Crazy Pineapple 8/b plays like regular Crazy Pineapple until the end of the hand, when the pot may be split between the high hand and the low hand, if any.
8/B refers to the low hand, and means that, if a low hand exists, it must consist of cards valued at 8 or lower. If a low hand doesn't exist, the high hand wins the entire pot. There is ALWAYS a qualifying high hand.
Qualifying low hands consist of five cards with different numerical values from Ace to 8. If multiple players meet this standard, the player with the lowest high card will win the low hand and split the pot with the high hand (e.g. Ah, 2d, 5c, 6c 7d BEATS Ac, 2c, 6d, 7h, 8d). The best low hand is A, 2, 3, 4, 5 - straights and flushes do not count against a low hand, but a pair will disqualify it. An easy way to think of a low hand score is to look at the two highest cards in that hand. For example, an A, 2, 3, 4, 6 scores a 64, and would therefore beat an A, 2, 3, 5, 6 because it's score would be 65.
The high and low hands consist of five cards from the total of seven available at the showdown (your two pocket cards plus the five community cards), but you don't have to use the same 7 cards for both high & low hands. If your pocket cards are Ad, 7d, and the board is 2d, 3c, 4c, 5d, 6d - you have a low hand of A-5, and a high hand of Ace high flush.
One final point - players do not need to decide if they are playing for a high hand or a low hand, as all hands in the showdown will be evaluated for both and ranked automatically by our software.
The value of potentially sharing the pot between a high hand and a low hand is that there is more action in the game. Some will play for the high, and some for the low. But sometimes you can play for both! As mentioned above, straights and flushes do not count against a low hand. So if you have Ac, 2c, 3c, 4c, 5c, you will share in the low hand pot (it may split between you and other A-5 straights), and your straight flush would certainly put you in good position for the high hand also.
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