How to play
Pineapple is Texas Hold’em with one extra card. You get three hole cards, bet once, and then throw one away before the flop. From there the hand plays exactly like Texas Hold’em. Here you sit at a no-limit cash table with one to five computer opponents. Everyone starts with 1,000 chips, the blinds are 5 and 10, and a fresh 52-card deck is shuffled for every hand.
- Three hole cards. Everyone gets three cards face down. The dealer button (D) moves one seat each hand, and the two players to its left post the blinds.
- Bet before the flop with all three cards: fold, check, call, or bet and raise any amount up to your whole stack.
- Discard one. When the betting round ends, everyone still in the hand, including players who are all-in, throws away one card face down, in turn from the left of the button. Tap the card you want to get rid of and press Discard. Nobody sees the discarded cards.
- Play Hold’em. The flop, turn and river follow with a betting round after each. Your hand is the best five cards from your two remaining cards and the five on the table.
Side pots, the uncalled bet and split pots work as in Hold’em. When an opponent runs out of chips, a new player takes the seat with 1,000 chips; if you run out, you can get 1,000 free credits at a new table. Your table is saved between visits.
Strategy
Three cards make more starting hands playable. Any pair, or two high cards, or two suited connectors among your three cards gives you a Hold’em hand to keep. Hands are stronger on average than in Hold’em, so raise a little tighter than you would there.
Decide what to keep before you bet. Your preflop bet is really a bet on the best two of your three cards. A pair of aces with a small card is simply aces; three cards to a straight or flush give you a choice, but you’ll only keep two.
Keep pairs, keep suits. When you discard, a pocket pair or two suited high cards is usually the best keep. Throwing away a card you’d need for a straight or flush is fine: before the flop you don’t know which draws will come.
Remember the discards are gone. Three cards per player come out before the flop, and a third of them are discarded unseen. Big hands are a bit more common than in Hold’em, so give opponents’ big bets more credit.
More poker. In Crazy Pineapple you keep all three cards until after the flop. In Irish Poker you start with four.
If you enjoy Pineapple, try Pirate’s Cove or Poker Bonus Baccarat next.
