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Fantasy Land (Pineapple) Strategy

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  1. #1

    Lightbulb Fantasy Land (Pineapple) Strategy

    Hoping here to create an ongoing thread of FL strategies specific to Pineapple!

    Searching thru the existing "Pineapple Strategy Thread," I found a great snippet buried in post #37 (ONEBYPHI, author) that's about 8 months old. I've resurrected it and cut/pasted below to kick off the discussion, give others a chance to benefit from its wisdom, and see if there might be some updates to its logic. Enjoy and please carry on for all to improve our FL skills...

    ..."here's a quick guide for how to set FL hands for max value. The key ideas are to sort by suit first and then by rank and make the hand with the most potential to win royalties and scoop.

    When playing online here, I find it fastest and easiest to click on the S button as soon as I get my FL cards. This arranges them by suit and allows me to quickly see if I have one or two flushes or--dare I hope?--a straight flush. Flushes are okay if that's the best you can do, and flush-over-flush is decent, but if flushes exist, they are just the fall-back option, the stuff you really want comes below:

    Then I click on the C button to arrange them by rank. I first look to see if I have trips or quads. If I have quads, that's my path back to FL, so I am going to set them and see what I can make from the rest.

    (Longer digression than usual in my posts: every once in a great while it will be advantageous to break quads. I had a hand in live play a few weeks ago in which I had quad aces, but made significantly more bonus by setting
    AAA
    A2345
    K-high flush
    I could have set quads, flush, 3 rags, but that only pays 18 bonus and gives away the top, surrendering any shot at a scoop. But this set paid 30 bonus and had decent scoop potential.)

    If there are no quads but you have three sets of trips, almost always playing the trips up the line will be the best play, since trips on top gets you back to FL. Of course, if you have one or two pairs to go with your trips, you'll want to make as many boats as you can.

    If you have two sets of trips, then see if you also have 2 pairs. If so you have boat-over-boat and are back in the land. If you have only one pair, setting the boat on bottom and your trips in the mid is often the best play, but be sure to see if flushes and/or straights in the mid are possible after the boat cards are gone.

    Since straights have potential to win hands, but never score big royalties, they are fallback sets. If you have to set one on the bottom, it's a sad trip to FL, although if you can make a big pair on top it will feel better.

    The same is true for hands with no flushes, straights, or trips, just some pairs. They suck pretty bad, but the key idea is to get the biggest pair you can on top. For example say you were to pick up:
    22 3 44 66 88 T J Q AA
    with no flush (and obviously, no straight) possible. You can still set
    AAQ
    6644J
    8822T
    Discard 3
    You make 9 bonus, which is better than some hands with a boat and no way to make other royalties.

    Also, say you get a hand like
    2 3 4 6 7 8 99 J QQ K AA
    Some beginners make QQ 99 on the bottom and AA in the mid, but playing up the line--AA bottom, QQ mid, 99 top--is much better because the 99 on top not only earns 4 in royalties, but also makes it much less likely that you will be scooped.


    Okay, that covers the path to finding the most royalties you can make, and usually you'll show the most profit by setting for the most royalties you can earn. But occasionally, and usually when you have a fairly poor hand for royalties, you'll show more of a profit by setting to give yourself a better chance at a scoop, or in the most dire cases, to minimize the chance of getting scooped.

    Let's look at an example of the first type. Say you pick up
    2c 2h 4d 4s 5h 5s 7s 8h Th Jh Qc Kc Ac
    The most royalties you can make is 4 by setting a j-high heart flush on the bottom, but then you will have only a pair of 4s in the mid and AKQ on top.
    Ac Kc Qc
    4s 4d 2c 5s 7s
    Jh Th 8h 5h 2h
    This has almost no scoop potential and is somewhat susceptible to being scooped. Setting
    5s 5h 7s
    4s 4d 2h 2c 8h
    Ac Kc Qc Jh Th
    gives away 2 points in royalties, but it has a much better chance (albeit still not a good chance) at scooping and is much less likely to be scooped.

    The second type happens when you get a truly godawful flushless hand like
    22 3 44 6 7 88 9 JJ Q K
    You could set it
    44K
    88Q97
    JJ226
    Discard 3

    or

    KQ9
    88447
    JJ226
    Discard 3

    It's an interesting choice because the first set wins the top against A-high, 22, and 33, but loses to a lot of 1-pair and weaker 2-pair mids, whereas the second set loses to A-high and small pairs on top, but does a lot better in the mid, where middle 2-pairs have a fighting chance. I think I'd lean toward the second set as being more likely to avoid being scooped, but I'm open to opposing arguments.

    Okay, I hope that helped. Go out and explore Fantasyland, in Pineapple you should be getting there a lot."
  2. #2
    BTW... It's worth reminding the new folks: "Once you're in Fantasy Land, you can (only) remain there by setting a live hand with Quads or better in the back, a full house or better in the middle, or trips up top."
  3. #3
    Here's a nice discussion on the potential value of POFC FL hands: http://www.flopturnriver.com/pokerfo...fc-196855.html
  4. #4
    Some cool examples of setting POFC FL hands: http://www.flopturnriver.com/pokerfo...fl-197090.html
  5. #5
    Good points on getting into POFC FL: http://www.flopturnriver.com/pokerfo...le-196767.html
  6. #6
    A common thing I see people doing in FL is automatically setting two pair mid; I presume this is in keeping with the strategy of setting up a trip into FL. But once you're already in FL (without the benefit of seeing opponent's cards), the objective is making the most bonus points followed by avoiding being scooped. So, in my experience, setting a bonus pair up top (66 or better) dramatically the cuts odds of being scooped and earns money. Setting two-pair mid doesn't guarantee a win and gains no bonus points. Alas, having two pair remaining after setting your back row (assuming with a Flush or Boat), I look to set the highest bonus pair up top and not worry about winning the middle with two pair.
  7. #7
    Eric's Avatar
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    Agreed. I think it is better to have 66+ in front and something weak mid than to not have a pair in front and have 2 pair mid. Here is an extreme example where the bot incorrectly set 2 pair mid instead of QQ in front while he was in fl: http://www.flopturnriver.com/ofc-poker/table.php?21113 hand 13

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