It's just CRAZY!!!

I may never play Hold Em again. No, I haven’t suffered a long sting of bad beats. No, my bankroll isn’t drained. No, the internet gambling police haven’t raided my home. The simple reason is that I’ve discovered Crazy Pineapple 8/b!

This game is just too much fun! Fun in a sad way sometimes though. Did you see the movie Bad Santa? I remember watching that movie and coming out of the theatre with my side aching from the laughter, but not feeling very good about laughing because it was such dark humor. Crazy Pineapple is like that.

Short explanation for those who haven’t played CP. It’s just like Hold Em except you get three cards and then discard one after the flop. The hi/lo option is played with aces low so the best low hand is ace-5.

Now, imagine this scenario: You are holding AK2 with the AK suited. (In my limited experience, this is a pretty good starting hand. Big Slick suited for the high and the nut low if three more low cards fall without counterfeiting the ace or deuce.) There are 8 out of 10 players in the pot preflop, which is very common. The flop comes AAA. You are now holding four aces, the Mortal Nuts. Do you slow play? NO! Because if any two cards come up eight or less you may have to split the pot with anyone who chased with two low cards.

So you bet out and watch everyone fold, right? No again! This is CRAZY PINEAPPLE! You get four, count ‘em four, callers! Three all the way to the river as you bet! The low doesn’t materialize and you scoop the entire pot. This is not an isolated incident. I saw multiple callers with quad aces, then later with quad 10’s. Four flushes and four card straights also received multiple callers.

I went back through the hand histories several times because I could not imagine what these people were calling with. I found that they were calling with hands that should have been folded pre-flop. It was truly amazing.

I don’t know how many times I said out loud to my computer, “This is crazy.” I’m guessing that my personal response is where the game got its name. I don’t know how many fish I saw swim up with a small buy-in, lose it all, and swim away while I continued to play a tight game, accepted a few suckouts, and made more than five big bets per hour for three hours of play.

Okay, you caught me. I will play Hold Em. I took my winning from CP 8/b and etered a one table SNG because I was playing for “free” and finished second. A pretty fun evening :-)

Thanks for reading.