Poker Ghetto

How to play Crazy Pineapple Poker

Crazy Pineapple isn’t really that crazy, nor does it have overly much to do with pineapples, instead it is a quirky version of Texas Hold ‘Em with hints of Omaha thrown in. Crazy Pineapple can be played as a regular high game or as a hi-lo split game. There are also other fruity versions of this game called Lazy Pineapple (Tahoe Poker) and Super Hold ‘Em, each with migrated quirks of their own.

If you understand Texas Hold ‘Em, you’ll get the rules of Crazy Pineapple – it’s basically the same but all players start with three hole cards instead of two. The excess hole card is discarded after the post-flop betting round and all play continues as per Hold ‘Em. In Lazy Pineapple, it’s the same except you hang on to your third hole card for the duration of the game. You still need to make a winning five card hand but you can choose which two out of your three hole cards you submit to make up your hand – you cannot use all three hole cards. Super Hold ‘Em takes it a step further again, dealing the three starting hole cards and allowing you to use all of them to make up your final hand.

Crazy Pineapple in 5 easy steps

1. The two players to the left of the dealer post the big and small blind respectively. Three hole cards are dealt to each player round the table.

2. An initial round of betting takes place.

3. The dealer deals the flop of three community cards, exactly as you get in Texas Hold ‘Em. The post-flop round of betting takes place at this point.

4. After all bets have been placed, the players must choose one card out of their three hole cards to get rid of. This will be based on what cards they predict will give them the best chance to make a hand on the turn and river.

5. Further betting rounds continue after the turn and after the river. There are four bets allowed per player per round; bet, raise, re-raise and cap – only calling and folding actions can be taken on a capped pot. The game concludes in the same way, and based on the same hands, as Texas Hold ‘Em.

And that’s how you play Crazy Pineapple! Simple? Well, not entirely. The tendency is to play more hands and fire more money into the pot given the perception of greater opportunity to make hands. More starting hands are played in Crazy Pineapple with people paying to have a look at the flop on fairly weak hands. Selecting which hands you play could see you scoop the pot regularly in pineapple – the best hand would be A-A-K with two cards suited. Most commonly, players come over from Texas Hold ‘Em to have a go at this game for fun and can get caught out, so a bit of self-control should entitle you to some success in this game. Hey, why not, go Crazy!