Crazy Pineapple Hi-Lo

It’s like Hold’em, except you start with three cards and the pot splits

You know Hold’em. Crazy Pineapple deals you three hole cards, then makes you throw one away after the flop. From the turn on, it’s ordinary two-card Hold’em. Crazy Pineapple Hi-Lo adds a second way to win: half the pot goes to the best high hand, and half to the best 8-or-better low.

The big difference from Omaha Hi-Lo: there’s no two-and-three rule. You can use any five of your seven cards, which means 0, 1 or 2 hole cards. You can play the board.

30-second cheat sheet

• Three hole cards, betting, three-card flop, betting.
• Then everybody still in discards one hole card face down, leaving two. Then the turn, betting, the river, betting.
• Showdown: your best five of seven (two hole cards plus five board cards) for high, and your best five of seven for low. They can be different five-card hands.
• Low: five different ranks, all 8 or lower, aces low, straights and flushes don’t hurt. The wheel is the best low. No qualifying low means the best high wins the whole pot.
• You can play the board. That’s not allowed in Omaha, but it’s fine here.
• Usually played limit. Up to 11 players at one card room whose rules we read.
• The WSOP lists Crazy Pineapple as high-only. The hi-lo version is a room and Pagat thing.

Full rules

The deal

Dealer button, blinds. Each player gets three cards face down. There’s a betting round starting left of the big blind.

Flop and the discard

The dealer burns a card and deals three community cards, the flop. There’s a second betting round. After that betting round, every player still in the hand discards one hole card face down, leaving two. Folded players don’t have anything to discard. Throw the wrong card away and you can’t get it back, and a player who forgets to discard can have their hand fouled (that’s from the California room rules we read).

That discard timing is the main thing the sources fight about. See Rooms disagree.

Turn and river

From here on it’s ordinary two-card Hold’em. Burn, turn, betting, burn, river, betting. In limit play, the turn and river use the big bet.

Showdown

Every remaining player uses any five cards from their seven (two hole cards plus five board cards). There is no “exactly two” rule, so playing the board is fine. High and low can use different five-card combinations.

• High: the best five-card poker hand.
• Low: five different ranks, none higher than 8, aces low, straights and flushes don’t count against you. The best low is 5-4-3-2-A.
• If no low qualifies, the best high takes the whole pot. One player can scoop both halves.
• A low is impossible when the board shows three or more cards above 8. You would then have at most four low cards (two hole cards plus two low board cards).
• Ties split their half, so you can get quartered. The odd chip goes to the high hand between halves. Between tied hands in the same half, the Deuces Wild rules give it to the first tied player left of the button.

Rooms disagree

• When the discard happens. Pagat and the Deuces Wild Casino rules agree on discarding after the flop betting, before the turn. Wizard of Odds describes Crazy Pineapple as discarding right after the flop, before the flop betting. This page uses the first version. If the dealer doesn’t say, ask.
• High or hi-lo? The WSOP’s 2026 rules list Pineapple and Crazy Pineapple as high-only. Pagat describes the hi-lo form and says Crazy Pineapple is often played that way. Deuces Wild’s rules are for the hi-lo 8-or-better game, which is the game this page describes.
• Qualifier. 8-or-better in both sources.
• Player count. Deuces Wild allows up to 11. We found no cap in the WSOP’s text.

Worked examples

Playing the board for low

Three players all play the board for low

Board

Alice

• High:Pair of Queens
• Low (8-or-better):8-7-5-3-2 low✓ wins

Bob

• High:Pair of Kings✓ wins
• Low (8-or-better):8-7-5-3-2 low✓ wins

Carol

• High:Jack high
• Low (8-or-better):8-7-5-3-2 low✓ wins

Alice takes 16.7% · Bob takes 66.7% · Carol takes 16.7%

The board is 2-3-5-7-8, all low cards, so it’s an 8-7-5-3-2 low by itself. Nobody’s hole cards (Q-Q, K-K, J-T) can improve on it, so all three players play the board and split the low half three ways. Bob’s pair of kings wins the high half. In Omaha this would be impossible, because you’d have to use two of your own cards.

No low, and the straight wins

Three high board cards mean no low, and the straight takes it all

Board

Alice

• High:Ace high
• Low (8-or-better):No qualifying low (8-or-better)

Bob

• High:Three Kings
• Low (8-or-better):No qualifying low (8-or-better)

Carol

• High:King-high straight✓ wins
• Low (8-or-better):No qualifying low (8-or-better)

Carol scoops the whole pot.

The board has K-Q-J, three cards above 8, so nobody can make a low. Alice has A-2 and just four low cards available (A, 2, 3, 8), not five. High takes the whole pot, and Carol’s T-9 makes a straight (K-Q-J-T-9), which beats Bob’s three kings.

A flush that’s also a low

A club flush that is also a low

Board

Alice

• High:Ace-high flush✓ wins
• Low (8-or-better):8-4-3-2-A low✓ wins

Bob

• High:Three Kings
• Low (8-or-better):No qualifying low (8-or-better)

Alice scoops the whole pot.

Alice’s A-2 of clubs plus the 3, K and J of clubs on the board is an ace-high flush for the high half. Her A-2 plus the board’s 3-4-8 is also an 8-4-3-2-A low. She scoops. Bob’s three kings lose to the flush, and with only the board’s 3, 4 and 8 as low cards he has no low.

How you’ll embarrass yourself

• Discarding too early or not at all. Wait until the flop betting is done and then discard. Forgetting can foul your hand.
• Treating it like Omaha. You can use 0, 1 or 2 hole cards, and you can play the board.
• Thinking every board has a low. Three board cards above 8 and there isn’t one.
• Throwing away the “worse” card by habit. In a split pot, which card to discard depends on whether you’re going for high, low or both. Decide after seeing the flop and the flop betting.
• Forgetting that high gets the odd chip.

Lore and reputation

The WSOP’s own rule sheet lists Crazy Pineapple as high-only, so the hi-lo version isn’t a WSOP game. It comes from Pagat’s write-up and from the California card room rules we read (Deuces Wild Casino). We didn’t verify whether the hi-lo form is the one used when Crazy Pineapple shows up in a mixed-game rotation.

Hold’em-based hi-lo is very rare in general. Our searches for a stand-alone Hold’em hi-lo found no room, WSOP or mixed-game listing, which makes Crazy Pineapple Hi-Lo the only Hold’em-family hi-lo game we saw in rooms (a California approved-games listing and Pagat). That’s an observation from search results, not a claim about how popular it is.