Poker can be played for a long time without getting boring. The excitement and the thrill of the game add to the popularity of the game. But every poker fan needs some variety now and then. When playing poker this is no problem at all. There are various variants, each one of them at least as entertaining as the original poker games. These variants include variants from the Far East like Chinese Poker or Badugi Poker and different versions of Pineapple Poker.

Pineapple Poker as an Alternative

Essentially, Pineapple Poker and its offspring Crazy Pineapple Poker are not very different from Texas Holdem. However, a little trick is the clue of this game and offers many more possibilities for playing the game: the players must return one of their cards at a certain point of the game. As it is the case when playing Texas Holdem the two players to the left of the dealer must pay their blinds. Then Pineapple Poker differs from the classic version of the game: each player gets three cards instead of two to form their hand. Then the players make their bets and the flop is revealed – as it is when playing Texas Holdem. After the second betting round each player must decide which card to throw away. Then the players have two cards on the hand and the game is played like regular Texas Holdem: after the turn and the river there is the showdown. In the showdown each player combines his or her two cards and the 5 community cards to the best hand possible – the best hand wins the pot.

Variants of Pineapple Poker

The various variants of Pineapple Poker have one difference: the point when one card of the hand must be thrown away. In the original game, the third card is thrown away before the flop, at Crazy Pineapple Poker the third card is thrown away after the flop. There is also one variant called Lazy Pineapple Poker (also known as Tahoe) and in this game all the players keep their cards until the showdown, but they are only allowed to use two of their three cards to make the best possible hand.

The appeal of Pineapple Poker is the fact that there are more possibilities of combining the cards when playing the game. And the thrill of the game is the fact that you have to decide which card to throw away.

All poker fans will definitely like this fun and exciting poker variant. You should try it, too!