- Online Casinos With Pineapple Poker Rooms
- Pineapple Poker Game Free
- Play Crazy Pineapple Poker Online
- Online Casinos With Pineapple Poker Rules
- How To Play Pineapple Poker
Throw the structure of hold'em and the volatility of Omaha into a blender and you'll end up with a cool, refreshing game of pineapple. With more action, bigger pots and even more thrilling suckouts, this flop game with the silly name might look a lot like your regular limit hold'em game with its button and blinds, but contains two key twists: (1) players receive not two, not four, but threei hole cards and (2) one of them will end up in the muck before the hand is over. Pineapple is not just for home games either. Its spread online at Ultimate Bet with every conceivable limit, and spread live in low and mid-limit mixed games at the Wynn, MGM Grand, and Treasure Island in Las Vegas as well as at a number of the larger Southern California card rooms including the Bicycle Casino and the Commerce Casino. Though pineapple is typically played as a limit game ($3-6, $5-10, etc.), it easily translates to a no-limit or pot-limit structure.
Crazy Pineapple Poker Strategy. Crazy Pineapple Poker strategy (where you receive three three hole cards and must muck one on the flop) is very similar to Texas Hold’em strategy (where you receive two hole cards) and Omaha strategy (where you receive four hole cards, but.
Rules
Pineapple poker has three different variations: pineapple, crazy pineapple, and crazy pineapple hi/lo 8 or better. In 'regular' pineapple each player is dealt three hole cards to start, followed by a pre-flop round of betting. Each player must discard one of their hole cards before the flop is dealt. The flop, turn, and river betting rounds then proceed exactly as in Texas hold'em. In the more popular 'crazy' pineapple variant, players wait until after the flop betting round is complete to discard one of their hole cards, creating a dramatic strategic adjustment. At this juncture, players usually face a decision whether or not to keep a made (but vulnerable) hand or to draw to an even stronger hand like a straight or a flush. Crazy pineapple is often, but not always played hi-lo split, where the best high hand and the best 8 or better low hand are each awarded half the pot. Any combination of a player's hole cards and the board can be used to make their best five-card hand.
Basic Strategy/ Starting Hands
Pineapple is definitely an 'action game' and pots are almost always contested multi-way. As the three hole cards create many more hand possibilities, even conservative players will tend to see a lot more flops. Like in Omaha, hand values increase significantly. While one or two pair is usually enough to take down a hold'em pot, one needs a much stronger hand to survive the showdown in pineapple—typically the nut straight or flush. Someone will almost always flop a flush draw in a multi-way pineapple pot, and the odds to chase it are usually there. Hands like top pair top kicker, or a pair slightly smaller than top pair (J-J-X on a K-8-9 flop) are therefore much more vulnerable than they would be in hold'em.
A quality starting hand in pineapple contains a big pair as well as a big suited draw. Ah-Ad-Qd, Jd-Jh-Kh, and Tc-Th-Jc are all excellent hole card combinations as they give players flush and straight possibilities to go along with the pair. Three suited connectors with a two-flush such as Jd-Qd-Kh are also valuable as well as suited aces with straight possibilities such as Ac-Jc-Td. Small pairs can be playable if they come with other draws (6c-6d-Ac), but do not fare well on their own (4s-4h-Qd). Big offsuit aces, like A-K, A-Q and A-J might be premium hands in hold'em, but they are marginal at best in pineapple without another draw for backup. Three cards from the same suit can also be a trouble hand, as one of your all-important flush outs is already gone.
A player's biggest decision in crazy pineapple happens after the flop, when one hole card must be tossed away. For example, if I have the Kh-Kc-Qh on a flop of Tc-Jh-6h, I need to decide whether to keep my pair of kings intact and discard the Qh, or go for the possible straight or flush by discarding the Kc. In a heads-up pot, it might feel safer to keep the kings, but facing multi-way action, the combination draw holds much more value.
Sound crazy? It is! But it's also a whole lot of fun and an instant cure for the hold'em doldrums. Start small on Ultimate Bet and get ready for some huge action. Or, the next time you're at your local cardroom, ask the floor if they can spread pineapple or add it to a mixed game. It's sure to add spice to any grinder's day.
Table Of Contents
Introduction
Pineapple OFC is a derivative of standard open-face Chinese poker with Fantasyland, the rules for which can be found here.
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Just as in regular OFC, the players get several cards in turn, and place them face-up until they make a 13-card hand, consisting of a 'top,' 'middle,' and 'bottom' row of three, five, and five cards, respectively. The players start by placing their first five cards each, but then the “crazy pineapple” part kicks in.
Objective
The first five cards are placed just as in regular OFC, but then players get dealt three cards instead of just one. In turn, each player then places two of the three cards in any of his or her available rows before discarding the third one face down. The procedure is repeated until players have completed their 13-card hands.
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It is customary not to show the third card to opponents when discarding, but it should be remembered for your own information. Some players use this hidden information to discard cards purposefully that their opponents need to make their hands. Discarded cards are not shuffled back in the deck.
Scoring
Scoring is the same in Pineapple OFC as it is in regular OFC. You can view the complete scoring rules on our regular OFC rules page.
Fantasyland Changes
The rules for making it to Fantasyland are the same as in regular OFC. You need QxQx or better on top to qualify, and since the players see 50% more cards in Pineapple OFC than in regular OFC, players make it to Fantasyland much more often.
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To compensate for the fact that hands are now much stronger than in regular OFC, players who make it to Fantasyland in Pineapple OFC are dealt 14 cards and get to play any 13 of them, discarding one.
Adding that 14th card may not seem like much, but it nearly doubles the chance for a player to stay in Fantasyland by making a big hand in the top, middle, or bottom. See our regular OFC rules for a complete list of hands that allow you to stay in Fantasyland.
Conclusion
There you have it. 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 you get a 14th chance at quads or a straight flush.
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We'll see you in Fantasyland!
How To Play Pineapple Poker
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.