In this section of We Play Poker Online, we pay homage to the many variants of poker by taking a look at how to play games from the ever-popular Texas Hold ‘Em to Omaha, 7 Card Stud, 5 Card Draw and less commonly played games such as Crazy Pineapple. As poker increases in popularity and access to quick online games becomes more readily available, players are finding themselves seeking more variation; whether that’s to relieve temporary boredom or to broaden their skills in a bid to become more well-rounded players. Whatever the reason, it is highly beneficial to learn more variants of poker. You will find you develop a greater awareness of the cards as well as the ability to borrow strategies and tactics from other games in order to improve your main game, giving you an advantage that other players may not have made for themselves. What’s more, it’s just plain fun learning something new!
Heard of H.O.R.S.E Poker?
You may or may not already be familiar with H.O.R.S.E poker. Horse is a variant of poker that is quickly gaining popularity around the world. It is a mix of 5 different variation games namely: Hold Em, Omaha, Razz, Seven Stud Card, and Seven Stud Card Eight or Stud Hi-Lo. As the players hone their skills on other popular poker games, at some point, they are looking to add some variations to their game and the mixed game format like Horse poker offers a tailor-made solution.
Horse poker is a mixed game in which the variant changes after every round. The sequence of rounds follows the acronym which is started with Texas Hold ‘Em, Omaha Hi-Lo, Razz, 7 Card Stud and 7 Card Eight or Hi-Lo. It is a cycle, once the last round was played; it goes back to Texas Hold ‘Em and so on until no players are left and a winner is crowned. Generally, it takes a very skilled player to win at horse poker and you’ll find a lot of the Hold ‘Em pros use horse to improve their skills across the board.
Horse poker rules of rotation
There are three rules of rotation that can be applied in order to play Horse poker i.e. the point at which the poker variant is changed from, say, Hold ‘Em to Omaha. The first rule is ‘rotation by hands’ which is the fastest paced play. After every new hand is dealt, the next variant will be played. The next rule is the ‘rotation by blinds’. This is the most common way to play the game. Every time a new blind level is reached, the next round is dealt in the next variant in the sequence, up until the next blind level. The last rule is ‘rotation by time’ which is similar to the blind rotation. This means that poker variants will change at any given intervals as pre-determined by the dealer of players at the start of the game. This happens usually every 10 to 15 minutes but large table tournaments may go as long as 1 hour intervals.
Why play Horse?
Now, why do you need to learn how to play Horse poker? If you really want to win big money at poker, you should know how to play all 5 variants. Horse poker is the best judge of a player’s ability to play poker. It also reduces the edge to single game specialty and puts emphasis on the player’s extensiveness on the games of poker as a whole. A player who thinks they have a great Hold ‘Em game will be sorely disappointed if they think they can rely on that to get them through the Horse tables; all Horse players are pretty good at Hold ‘Em! Imagine it like a decathlon; you have to be able to go the distance in every event to win the final title. There’s certainly no faking it with horse, if you can win this poker game, you can legitimately consider yourself a good player.
Crazy Pineapple Poker
Crazy Pineapple Poker was so named as it does have an element of craziness to it. Namely, why not just play Hold ‘Em! It is a close descendant of Texas Hold ‘Em poker since it follows the same betting rules and procedures but with a few small differences that opened the scope of the game to create more playing options. Crazy Pineapple has two variations, namely, Crazy Pineapple Hi-Lo and Crazy Pineapple 8 or Better.
How to play Crazy Pineapple
In order for you to play Crazy Pineapple poker, you must first know how to play Texas Hold ‘Em. The key difference between the two is that Crazy Pineapple poker is dealt with three hole cards face down instead of two, followed by the initial betting rounds. The next step is as per Hold ‘Em with the three community cards dealt for all the players to see. This is known as the flop. After the flop is dealt, another round of betting begins. After the second round of betting is complete, this is where the true ‘craziness’ will show. Each player will choose to discard one card, and then all players will have two cards each. At this point, it’s like Texas Hold ‘Em once again. If you fold and did not discard a card before the turn card is shown, your hand will be considered dead.
A fourth card is dealt and placed on the table, face up, for all the players to see. The face up card is called the turn card. At this time, a third round of betting begins. After the bet, a fifth face up card is dealt for all the players. This is called the river, after which a fourth and final round of betting begins. After the final betting is done, players are ready for the showdown. The best five hand combination using the two remaining cards in combination with the cards on the table wins the pot. Hand rankings are the same as in Hold ‘Em. So, as you’ll see, it is very similar to Hold ‘Em. The effect the extra hole card has at the beginning is to increase the propensity for each player to have a good hand. The third card can cause division in a player’s strategy however when it comes to discarding. You’ll find more hands may be played in Crazy Pineapple than in Hold ‘Em because of the perceived chances attached to the third card, however, it’s wise to exercise the same caution as you would in a Hold ‘Em game as your opponents are working to the same advantage. In short, Crazy Pineapple is a fun take on Hold ‘Em with a complex twist that can be underestimated. That third card does make a difference!
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For more information on learning to play some of poker’s most popular variants, check out our articles below.