Pineapple in Paradise

[donkeyradish]

Paradise Poker have this High-Only Crazy Pineapple game for $1/$2 and I really enjoy it. 75% of people are seeing the flop making the pots really juicy.

There's precious little on-line about strategy though or starting hands. I try to be selective and only play less than 30% of hands, but its hard to define what a 'borderline' hand is.

My rule of thumb at the moment is, if I wouldn't consider the same cards as strong in Holdem or as part of a strong hand in Omaha I always dump them.

In this game you get 3 cards and discard 1 before the turn (From that point on you are playing Holdem)

You get several agonising decisions to make, like if you held
A [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] K [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 9 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]

And if the flop is

K [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 9 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 7 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]

You have top 2 pair and are probably winning but I'd discard my K [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] here every time.

If anyone knows of any articles that talk about High-Only Pineapple, please post them here.

[redsamurai]

I feel like I'm missing something here, so I'll ask. In your hand example you are 2-1 against making the flush yet you would rather draw to nut flush plus 2nd pair than keep the made hand of top two with 4 outs to improve. What factors am I not concidering here?

[Beavis68]

well, with two cards to come A [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 9 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] had 14 outs to improve, so it is probably a a slight favorite on that flop. Interesting.

[stripsqueez]

i play this game too - i just wish the 5/10 game would get going more often - so far i've only caught it 3-4 times

way too many seeing the flop - starting hands are pretty easy when as you say 60%+ are seeing the flop - beware little flush draws though

i've never read about the game before but i doubt anybody at the table has either

stripsqueez - chickenhawk

[rr2000]

search the archives. There was a discussion about the strategy, I remember seeing a link to a RGP post containing detailed strategy.

[Buzz]

[ QUOTE ]
I feel like I'm missing something here, so I'll ask. In your hand example you are 2-1 against making the flush yet you would rather draw to nut flush plus 2nd pair than keep the made hand of top two with 4 outs to improve. What factors am I not concidering here?

[/ QUOTE ]

Redsamurai - Discarding Ks, there are 1035 possible two-card-combinations on turn and river. Probably 529 of them are winners for you at the showdown.

Discarding Ad, there are still the same 1035 possible two-card-combinations on turn and river. Hard to tell for sure, but only something like maybe 210 of them are probably winners for you at the showdown. At least with 825 of the possible two-card combinations you’d have serious concerns.

You might not get exactly the same count of winners and losers, but if you made a chart, you'd see that discarding the Ks leaves you with better chances than keeping the two pair.

Discarding Ks is clearly the correct choice. Not even close.

If you don't understand, ask and I'll post the charts for you.

Buzz

[pipes]

I've seen that there is software available on acespade.com (think that's it) for Pineapple. That may be okay.

The Piper

[KuQuAT]

Another reason to keep the nut flush draw (and, not inconsequentially, 2nd pair + top kicker) in weak CP games is that, in the event that you make your flush, you'll get great action from the crying-call non-nut flushes.

In the case of top two-pair, if the board pairs, you'll get considerably less action.

I know, speaking as an action giver. [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]