Pineapple OFC: a good card can go in the wrong row
A third queen arrives. Your top row already has two queens, so the temptation is obvious. Add it and collect a larger royalty. There is a catch: the middle must now beat three queens, and the bottom must beat the middle. A handsome top row can leave the rest of the board with nowhere to go.
Pineapple Open-Face Chinese Poker makes you live with earlier decisions. Mira and the HPD spade will work through one complete deal, including a discarded queen, then test the difference between entering Fantasyland and staying there. The cards and calculations are real HTML; the illustrations set the scene.
The profile on this page
The main lesson uses SwC Poker’s published standard Pineapple OFC rules, checked on 18 October 2026. It uses a regular 52-card deck, high-hand rankings in all three rows and ordinary 14-card Fantasyland. The practice points have no cash value. There are no fees or stake-cap effects in the worked arithmetic.
Other operators can use different Fantasyland rules. The comparison near the end names Phenom explicitly; it does not change the SwC profile in the trainer. Progressive, 2-7-middle and joker games need their own settings. Pineapple Hold’em, which uses community cards and betting streets, is a different game.
Thirteen spaces, filled in five decisions
| Row | Capacity | Job |
|---|---|---|
| Top, also called front | 3 cards | The weakest row. High card, one pair or three of a kind only |
| Middle | 5 cards | A normal five-card high hand, stronger than the top |
| Bottom, also called back | 5 cards | A normal five-card high hand, stronger than the middle |
A top row of A♠ K♠ Q♠ is ace-high. Its matching suits and consecutive ranks do not make a flush or a straight. A middle pair of deuces beats that top row because a pair beats high card. In the five-card rows, an ordinary flush beats a straight, and a full house beats a flush.
SwC describes two- or three-player Pineapple. Place all five opening cards. Then, on each of four later turns, receive three cards, place two and discard one. Confirmed placements become visible and cannot move. You may split the two kept cards between rows or put both into the same row if it has room.
| Decision | Cards received | Cards added | Board size after confirmation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opening | 5 | 5; no discard | 5 |
| Packet 1 | 3 | 2; discard 1 | 7 |
| Packet 2 | 3 | 2; discard 1 | 9 |
| Packet 3 | 3 | 2; discard 1 | 11 |
| Packet 4 | 3 | 2; discard 1 | 13 |
The arithmetic is useful when the table feels fast. You see seventeen cards during an ordinary hand, keep thirteen and discard four. Three ordinary players therefore need fifty-one dealt cards. That count describes this deal structure; it is not a license to improvise the procedure for a different player count or a Fantasyland table.
There is no bet, raise or fold decision in this Chinese Poker profile. You are allocating cards and later comparing points. A small-looking point value can still multiply across rows, royalties and opponents, so decide your play limit before sitting down.
Play a full hand, with no take-backs
Choose a destination for each card, then press Confirm placement. The opening five all need a row. Later packets need exactly one discard. The lab rejects overfilled rows, but it lets you finish a bad strategic choice so you can see the foul. It checks legality and points, not optimal play.
The walkthrough is one deliberately constructed deal. Use Fill walkthrough choices if you want a guided pass. For a shorter exercise, load the final street or the trips trap. Those buttons begin a new exercise. Reset hand returns to the opening five; it is a practice reset, not a move available in a real confirmed hand.
The locked-row placement lab
SwC standard Pineapple profile. A fixed ordinary deal; no money, random deal or live-table advice.
| Row | Locked cards | Open spaces |
|---|---|---|
| Top | Empty | 3 |
| Middle | Empty | 5 |
| Bottom | Empty | 5 |
Your discarded cards: None
If the controls stay unavailable, use the hand diary below. It contains every card, placement and result.
Confirmed decisions
Hand diary: build support for the queens
Cover the later rows of this diary if you want to make each decision without seeing the future. The trainer uses the same packets. Seeing the eventual runout here helps explain the outcome, but it does not prove these opening placements have the highest expected value.
| Deal | Place | Discard |
|---|---|---|
| Q♠ Q♥ A♠ K♠ 7♦ | Top: Q♠ Q♥; middle: 7♦; bottom: A♠ K♠ | None |
| 7♣ J♠ 2♦ | Middle: 7♣; bottom: J♠ | 2♦ |
| 9♣ 9♦ Q♣ | Middle: 9♣ 9♦ | Q♣ |
| 10♠ 8♠ 4♥ | Bottom: 10♠ 8♠ | 4♥ |
| 5♣ 2♣ A♥ | Top: 5♣; middle: 2♣ | A♥ |
The opening leaves two unfinished promises
Two queens on top are already a Fantasyland candidate. They are also a demand on the middle. One pair of sevens in the middle would be too weak, even if the bottom became a beautiful flush. The A♠ K♠ start gives the bottom a direction, but two suited cards are still only two cards. Neither row has earned its future strength yet.
Packet 1 adds a seventh-rank partner to the middle and a third spade to the bottom. The board now has a clear weakness: the middle pair remains below the top pair. The next useful question is how the middle can improve, not how many points the top might eventually earn.
Why the third queen goes away in this route
Packet 2 offers 9♣ 9♦ Q♣. Keeping both nines makes the middle two pair. That hand category outranks the top pair of queens even though each middle pair has a lower rank. It also leaves one middle slot open for the final filler.
Taking Q♣ on top instead creates three queens. With the earlier seven pair and one nine in the middle, you would then need a much stronger middle finish. A full house could rescue it, but the cards are not promised. This fixed runout does not provide that rescue. Discarding a queen here illustrates the cost of raising the top row’s strength; it is not a rule to discard every third queen.
The final packet is a space problem
After Packet 3, the bottom is complete: A♠ K♠ J♠ 10♠ 8♠. Only one top slot and one middle slot remain. Packet 4 contains 5♣ 2♣ A♥. Any legal allocation must fill those two spaces and discard the other card. You cannot put the ace into the completed bottom, even if you would now prefer a different bottom hand.
The walkthrough places the five on top and the deuce in the middle. You could instead use the ace as a kicker in either available row while keeping the same row categories. Against this particular opponent the pair and two-pair comparisons are already decided by higher-priority ranks, so changing those kickers does not change the result. Against a different opponent, a kicker may matter.
| Finished row | Cards | Evaluation |
|---|---|---|
| Top | Q♠ Q♥ 5♣ | Pair of queens |
| Middle | 7♦ 7♣ 9♣ 9♦ 2♣ | Two pair, nines and sevens |
| Bottom | A♠ K♠ J♠ 10♠ 8♠ | Ace-high flush |
The order is legal: pair, two pair, flush. Top queens qualify for the next Fantasyland hand in the SwC profile. The discarded cards are 2♦ Q♣ 4♥ A♥. None can be moved back into play by a later placement.
The trips trap has no last-street repair
Load trips trap to revisit the alternative where Q♣ went on top and 9♦ was discarded. Eleven cards are locked. Top is Q♠ Q♥ Q♣. Middle is 7♦ 7♣ 9♣. Bottom is the completed spade flush. The same final packet, 5♣ 2♣ A♥, cannot turn that middle into a hand that beats three queens.
Both kept cards must enter the middle because the other rows are full. Every permitted discard leaves the middle as one pair of sevens. The board fouls. A big top royalty does not make the arrangement legal, and top trips do not grant Fantasyland when the board fouls. The useful mistake to review happened two packets earlier.
Count what is available, not what you hope to catch
An open row is a limited resource. Before confirming a packet, say the remaining row capacities out loud. Two top spaces and no middle spaces is a different problem from one space in each, even when the visible card ranks look similar.
- Track your own discards. A card you threw away is not a future rescue card.
- Inspect opponents’ visible cards before counting a needed rank or suit as unseen.
- Keep private unknown cards separate from public information. You do not know an opponent’s hidden discard merely because it would help your calculation.
- Check both strength gaps. Improving the middle can fix top-versus-middle and simultaneously break middle-versus-bottom.
For example, a middle flush is stronger than top queens. If your bottom finishes as only a straight, that improvement still produces a foul. Compare complete poker hands in order, including kickers within the same category. Counting made combinations without comparing them is not enough.
Points start with one opponent
A legal board is only the first check. Compare top against top, middle against middle and bottom against bottom. In the SwC Pineapple schedule a won row pays one point, a lost row costs one, and winning all three adds a three-point scoop bonus. A tie is neither a won nor a lost row. Thus a two-to-one row result is +1 before royalties; a clean three-row win is +6.
Do not import the closed-Chinese one-point majority bonus into this page. Pineapple’s three-point scoop requires all three row wins. Against two opponents, perform two separate comparisons; there is no single three-player winner-takes-all board award.
| Row | Your walkthrough board | Printed opponent | Your row result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top | Q♠ Q♥ 5♣ | J♦ J♥ 6♣ | +1: queens beat jacks |
| Middle | 7♦ 7♣ 9♣ 9♦ 2♣ | K♣ K♦ 8♥ 8♦ 3♣ | −1: kings-up beats nines-up |
| Bottom | A♠ K♠ J♠ 10♠ 8♠ | 10♣ 10♥ 10♦ 6♥ 6♦ | −1: a full house beats a flush |
The opponent is legal too: pair of jacks, kings and eights, then tens full of sixes. Your row subtotal is −1. Nobody scoops this comparison. Notice that reaching Fantasyland does not mean you won the current hand.
The royalty schedule used here
Royalties add a second ledger to the row result. For legal boards in these exercises, count each player’s qualifying row awards and take the difference. Do not treat the printed table as a cash payout, add several categories within one row, or carry the closed-Chinese royalty schedule over to Pineapple.
| Five-card hand | Middle royalty | Bottom royalty |
|---|---|---|
| Three of a kind | 2 | 0 |
| Straight | 4 | 2 |
| Flush | 8 | 4 |
| Full house | 12 | 6 |
| Four of a kind | 20 | 10 |
| Straight flush, below royal | 30 | 15 |
| Royal flush | 50 | 25 |
| Top pair | Points | Top trips | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 66 | 1 | 222 | 10 |
| 77 | 2 | 333 | 11 |
| 88 | 3 | 444 | 12 |
| 99 | 4 | 555 | 13 |
| TT | 5 | 666 | 14 |
| JJ | 6 | 777 | 15 |
| 7 | 888 | 16 | |
| KK | 8 | 999 | 17 |
| AA | 9 | TTT | 18 |
| Below sixes | 0 | JJJ | 19 |
| High card | 0 | QQQ | 20 |
| KKK | 21 | ||
| AAA | 22 |
Your queens earn 7 and your bottom flush earns 4, for 11 royalties. The opponent’s jacks earn 6 and the bottom full house earns 6, for 12. The final arithmetic is −1 in rows, no scoop, plus 11 minus 12 in royalties: −2 points for you and +2 for the opponent. The trainer recalculates this comparison for your actual completed legal board.
With a third player, keep a ledger for A versus B, A versus C and B versus C. If those separate calculations happen to give A +4 against B, A −2 against C and B +1 against C, the totals are A +2, B −3 and C +1. They sum to zero. These are bookkeeping inputs, not a second invented card deal.
SwC’s public Pineapple page says a foul automatically loses, but it does not spell out a complete numerical foul settlement or both-foul procedure. This lesson therefore stops scoring a fouled board. It also leaves actual table-stake caps and fee treatment outside the calculator. Confirm those details at the table instead of substituting another operator’s penalty.
Fantasyland has an entry test and a repeat test
Under the selected SwC rules, a legal ordinary board with QQ or better on top earns Fantasyland. That includes KK, AA and top trips. The next hand supplies fourteen cards together; set thirteen face-down on the first turn and discard one. Players outside Fantasyland continue the ordinary progressive deal. The button stays for the bonus hand.
Having all fourteen cards available lets you compare complete arrangements before confirming them. It does not suspend row order. You still need a legal top, middle and bottom, and the unused fourteenth card still has to be discarded.
| Starting situation | Legal finished board needs | What happens next in SwC |
|---|---|---|
| Ordinary hand | QQ or better on top | Enter 14-card Fantasyland |
| Already in Fantasyland | Top trips, or middle full house or better, or bottom quads or better | Repeat Fantasyland |
| Already in Fantasyland | Only top QQ, with no repeat condition elsewhere | Return to ordinary dealing |
| Either situation | A fouled board | No Fantasyland qualification |
A board that repeats in one profile and stops in another
Use this fresh thirteen-card example as a finished Fantasyland board. It is separate from the seventeen-card trainer deal. Assume the fourteenth card, A♦, was discarded.
| Row | Cards | Hand |
|---|---|---|
| Top | 2♠ 2♥ 9♣ | Pair of deuces |
| Middle | 3♠ 3♥ 3♦ 4♣ 4♦ | Threes full of fours |
| Bottom | K♠ K♥ K♦ Q♣ Q♦ | Kings full of queens |
The board is legal. The bottom full house beats the middle full house because kings outrank threes; the middle full house beats the top pair. SwC’s repeat rule accepts the middle full house, so a player already in Fantasyland stays there. If this were an ordinary hand instead, the top pair of deuces would not qualify for initial entry.
Phenom’s published repeat rule lists top trips or bottom quads or better. This exact board has neither, so under that profile it does not repeat. That is a concrete rules difference, not a disagreement about the hand rankings. The trainer stays on SwC; do not apply this comparison as a hidden switch.
Read the variant name before borrowing a rule
Standard Pineapple on this page has a high middle and fourteen-card Fantasyland. In a progressive game, a stronger entry hand may change the number of cards received. A 2-7-middle game evaluates the center as lowball and changes its legal-board test. Jokers change the deck. Those are material changes, not decorative table labels.
Write down the exact variant, entry threshold, repeat conditions, royalty table and foul settlement before a session. If one answer is missing, leave it unresolved. A remembered rule from a different app can produce a confidently wrong score.
Finish the session with a useful note
A useful review note is specific: “I put Q♣ on top with only 7♦ 7♣ 9♣ in the middle; the final packet could not supply a full house.” “I got unlucky” hides the placement decision. Equally, a legal finish does not prove that an earlier choice was best. Separate the decision, the cards still unknown at the time and the eventual result.
On your next pass, try the full trainer without the walkthrough button. Check open spaces before every confirmation. Then deliberately load the trips trap and explain why all three possible discards fail. You understand the point when you can identify the locked earlier decision before pressing the final button.
Keep practice separate from a live paid table. Review limits and breaks before real-money play, or return to the HPD tools and rules library for another lesson.