Will the TonyBet OFC World Championship Be the Biggest OFC Tournament in History?
The excitement is building for the first-ever Open-Face Chinese (OFC) World Championship taking place at King's Casino in Prague, Czech Republic, from Dec. 8-10, 2014.
According to Wikipedia, OFC was invented in Finland in the mid-2000s before spreading its wings to Russia a few years later. It is widely believed that Russian high-stakes poker player, Alex Kravchenko, introduced this game to the country with it "spreading like a virus."
The game became popular in the United States and other countries in 2012, providing players some fun action during breaks in play during poker tournaments. Only later, it became a game many started to play at home with friends or online via a variety of free mobile apps.
OFC debuted in a major live poker tournament for the first time during the European Poker Tour (EPT) Grand Final in Monte Carlo in 2013, featuring a €2,150 buy-in. This reentry event attracted 52 players and generated a healthy €135,800 prize pool.
The game hit the big stage in 2013 when it was showcased during the 2013 World Series of Poker (WSOP) as a Carnivale of Poker $5,000 buy-in side event with a $225,600 prize pool. Victor Ramdin outlasted the 48-player field to claim the $76,707 first-place prize.
Later during the same year, TonyBet Poker took the game to a new level when it introduced the first-ever real-money site dedicated to OFC. It is of little coincidence that TonyBet Poker now also becomes the first gaming site to sponsor the first-ever OFC World Championship, bringing OFC aficionados a chance at a big payday in a €1,000 Main Event and a €10,000 High Roller.
Both of these exciting tournaments will feature the Pineapple OFC variant, which is by far the most popular OFC game type on TonyBet Poker.
TonyBet Poker recognizes that many of its players will not be able to spend the €1,000 required for the Main Event, and is providing players a path to gain their seat for a fraction of the cost. TonyBet believes that as many players as possible should have a chance to compete in the inaugural OFC World Championship, which promises to be the biggest OFC tournament in history.
"We are rewarding at least 40 players with Main Event seats via our online promotions," a Tonybet Poker representative said. "We’re running daily satellites on our site giving away at least three tickets to the Main Event every week, and with the event drawing closer, these numbers are only going to go up."
The OFC World Championship should have a good chance at making its way into the history books with many big names potentially joining in on the action due to the EPT Prague festival taking place around the corner at the Hilton Prague Hotel from Dec. 7-17.
So if you love OFC, why not join in on the action in hopes of becoming the first-ever OFC World Championship winner. Check out TonyBet Poker to learn how you can qualify in the site's increasing number of online satellites and exclusive promotions.
Get all the latest PokerNews updates on your social media outlets. Follow us on Twitter and find us on both Facebook and Google+!