How to Play Pineapple Poker

PLAYING TIPS for PINEAPPLE POKER

HOW TO PLAY PINEAPPLE POKER
Pineapple Poker is played like Texas Hold'Em with one twist: Deal 3 cards down to each player instead of 2. Before any other action each player must discard 1 card leaving them with two cards. Other than initially receiving 3 cards Pineapple is played with all the same rules and procedures as Hold 'Em. And, as in Hold 'Em players make their hand using any combination of their 2 hole cards and the 5 board cards.
May be played high, high-low split or high-low eight or better.

SUMMARY of ACTION
Deal 3 hole cards to each player.
Each player selects 1 card from their hand and discards (mucks) it.
Each player now has 2 cards.
Bet
Deal 3 cards for flop.
Bet
Deal 1 card for turn.
Bet
Deal 1 card for river.
Bet
High only: Showdown
High-low split: Declare
Bet
Showdown

As one might expect, Pineapple Poker strategy is very similar to Texas Hold’em strategy, since in both games you will end up with 2 hole cards. There is an enormous number of books, articles and other information to guide you in playing Texas Hold' Em. That information will be very helpful in playing just about any of the many versions of Pineapple Poker. It is well worth your time to learn from those sources. But these playing tips are not going to get into any of that knowledge. We will focus only on the one difference of Pineapple compared to Hold Em: That players start with 3 hole cards instead of two and the impact that has.

PLAYING TIPS FOR PINEAPPLE POKER: THE EFFECT OF 3 CARDS
The difference of Pineapple compared to Hold 'Em is that players are dealt 3 hole cards instead of 2. While that's a minor difference, that third card does impact the game:

1. Three cards yield three 2-card combos to choose from instead of just one. The chances of having a hand that you will want to continue with increase. Of course, this also holds true for your opponents. Expect that more players will have cards they will want to see the flop with. There will be more multi-way pots and it will take a stronger final hand in order to win.

2. You know of one additional card that is not in play. It cannot appear on the board or be held by an opponent. While it is only a tiny piece of information it can be very helpful, and we explain that in more detail later.

STARTING HAND SELECTION
The strategy in the selection of starting hands in Pineapple is essentially the same as is used in Texas Hold’em. Ask yourself this question: Is there any combination of two of the three hole cards present that you would play in Texas Hold’em? If so, you can play. If not, then you can fold the hand easily in Pineapple.

As noted earlier, players will be dealt a playable hand more often. For example, the chances of being dealt a pocket pair are nearly tripled. Likewise, there will be about twice as many suited hole cards as well as more connected cards.

Just as you would in Hold 'Em, favor starting hands that are: pairs (the bigger the better), suited aces, other suited and connected cards. Your best bet is to play starting hands that can make 3 of a kind or better.

Weak starting hands include monotone hole cards (all three cards of the same suit) as you are forced to throw away one of the cards needed to make a flush. The same occurs with 3 connected cards. Other poor hands are those that are not paired or connected and do not contain high ranked cards.

For example, bad starting hands would be:
T♥ 6♦ 2♠ (combinations  T♥ 6♦  T♥ 2♠,  6♦ 2♠
A♥ T♦ 5♠  (combinations  A♥ T♦,  A♥ 5 ♠, T♦ 5♠)
Q♣ 9♦d 5♦ (combinations Q♣ 9♦, Q♣ 5♦, 9♦ 5♦)

Trips as hole cards are nearly hopeless, since one of those cards must be folded and not to be seen again. It is impossible to make 4 of a kind and the probability of making a set is cut in half because there is only one card of that rank remaining in the deck. (In contrast, when you hold a pair and an odd card the chances of hitting a set on the flop are slightly better than in Texas Hold’em, due to the fact that one card is taken out of the game. But the difference is tiny; around 0.2%.)

PLAY BEFORE THE FLOP
You have to decide which card to throw away before there is any other action. There is a downside to that. You have to make an assessment as to which of the three 2-card combos makes the most sense to keep. Often times this a fairly easy and straight forward decision as you only have two decent cards anyway. Sometimes it is not. Hands with both a pair and suited connectors highlight this dilemma. Consider, what to do with a hand like A♠ Q♠ A♣? Which way to go can be influenced by the nature or conditions of your specific game. If very few players typically see the flop, you could decide strictly based on raw equity and choose A♠ A♣. Pocket aces is a huge favorite when heads-up or 3-way and can win even without improving. But, if you expect 4, 5 or more players to see the flop you may be better off with A♠ Q♠ which can make a strong hand like the nut flush or straight.

PLAY BEYOND THE FLOP
You know of one additional card that will not be in play. It cannot appear on the board or be held by an opponent. This is information that may help or hurt you. For example, consider two flush draw situations in which the flop contains 2 suited cards to your flush. If you initially held 3 of the same suit, the chance of making a flush is reduced as there is one fewer card of that suit remaining in the deck. The chance of making a flush by the river go down from 35% to 31.5%. On the other hand, if you held 2 suited and one odd card the number of cards remaining in the deck is reduced. You would now have a very slightly better chance of making the flush.

Single pair hands seldom win. In Texas Hold’em top pair, top kicker, depending on the number of opponents, is a fairly strong hand. In Pineapple, versus multiple opponents, it is often an expensive hand because one pair will commonly be second best at showdown. If betting won't get opponents to fold, then you should probably back off and try to keep the pot small. If you face resistance the best strategy is often to fold. Much more frequently hands better than a single pair are needed to win.

SOME PROBABILITIES
Approximate chances of being dealt these hands with 3 hole cards of Pineapple compared to 2 hole cards in Hold 'Em.
Pocket Pair: 17% for Pineapple vs. 5.9% for Hold 'Em.
2-suited cards: 55% for Pineapple vs. 24% chance in Hold 'Em.

3 suited cards: 5.2% Outs decrease from 9 to 8 to make a flush by river.
3 connected cards: 18.4% Outs decrease from 8 to 7 to make a straight by river.

TIPS FOR PLAYING HIGH-LOW SPLIT
Playing High-Low Split typically stimulates participation. Players will see a flop with the very lowest combinations like A2 and A3. (When suited these add a possible nut flush draw and are very strong starting hands that have the potential of scooping the entire pot.) A2 is the nuts from the start. You just have to hope it is not counterfeited by the board. A3 is one board card away from the nuts and has a shot at winning even without improvement but can be difficult to play. Even though 23 is also only one board card from the nuts it is considerably less desirable to play. Without improvement it is only the third best starting low and it lacks nut flush potential.

Approximate percent probabilities of being dealt the following LOW hands as your 3 hole cards.
In an eight handed game if you were not dealt A2 there is about a 20% chance someone else was.

3 Hole Cards
2AX
3AX or 32X
32A
42A or 43A or 432

Percent Probability
2.4%
4.8%
0.3%
0.9%

Odds Probability
40:1
20:1
332:1
110:1