Pineapple poker

Pineapple is Texas Hold'em with a third hole card: you are dealt three and throw one away. When you throw it away is what separates pineapple from crazy pineapple. Here are the rules of both and how the extra card changes your starting odds.

Lesson: Seven cards, best five (needs an invite). In the glossary: Hand rankings, Streets: preflop, flop, turn and river, Showdown. How the numbers are made.

Last updated October 22, 2026

Pineapple rules

Pineapple: everyone gets three cards and discards one before the first round of betting. From there it plays exactly like Texas Hold'em.
Crazy pineapple: you keep all three through the preflop betting and the flop, and discard one after the flop betting. You see the flop with three cards, then play the turn and river with two.

In both, you end with two hole cards and make your best five from those and the five on the board. The blinds, the button and the betting are the same as Hold'em.

What the third card does to your odds

Three cards give 22,100 possible starts against Hold'em's 1,326, and you keep the best two. The chance of holding each start, before the discard:

Two cards against three: the chance of each start
Start	Hold'em, two cards	Pineapple, three cards	How much more often
At least one pair	5.88%	17.18%	2.9 times
Two or more of one suit	23.53%	60.24%	2.6 times
At least two aces	0.45%	1.32%	2.9 times

Because everyone keeps their best two of three, hands at the showdown run stronger than in Hold'em, and a hand that would be good enough in Hold'em is worth less here. The same idea goes further in Omaha, where you hold four and must use two. Every game is compared on the types of poker games page.