How To Play | Crazy Pineapple

Crazy Pineapple is a Texas Hold 'em game very similar to regular Texas Hold 'em. However, there are two significant differences in Crazy Pineapple, which do change the game quite a bit:

1. You start with three (3) hole cards
In regular Texas Hold 'em, the player starts with two hole cards. In Crazy Pineapple, the player starts with three, creating many more possible good starting hands, and many more hands that can work with the flop.

2. In Crazy Pineapple, you throw a hole card away
Just as in regular Texas Hold 'em, there is a betting round after players receive their hole cards, and another betting round after they see the flop. However, in Pineapple a very important change happens here. AFTER betting on the flop is completed, players must discard one of their hole cards.

For example, if you start with a hand of (8h-8s-Jh) and then see a flop of 10h-9h-8d, you have a pretty big decision to make. If you want to keep your open-ended straight flush draw, you're going to have to discard one of your trip eights (a pleasant dilemma, but a dilemma nonetheless). If you want to keep the trips, you need to throw away the the key card in the straight flush draw.

Crazy Pineapple really is an odd hybrid of Texas Hold ‘em and Omaha. The average winning hands are stronger in Pineapple than they are in Texas Hold 'em, because you get to look at more combinations on the flop. Occasionally you will make a stronger hand in Crazy Pineapple than you would have in Omaha, even though players get four hole cards in Omaha, because Pineapple does not share the Omaha "you must use two and exactly two of your hole cards in your final hand" rule.

For example, if your Omaha hand was Ac-Qd-Jc-10d, and the final community board was Ah-As-5c-5h-8c, you do NOT have a full house, but rather only trip aces with a Q-8 kicker, because you must play at least two cards from your hand and can't just add the ace in your hand to the two pair on board to make aces full of fives. In Crazy Pineapple, had you kept an ace in your hand after the post-flop discard, the five on the turn would have given you a full house, just as if you'd started with A-J or A-Q in Texas Hold 'em.

We’re sure that you’ll find Crazy Pineapple a fun game to play because of the extra strong flops and extra key decision about which cards to keep after the flop.