Crazy Pineapple

It’s Pineapple, except you keep all three cards until you’ve seen the flop

In Pineapple you throw a card away before the flop. In Crazy Pineapple you hold on to all three through the pre-flop and the flop betting rounds, and discard one only after the flop betting is over, before the turn. From then on it’s plain two-card Hold’em.

So you’re betting the flop with three cards in your hand and the board in front of you, and then picking the one to throw.

30-second cheat sheet

• Three hole cards each. Pre-flop betting, flop, flop betting, all with all three cards.
• Then discard one card, face down, before the turn is dealt. The discard is dead.
• Turn and river play as normal Hold’em: best five of your remaining two plus the board, any combination.
• High hand only in the WSOP version. Hi-lo (8-or-better) is commonly spread elsewhere and is its own game: Crazy Pineapple Hi-Lo.
• Any structure: limit, no-limit, or pot-limit.
• It’s a documented mixed-game slot: C.H.O.R.S.E. adds “Chowaha or Crazy Pineapple” to H.O.R.S.E.

Full rules

The deal

Button, small blind, big blind. Three cards face down each. Pre-flop betting with all three cards. Burn, flop.

Flop betting, then the discard

A betting round on the flop, with all three hole cards still in your hand. Once flop betting is finished and before the turn card is exposed, every player discards exactly one card. The discard is dead and nobody sees it. Per the WSOP, a player who discards too soon or too late is dealt with under the room’s irregularity rules. The WSOP doesn’t give any rule specific to Pineapple here.

Turn, river, showdown

After the discard, it’s regular Hold’em: turn, betting, river, betting. Best five from your two remaining hole cards and the five board cards. Any combination, including none (the board plays). Ties split, odd chip by position from the button.

Because everyone has three cards, hands run stronger than in Hold’em. Two pair rarely holds up. Aim for the nuts or a draw to the nuts (BeatTheFish).

Rooms disagree

• High or hi-lo. The WSOP rule text is high only. Pagat says Crazy Pineapple is “often played” hi-lo, 8-or-better. A researcher on this project reports that a California card room’s posted rules for Crazy Pineapple are hi-lo 8-or-better. We didn’t open that source ourselves. So high-only is not universal. This page covers the high version. See Crazy Pineapple Hi-Lo for the other.
• When the discard happens. WSOP, Pagat, Wikibooks, and BeatTheFish: after flop betting, before the turn. Wizard of Odds lists the discard immediately after the flop and before flop betting. Wikipedia just says “after the flop, before the fourth community card”. Check which version a room spreads, because it changes how much information the flop bettor has. This page uses the WSOP timing.
• Not the same game: Lazy Pineapple / Tahoe / Wichita Hold’em (keep three cards to showdown but use at most two) and Super Hold’em (may use all three) are other games in the same family.
• Structure. Limit, no-limit, and pot-limit are all possible.

Worked examples

A flush draw you chose after seeing the flop

Alice discards a card after the flop and keeps her flush draw

Board

Alicethrew

• Ace-high flush✓ wins

Bobthrew

• Three Jacks

Alice scoops the whole pot.

Alice was dealt ace of hearts, eight of hearts, and eight of clubs. The flop came with two hearts, so she held on through flop betting, then discarded the 8 of clubs after the flop and kept the hearts. The turn brought a third heart, giving her an ace-high flush. Bob had a pair of jacks, hit one on the flop for a set, and discarded the queen. A set is good. A flush is better.

Two pair from a smart discard

Two pair, because Alice saw the flop before she had to choose

Board

Alicethrew

• Two pair, Kings and Sevens✓ wins

Bobthrew

• Pair of Kings

Alice scoops the whole pot.

The flop had a king and a seven. Alice was dealt king, seven, and eight, and holding all three through the flop betting, she threw away the 8 and kept king-seven for two pair. Bob kept ace-king and threw the queen, ending up with just a pair of kings with an ace kicker. Seeing the flop before choosing is the whole point of this game.

How you’ll embarrass yourself

• Discarding too early or too late. Before the flop is plain Pineapple in most sources. After the turn card is dealt is too late (the WSOP says discard before the turn is exposed).
• Throwing away the card that fit the flop best because it “looked worse” pre-flop. The discard is the key decision (BeatTheFish).
• Overvaluing top pair and two pair. Everybody sees the flop with three cards, so everybody connects more.
• Forgetting the discard is irreversible and hidden. Nobody sees what you threw, so you can’t be sure about what anyone else is holding.
• Not asking whether it’s hi-lo. Check before you play.

Lore and reputation

The Wikipedia H.O.R.S.E. article says C.H.O.R.S.E. adds Chowaha “or Crazy Pineapple” to H.O.R.S.E., giving an even split of community-card and stud games. So Crazy Pineapple is a documented mixed-game slot, though the article doesn’t say how often it gets run.

The Wizard of Vegas thread (June 2024) is anecdotes only. Players recall Crazy Pineapple as a very popular, raucous high-action game in Florida limit card rooms in the early and mid 2000s, where all nine or ten players saw the flop for $2 bets, and that it reportedly “completely disappeared once card rooms went no-limit circa 2009”. Another poster saw a $60 Crazy Pineapple tournament at the Sahara in Las Vegas, and another a 2/5 PLO/Pineapple mixed game at Foxwoods.

PokerAtlas has a page for a no-limit Crazy Pineapple cash game at the WSOP room in Las Vegas (search snippet only), which suggests it’s been posted at least once. Third-party venue directories claim two dozen US venues list it, but those are low-quality aggregator claims, so we didn’t rely on them.