This is a discussion on Any online sites with pineapple within the online poker forums, in the Poker Rooms section; I used to play Pineapple in home games a lot. Back around 2010, I played.
Throw the structure of hold'em and the volatility of Omaha into a blender and you'll end up with a cool, refreshing game of pineapple. With more action, bigger pots and even more thrilling suckouts, this flop game with the silly name might look a lot like your regular limit hold'em game with its button and blinds, but contains two key twists: (1) players receive not two, not four, but threei hole cards and (2) one of them will end up in the muck before the hand is over. Pineapple is not just for home games either. Its spread online at Ultimate Bet with every conceivable limit, and spread live in low and mid-limit mixed games at the Wynn, MGM Grand, and Treasure Island in Las Vegas as well as at a number of the larger Southern California card rooms including the Bicycle Casino and the Commerce Casino. Though pineapple is typically played as a limit game ($3-6, $5-10, etc.), it easily translates to a no-limit or pot-limit structure.
Rules
Pineapple poker has three different variations: pineapple, crazy pineapple, and crazy pineapple hi/lo 8 or better. In 'regular' pineapple each player is dealt three hole cards to start, followed by a pre-flop round of betting. Each player must discard one of their hole cards before the flop is dealt. The flop, turn, and river betting rounds then proceed exactly as in Texas hold'em. In the more popular 'crazy' pineapple variant, players wait until after the flop betting round is complete to discard one of their hole cards, creating a dramatic strategic adjustment. At this juncture, players usually face a decision whether or not to keep a made (but vulnerable) hand or to draw to an even stronger hand like a straight or a flush. Crazy pineapple is often, but not always played hi-lo split, where the best high hand and the best 8 or better low hand are each awarded half the pot. Any combination of a player's hole cards and the board can be used to make their best five-card hand.
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Basic Strategy/ Starting Hands
Pineapple is definitely an 'action game' and pots are almost always contested multi-way. As the three hole cards create many more hand possibilities, even conservative players will tend to see a lot more flops. Like in Omaha, hand values increase significantly. While one or two pair is usually enough to take down a hold'em pot, one needs a much stronger hand to survive the showdown in pineapple—typically the nut straight or flush. Someone will almost always flop a flush draw in a multi-way pineapple pot, and the odds to chase it are usually there. Hands like top pair top kicker, or a pair slightly smaller than top pair (J-J-X on a K-8-9 flop) are therefore much more vulnerable than they would be in hold'em.
A quality starting hand in pineapple contains a big pair as well as a big suited draw. Ah-Ad-Qd, Jd-Jh-Kh, and Tc-Th-Jc are all excellent hole card combinations as they give players flush and straight possibilities to go along with the pair. Three suited connectors with a two-flush such as Jd-Qd-Kh are also valuable as well as suited aces with straight possibilities such as Ac-Jc-Td. Small pairs can be playable if they come with other draws (6c-6d-Ac), but do not fare well on their own (4s-4h-Qd). Big offsuit aces, like A-K, A-Q and A-J might be premium hands in hold'em, but they are marginal at best in pineapple without another draw for backup. Three cards from the same suit can also be a trouble hand, as one of your all-important flush outs is already gone.
A player's biggest decision in crazy pineapple happens after the flop, when one hole card must be tossed away. For example, if I have the Kh-Kc-Qh on a flop of Tc-Jh-6h, I need to decide whether to keep my pair of kings intact and discard the Qh, or go for the possible straight or flush by discarding the Kc. In a heads-up pot, it might feel safer to keep the kings, but facing multi-way action, the combination draw holds much more value.
Sound crazy? It is! But it's also a whole lot of fun and an instant cure for the hold'em doldrums. Start small on Ultimate Bet and get ready for some huge action. Or, the next time you're at your local cardroom, ask the floor if they can spread pineapple or add it to a mixed game. It's sure to add spice to any grinder's day.
“Am I making the right move?” This is what I ask myself before I take each and every turn in Pineapple OFC. According to my score on the rating system (that I helped create), the answer is: not every time. I only get about 70 percent of tough situations correct, and have an average error of .5 points / tricky spot. This means I probably give my opponent a free point every couple of hands. With that kind of error rate, how could I even be expect to win? Well, luckily, my opponents are making even more errors than me.
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The truth is we are all making a lot of mistakes in this fairly new game and unexplored game. That’s great for the fast learners, but could cost you a pretty penny if you are a late-bloomer or haven’t yet put in the effort to learn advanced OFC strategy. Let me show you four of the biggest mistakes I see players just like you make in this game time and time again:
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Not Gambling for FantasyLand Enough
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Sometimes the fear and embarrassment of fouling convinces you to play it safe in spots where it is clearly “game on.” You have to remember, it’s not whether you hit 50 percent of the time or more, it’s whether you make more points on average or not. Most Fantasyland gambles only need 25 percent to be worth it, so stop waiting for the golden opportunity and just go.
In this spot, gambling for Fantasyland is 2.6 points better on average than playing it safe. And it doesn’t particularly even matter that our opponent will foul a significant amount of the time because our hand is just plainly better on average if we make the gamble. If you aren’t making “risky” plays in Pineapple Open Face, you are making a mistake.
Completely Senseless Gambles
Just because you can improve doesn’t mean you should. I see this problem a lot when someone has set a rather ambitious flush draw or straight draw in the middle, but hasn’t developed their back at all. It’s especially true when you hit your trips card in the middle with just one, or even two pair, in the back. This is quite often a bad time to gamble.
In this situation, putting the ace up front forces you into a runner-runner situation, where you have to make a full house on the bottom and two pair or better in the middle. That is a dream my friend, and it’s a mistake of over seven points! Do not take a good hand and throw it away simply for a chance at “the big time.”
Bailing Too Early
If you are mid-game and thinking about breaking a three-flush for a single pair in the back, you better need a really good reason. A reason like, half your flush cards are dead, you can get to Fantasyland a lot easier if you pair the back, or you will scoop your opponent a lot even with such a weak hand. Most of the time, it’s just correct to wait it out for the flush, or bail on the next street. After all, there will be six more opportunities to hit something that helps you out, just be patient.
In this hand, it can be sometimes tempting to just play it safe and put the ten in the back, especially if there are more dead diamonds. But that is just way too safe, even with 3-4 additional dead diamonds! The correct play in this exact spot is actually to gamble for Fantasyland with the queen up front and ten in the middle (because of the three of diamonds…think about it). If you are playing it “super safe” you are making a mistake of over four points, yikes.
A bird in the hand…Don’t sacrifice a great card for the back to take a big risk in the front.
Now there are plenty of times to gamble in this game, but I have found that most of the time you are presented a made hand, you should take that before risking it all for Fantasyland or the like. This problem usually arises when you get three great cards for your hand and still have to throw one (or as I like to call it, “rich people problems.”) Generally speaking, you should build the bottom/middle in this situation and throw your “gamble” card. The main reason this holds true so often is because you are throwing away an out, thus reducing your chances, plus you will have another opportunity to hit that Fantasyland card on the next draw anyways. So think about those future opportunities before throwing a perfectly good hand away.
In this situation, we have to decide whether to take Fantasyland now or take quads now… #richpeopleproblems. We don’t even have to set ourselves all-in and Fantasyland is worth approximately 14.5 points (7 for queens and around 7.5 for the added value of being in Fantasyland next hand), while quads is only worth ten points. Seems like a no brainer right? Well, actually, since we have five outs to hit Fantasyland on the next draw (45%), its 4.7 points better to play quads!!! Am I blowing your mind yet?
If any of this helped you or if I was able to help you solve one leak in your game, please let me know by tweeting at @ofcstrategy. I truly hope I was able to give some quick pointers and valuable insight into errors that I see players making all the time. To see where you stand and how many errors you’re making on a regular basis, check out openfacesolutions.com and sign up for a free trial to use our tactics trainer, simulator, and the only Open Face Chinese ranking system on the web. ♠
Derric “SixPeppers” Haynie is the author of Quantum Poker and creator of OpenFaceSolutions.com and OpenFaceStrategy.com. Check out those sites for more articles, solutions, tactics, news and information on Pineapple Open Face Chinese Poker.