Progressive, Ultimate, 2-7, and Joker OFC

If you only play regular Pineapple OFC, read that article first, then return here the day a room switches you to Progressive. If you bounce between formats, read this page once so you do not take a 14-card stay rule into a 17-card Ultimate seat.

All five formats use the same royalty tables for high rows (and the 2-7 middle exception). Foul penalty is 6. Scoop bonus is +3. The differences are the deck, how the middle ranks, how many Fantasyland cards you earn, and whether a stay keeps that count.

The five formats at a glance

Regular Pineapple (baseline)

Five-card opener, then three streets of three-pick-two. Legal boards need bottom ≥ middle ≥ top. Fantasyland is a flat 14-card deal for any legal QQ+ top. Stays require trips on top or quads or better on the bottom. Stronger qualifying tops do not deal extra cards. This is the format most “OFC trainer” searches are about, and it stays on the Pro plan after the trial.

Progressive Pineapple

Progressive keeps the same streets and the same QQ+ ticket. It changes the size of the bonus pack:

• Pair of queens → 14 cards
• Pair of kings → 15 cards
• Pair of aces → 16 cards
• Any trips on top → 17 cards

A stay in Progressive, as OFC Lab models it, returns you to 14 cards rather than repeating the 16- or 17-card deal. That makes the first qualification more valuable than each subsequent one, and it makes stretching for AA (not just QQ) a real opening theme.

The engine also applies count-based Fantasyland multipliers (14×1, 15×1.4, 16×1.85, 17×2.23) when it converts a qualification into continuation EV. Those multipliers are analysis weights, not extra chips the room pays. The room pays the next deal; the solver has to price it.

Ultimate Progressive

Ultimate uses the same 14 / 15 / 16 / 17 ladder. The rule that changes the game is ultimate keep count: if you stay, you are dealt the same size pack again, not a reset to 14. OFC Lab defaults Ultimate to a maximum of three stays (the Phenom-style cap). The Trainer lets you override stack depth and the re-Fantasyland cap for table rules, including an unlimited chain if that is how your room plays.

Because a 17-card stay can repeat, trips on top are worth more than they are in Progressive — both as an entry and as a stay. Foul risk goes up with the ambition. Ultimate is still a high-middle, 52-card, no-joker game; do not confuse it with the 54-card format below.

Pineapple, Progressive, and Ultimate Progressive are the three OFC formats on Pro ($49/month, $490/year).

2-7 Pineapple

2-7 (deuce-to-seven / 27) keeps Pineapple streets and a high bottom, but the middle is a low hand. You want unpaired, no-straight-required 2-7 low: the wheel is 7-5-4-3-2. Any pair in the middle fails to qualify and fouls.

Consequences that surprise Pineapple regulars:

• A pair that would be a “safe” OFC middle is now a dead board.
• Middle royalties are 9-high +1, 8-high +2, 7-high +4 — not trips / full house.
• Fantasyland is KK or better on top, or a wheel in the middle. QQ on top does not qualify by itself.
• Qualifying both ways adds a double bonus: the deal becomes 15 cards instead of 14.

Foul checking compares the low middle for qualification and still requires the high bottom to beat the three-card top. You can foul “upward” with a huge top against a weak bottom even if the middle is a beautiful eight-low.

2-7 is on the trial, then on High Roller only.

Ultimate + Progressive + Jokers (UPJ)

This is the 54-card game: two fully wild jokers, high middle, Progressive card-count ladder, Ultimate-style stays (keep count, default max three). Jokers make legal boards easier and Fantasyland more frequent. They also create new foul shapes — a wild in the middle that cannot be assigned without beating the bottom is a forced foul.

Fantasyland analysis on this format includes 14–17 card packs and joker placement. The opening Library treats joker holdings as their own hand types. After the trial, UPJ is High Roller, same as 2-7 and Taiwanese.

Fantasyland card counts the solvers accept

Every Fantasyland solve still places exactly thirteen cards and returns the discards. Stack depth and the re-Fantasyland cap are table settings: they change what a stay is worth, not whether a board is legal.

How to pick a format to study first

1. Pineapple if your room deals QQ+ / 14 cards.
2. Progressive if your room pays extra cards for KK / AA / trips and resets stays to 14.
3. Ultimate if stays keep the larger pack. Do not study Progressive stay EV and take it to an Ultimate table.
4. 2-7 only after high-middle order is automatic. The middle inversion wrecks transferred habits.
5. UPJ last. Jokers amplify every other Ultimate/Progressive concept.

Taiwanese is not on this list because it is not an OFC format. Use the Taiwanese comparison and the separate solver screen.

Plans after the trial

The trial (25 solves, 14 days, no card) opens every format so you can confirm the app matches your room. After that:

• Pro — $49/month or $490/year: Pineapple, Progressive, Ultimate Progressive, Fantasyland analysis, multiway Trainer, practice.
• High Roller — $99/month or $990/year: Pro plus 2-7, UPJ, Taiwanese, and initial-set library generation.

Annual billing is two months free. Cancel from your account page; access runs to the end of the paid period. Study offline for up to seven days between license checks. Windows 10/11 today; macOS is not a downloadable installer yet.