Played this last night for the first time. It was a blast. I may try to do a Crazy Pineapple tournament after we play this a few more times in cash games.
One interesting hand I had K
Q
10
. The flop came out J
9
8
. A player went all in and I had to call. I discarded the K
, but kept it off to the side so I could show everybody after the had was over. My straight held up against the other player's 2 pair.
Here is the game description that I sent out to the players before the game (I borrowed it from UltimateBet's site):
$5 Min Buyin / $25 Max Buyin / $0.50 Show 'Em Chips Reload anytime between hands. 10˘ / 25˘ No Limit Crazy Pineapple Blinds will be 10˘ / 25˘ Crazy Pineapple is a hold'em game very similar to regular Texas Hold'em. There are only 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 (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. 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 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 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.
