The rules of Crazy Pineapple Poker are similar to regular Hold'em except for the changes below:

You are dealt three hole cards instead of two. But you must discard one of your cards AFTER the flop, and then play with your other two for the remainder of the game

Betting

The game starts out exactly like Texas Hold'em. The two players to the left post the small and large blind and the other players follow suit with their antes. Players are now dealt three (3) hole cards and another round of betting takes place.

The Flop

After the first round of betting is complete, just as in Texas Hold'em, the dealer turns over three cards known as the flop. The rule states that you must discard one of your three hole cards A Crazy Pineapple Poker player must make a critical decision for future play at this stage in the game. You must be able to analyze your hand and determine its value in relation to the other hands you observe and then make the necessary discard.

This is why its called Crazy Pineapple because having seen the flop, players have the opportunity to create some strong hands by the time they toss their weakest card.

Now while this may seem like an easy task, just take out the least favorable card, there are a number of different factors you should consider before discarding

The Turn

As in Texas Hold'em, the dealer flips over the turn card and another round of betting takes place.

The River

The dealer turns over the final card called the river and the last round of betting takes place. The person with the best 5 card poker hand wins the pot

Crazy Pineapple Poker Tips

As you have seen, the extra hole card in Crazy Pineapple Poker creates an added twist of complexity to the basic Hold'em strategy. Here are some tips to help you:

1. Very Important Tip: Any hand that you discard and Ace from increases the value of your hand.

Example: You may have a pair of Kings and an Ace. In a jammed pot, there is a good chance you have the top pair with the Kings. If you discard the Ace, you narrow down the playing field because even if you are up against the Aces, you have a better chance of hitting your set than the Aces because you just discarded one.

2. Ace's are not as big a hand in Crazy Pineapple Poker as in Texas Hold'em

This is one of the most critical points in Pineapple. Be careful with Aces in Pineapple. Do not put as much value in the Aces as you would in Texas Hold'em. In Pineapple, Aces are just another pair and if you don't give them some help, you will not win with them that much.

3. In Pineapple, every player will have some sort of flush draw almost every time and in every suit. In Texas Hold'em Poker flushes are very rare, but in Pineapple, in a pot where 4 or more people take the flop and a flush draw hits, there is a great chance that some one will be drawing to it.

4. A King-Queen off suit is a good hand in regular Hold'em, but Pineapple players know that this hand will rarely take the pot.

There are many more jammed pots before the flop in Pineapple Poker. This makes sense obviously because with three hole cards, you are seeing many more playing options. The key to winning consistently over time in Pineapple is to win a fair share of these jammed pots.