has been one of the fastest growing games ever, and is by far the fastest growing poker variant. Despite being invented jus a few years ago, Open-Face Chinese Poker is everywhere, spreading form Finland and Russia to China, Europe and the United States. Open-Face Chinese Poker has come a long way, but there is still a long journey ahead of it if it is to overtake the likes to Hold’em and Omaha.
As we look ahead to the future of this game, how does the past look for Open-Face Chinese Poker? Below we have listed the biggest milestones for this game since it was invented, all of which have helped to make it the popular game that it is today.
October 2012: Although it’s hard to pinpoint it down to the exact month, at this point in time Open-Face Chinese Poker had made it to the US and was beginning to attract the attention of professional and amateur poker players. The game was introduced a little earlier than October, but this was the month that saw a post on CardPlayer.com, written by OFC pro Jennifer Shahade. Her words would inspire thousands of players to take up this game and without this article, OFC might not be the game that it is today, at least not in the US.
2013: In this year TonyBet decided to shift their attentions to Open-Face Chinese Poker. Owned and run by Tony G, this gambling site had existed for a few years, but they hadn’t really found their identity. Once they adopted the game of OFC as their own, becoming the first online poker site to offer games of OFC for real money, they found their niche and they made it work for them.
Summer 2014: In the summer months of 2014, Open-Face Chinese Poker really took off. During these months it achieved its biggest boost in popularity to date, with many professionals and amateurs discovering the game and raving about it. Shaun Deeb was one of these. A former Hold’em pro, Deeb had tried his hand at many variants and he had done well at most, but as soon as he discovered Open-Face Chinese Poker he refused to let go. These days Deeb is one of the most well-known faces in the offline OFC world. The biggest event in poker, the World Series of Poker, announced there would be no OFC events in 2014, but many other Vegas casinos ran OFC tournaments and cash games, including the Golden Nugget. There were also many high-profile tournaments in other countries including one at the Aviation Club in Paris, and one at the biggest casino in the capital of Finland.
December 2014: This month saw the first World Championship of OFC, which was hosted by TonyBet. The Main Event was won by Mikal Blomlie, whilst the high-roller event was won by Jennifer Shahade, who had already done her bit to help this game grow.
April 2015: This month saw the first OFC Grand Prix event, which was hosted by TonyBet. We covered this event here on this site and have already discussed the positive impact that it had on the game.
These are the main dates, but there were many more milestones, including tutorials released by professionals, articles on major poker sites, big tournaments, cash games and so much more. Open-Face Chinese Poker has come a long way in a very short time, and if it continues at this rate then this will be the biggest game in the world in just a few years.