Crazy Pineapple Poker: What it is and how to play it
Crazy Pineapple is a fun variant of poker that you can find in some casinos, and is the perfect addition to the dealers choice options in your regular home poker game. Read on to learn what Crazy Pineapple poker is and how to play it.
What is Crazy Pineapple poker?
Crazy Pineapple is a variation of Texas Hold'em where each player is dealt three hole cards instead of two. After the round of betting on the flop, the players must discard one of their hole cards, and play the rest of the hand with the remaining two cards.
There is another poker variant called simply “Pineapple”, wherein players are dealt three hole cards and discard one before the flop. Folding a card after the flop is what makes this variant so crazy!
How to play Crazy Pineapple
A hand of Crazy Pineapple is played as follows:
The dealer deals three cards face down to each player at the table. (Cards are dealt starting with the player in the Small Blind position, just as in Texas Hold’em.)
Once each player has three cards, a round of betting takes place. The opening bet during this stage has to be at least twice the Big Blind (as is also the case in Texas Hold’em).
The dealer then reveals the flop (three community cards) face up.
Another round of betting takes place. The opening bet on the flop has to be at least the amount of the Big Blind (again, this is the same as in Texas Hold’em).
Once this round of betting after the flop has taken place, all players still in the hand must discard one of their hole cards face down. The dealer will gather the discarded cards and put them with the other cards that have been folded in that hand.
The dealer then reveals the turn (a fourth community card), after which a third round of betting takes place.
After this third round of betting, the dealer reveals the fifth and final community card which is followed by a final round of betting.
After the final round of betting, players who are still in the hand go to showdown and the strongest hand wins the pot.
As anyone who played poker’s most common variant - No-Limit Texas Hold’em - will realise, Crazy Pineapple is a very similar game. The only difference is that you are given three cards instead of two, one of which must be discarded after the round of betting on the flop.
Crazy Pineapple strategy compared to Texas Hold'em
As Crazy Pineapple is so similar to No-Limit Texas Hold’em (NLHE), we will generally compare it to NLHE when it comes to strategy. The added element of discarding one of the three hole cards in Crazy Pineapple changes the strategy of this poker variant for two reasons:
You have more information because you see more cards
More options on drawing to strong hands on turns and rivers
Here’s how these two differences change the strategy of the game.
More information
In a hand of Crazy Pineapple, each player sees one more card than they would in a hand of NLHE. Even though one of those cards must be discarded, you still have extra information because you know that your opponents cannot have the card that you discarded.
For example, let’s say you receive a starting hand of A♠ K♠ 7♠. After the pre-flop action, you have two opponents remaining in this hand.
You see a flop of 4♠ K♥ 7♦, giving you top two pair. After another round of betting, you are left with one opponent, and now you must fold one of your cards. The correct move here is to fold your highest card, the A♠, to keep your made hand - two pairs.
The dealer reveals the turn card, which is T♠, giving you two pairs and a flush draw. The extra information you have now, which you wouldn’t have in NLHE, is that you are drawing to the nut flush, because you folded the only other stronger spade in the deck - the A♠.
After another round of betting, your opponent remains in the hand, and the dealer reveals 9♠ as the river card - completing your flush. You know that it is impossible for your opponent to beat you at showdown, so you can bet accordingly.
Drawing to more hands
In a hand of Crazy Pineapple, players have a higher chance of connecting with the board than in NLHE. As a result, Crazy Pineapple usually has more action and bigger pots than NLHE. (So if you have a weak made hand, such as a low pair or a middling flush draw, it is more likely that one of your opponents has a stronger hand than you, so you should fold these hands to aggression more frequently.)
Drawing to more hands also means that you have a more difficult decision to make when it comes to folding one of your hole cards.
For example, let’s say you receive a starting hand of J♦ 7♠ 6♣. After the pre-flop action, you are left with three opponents.
The dealer deals a flop of 4♣ 5♦ J♥, giving you a pair of Jacks for a made hand, but also giving you an open-ended straight draw. You now have a difficult decision to make - do you fold your Jack and keep your straight draw, or do you keep the Jack and reduce your chances of making a hand that is stronger than top pair?
Generally, we advise drawing to the stronger hand and discarding the card that gives you a pair, but there are no guarantees you will hit your draw and you may lose your showdown value.
A nice starting hand is followed by a problematic flop.
Which card would you fold here? The pair or the backdoor flush draw?
Starting hands in Crazy Pineapple poker
As the hand rankings in Crazy Pineapple are the same as in NLHE, the best starting hands include a lot of the same cards. As a general rule, you should bet with starting hands that have pairs, or high suited connectors. However, as you will need to fold one of your hole cards in Crazy Pineapple, there are some important points to note when it comes to continuing with a starting hand, or folding.
Three of a kind hole cards
If you are dealt three of a kind in your hole cards, such as 8♦ 8♠ 8♥, your chances of improving your hand (by making a set or a house) are greatly decreased. If you continue with the hand, you will have to fold one of your 8s after the round of betting on the flop. In this case, there is only one more 8 in the deck that can improve your hand to three-of-a-kind, and hitting four-of-a-kind is impossible.
As mentioned earlier, in Crazy Pineapple it is much more likely that one of your opponents has connected with the flop, so in this example it is unlikely that a pair of eights will be the best hand by the time it gets to showdown. Even if there are four cards to a flush on the board by the time you get to showdown, it will be unlikely that your eight-high flush is winning, so you will not be able to get value from your hand.
Your best hope with this hand is that your opponents miss their straight or flush draws, and do not make a set themselves. There are some situations where you can still win, such as if four cards to a straight are dealt on the table where an 8 is needed to complete the straight, as you know it is unlikely that anyone else is holding an 8, but again, this situation is unlikely, so you should not sacrifice the chips in your stack unless you are getting particularly good pot odds.
Suited hands
Suited hands in Crazy Pineapple can also be wounding to your play. For example, if you are dealt 4♠ 9♠ J♠, you know that your odds of hitting a flush are reduced, as you will have to fold one of your spades, which is one fewer out for you to hit on the board.
Connected hands
Connected hands are played differently than suited hands in Crazy Pineapple, as there are more cards that can help you make a straight. For example, if you are dealt 7♥ 8♦ 9♣ as your starting hand, you actually have more outs to a straight to hit on the flop than you would if you had just two connected cards.
In this example, you have 25 outs that help you make a straight:
4 Tens
4 Jacks
3 Nines
3 Eights
3 Sevens
4 Sixes
4 Fives
The cards that pair these kinds of connected hands also help you make your straight, for example, if the flop was 7♣ T♦ J♥ the 8♦ 9♣ in your hand completes the straight, so you can discard the 7♥ that has paired on the board.
Strong paired and suited connector hands
Paired and suited hands are the best hands in Crazy Pineapple. These hands are those which contain a pair and a third card of the same suit as one of the others, preferably also connected. For example, J♥ Q♥ Q♦ would be an exceptionally strong hand in Crazy Pineapple.
These hands are strong because of the number of outs they have to even stronger hands. For example, with J♥ Q♥ Q♦ on the flop you could hit Q♣ or Q♠ for a set of Queens; you could hit any combination of 89T, 9TK, or TKA for the nut straight; or any three hearts for a flush that is at least Queen high. (Not to mention the possible but unlikely quads, straight flush, or royal flush combinations.)
Hit the nuts with this strong starting hand.
Where can I play Crazy Pineapple?
In our research, we haven’t been able to find any reputable online casinos that offer Crazy Pineapple in their poker variant offering. However, some live poker series include a Crazy Pineapple tournament in their offering. Even the WSOP International Circuit had a Crazy Pineapple tournament in 2017. Some Casinos, like the Canterbury Park Casino in Minnesota also have a regular Crazy Pineapple tournament.
To find more Crazy Pineapple live tournaments you can check the Hendon Mob events database.
FAQs
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In some casinos and poker tours, you’ll find Crazy Pineapple listed as “three-card Irish” poker. This difference is most common in the UK and the rest of the British Isles.
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Irish poker is very similar to Crazy Pineapple, except in Irish poker each player is dealt a total of four cards and must then discard two of their hole cards after the round of betting on the flop. Otherwise, Irish poker is the same as Crazy Pineapple.
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In Pineapple poker, each player is dealt three cards (the same as in Crazy Pineapple). However, in Pineapple poker, you must discard one card before the flop and after the initial preflop betting round. This means the hand will play out very similarly to Hold’em.
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You can flop three pairs in Crazy Pineapple. (For example, if your hand is 7♣ T♦ J♥ and the flop is 7♥ T♠ J♦.) However, three pairs is not a playable hand in Crazy Pineapple (or any poker variant), and you will have to discard one of your cards after the betting on the flop anyway. If you flop three pairs in Crazy Pineapple, we recommend keeping the top two pairs (in this example, T♦ J♥).
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