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Rules of Crazy Pineapple Poker Games

Including Crazy Pineapple 8/B

Crazy Pineapple is a hold'em game very similar to regular Texas Hold'em.

There are two significant differences in pineapple hold'em, however, which do change the game a lot.

DIFFERENCE #1: YOU START WITH THREE HOLE CARDS
In regular hold'em, you start with two hole cards. In Pineapple, you start with three, creating many more possible good starting hands, and many more hands that can work with the flop.

DIFFERENCE #2: IN PINEAPPLE, YOU THROW A HOLE CARD AWAY!
Just as in regular hold'em, there is a betting round after you receive your hole cards, and another betting round after you see the flop. However, in Pineapple a very important change happens here. AFTER betting on the flop is completed, you must discard one of your hole cards.

For example, if you start with a hand of (8

) and then see a flop of 10

, 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.

Pineapple really is an odd hybrid of hold'em and Omaha. The average winning hands are stronger in Pineapple than they are in hold'em, because you get to look at more combinations on the flop. Occasionally you will make a stronger hand in Pineapple than you would have in Omaha, even though you 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 A

, and the final community board was A

, 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 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 hold'em.

You'll find Pineapple a fun game to play, because of the extra strong flops and extra key decision about what cards to keep after the flop.

Crazy Pineapple 8/B

Crazy Pineapple 8/b plays like regular Crazy Pineapple until the end of the hand, when the pot may be split between the high hand and the low hand, if any.

WHAT DOES '8/b' MEAN? 8/B refers to the low hand, and means that, if a low hand exists, it must consist of cards valued at 8 or lower. If a low hand doesn't exist, the high hand wins the entire pot. There is ALWAYS a qualifying high hand.

Qualifying low hands consist of five cards with different numerical values from Ace to 8. If multiple players meet this standard, the player with the lowest high card will win the low hand and split the pot with the high hand (A

- beats - A

). The best low hand is A, 2, 3, 4, 5 - straights and flushes do not count against a low hand, but a pair will disqualify it. An easy way to think of a low hand score is to look at the two highest cards in that hand. For example, an A, 2, 3, 4, 6 scores a 64, and would therefore beat an A, 2, 3, 5, 6 because it's score would be 65.

The high and low hands consist of five cards from the total of seven available at the showdown (your two pocket cards plus the five community cards), but you don't have to use the same 7 cards for both high & low hands. If your pocket cards are Ad7d and the board is 2

- you have a low hand of A-5, and a high hand of Ace high flush.

One final point - players do not need to decide if they are playing for a high hand or a low hand, as all hands in the showdown will be evaluated for both and ranked automatically by our software.

BUT I WANT IT ALL!!!
The value of potentially sharing the pot between a high hand and a low hand is that there is more action in the game. Some will play for the high, and some for the low. But sometimes you can play for both! As mentioned above, straights and flushes do not count against a low hand. So if you have Ac, 2c, 3c, 4c, 5c, you will share in the low hand pot (it may split between you and other A-5 straights), and your straight flush would certainly put you in good position for the high hand also.

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