Pineapple (High Only)
The third member of the flop game family, Pineapple (a.k.a. Crazy Pineapple), has nothing close to the following of Hold ’em and Omaha. We found only a few sites out of the top 15, as ranked by PokerPulse.com, to offer the game. That said, Pineapple is an interesting game that offers poker players some difficult choices. Here are the basics.
In Pineapple, you are dealt three hole cards, but you throw one of the cards away after the second betting round is completed. As in Hold ’em, the goal is to make the best five card hand you can using any combination of your two remaining hole cards and the five cards on the board. The player to the left of the Dealer button posts a small blind equal to one-half of a small bet (e.g., $1 at a $2–$4 table), the player to the left of the small blind posts a big blind ($2 at a $2–$4 table), and each player receives three cards face down. There’s a round of betting, during which all bets and raises are $2, and the dealer flops three cards in the middle of the table. At this point there is another round of betting and, when it’s done, each player still in the hand discards one of their hole cards. From this point on, the hand is played exactly as if it were a Hold ’em hand. After the dealer displays a fourth card in the middle, the turn, there is a round of betting where all bets and raises are double the amount in the first two betting rounds ($4 in a $2–$4 game). The dealer then flips over the river card, there is a final round of betting, and any players left display their cards to determine the winner.
Note: For practice creating five-card hands from any combination of your two remaining hole cards and the five board cards, see the “Hold ’Em Practice Hands” section.
