Pineapple OFC and Fantasyland

This article covers the deal, the discard, and Fantasyland as regular Pineapple scores them. Progressive, Ultimate, 2-7, and jokers change the bonus math — see the formats guide.

The Pineapple deal

Each player builds the same three rows from the OFC rules primer: a 3-card top, a 5-card middle, and a 5-card bottom. Pineapple changes how the cards arrive.

1. Opening set. Five cards. Place all five. No discard. This is the most expensive street — five placements and no new information after you commit.
2. Streets two, three, and four. Three cards each. Place two, discard one. The discarded card is gone for everyone.

When the fourth street is placed you have thirteen cards on the board and two in the muck. Score against each opponent: row points, scoop bonus, royalties, then Fantasyland value if someone qualified. See royalties and scoring for OFC Lab’s point tables.

Button order matters. The player who acts first places before the other answers. After-opponent opening libraries exist because seeing an opponent’s five before you set your own is a different puzzle than acting blind.

Why the discard matters

Pineapple gives you three cards on a street and asks you to throw one away. That discard does three jobs:

• Foul control. Refuse a card that would lock a middle stronger than your bottom.
• Row selection. The same packet might complete a bottom flush, pair the top, or brick. Pick the two seats that keep the most future equity.
• Denial. Sometimes throw a card the opponent would love, even if your own board is indifferent.

Solvers spend most of their time on these packets. An opening set that looks obvious can still be a 0.3-point error because it leaves an awkward discard on street three. That is why OFC Lab’s Trainer reports street-by-street EV and a discard table, not just a final board.

Fantasyland in regular Pineapple

Fantasyland is a bonus deal on the next hand if your current board qualifies and does not foul. In regular Pineapple OFC, as OFC Lab implements it:

• Qualification is QQ or better on top — queens, kings, aces, or any trips — on a legal board.
• Every qualifier is dealt a flat 14 cards. Stronger tops do not add cards. That is the difference between Pineapple and Progressive.
• You place all thirteen seats at once and discard one leftover card.
• Opponents who did not qualify play a normal Pineapple hand against your already-set board. The solver arranges the 14 cards for royalties, row safety, and the chance to stay.

You cannot Fantasyland on a fouled board. A QQ top with a middle that beats the bottom is just a foul.

Staying in Fantasyland

Regular Pineapple lets you re-qualify (stay) from inside Fantasyland. OFC Lab’s stay rule for this format is:

• Trips on top, or
• Quads or better on the bottom

QQ, KK, or AA on top gets you into Fantasyland. It does not, by itself, keep you there. Fantasyland arrangements often put trips on top that would have been a huge middle — the stay is worth more than the middle royalty on many stacks.

OFC Lab’s Fantasyland analysis reports stay / leave expected values, not just the raw royalty of the current board. Stack depth matters: a stay chain cannot collect more than the opponent can pay. Regular Pineapple does not cap the number of stays in the engine’s default table rules (unlike Ultimate, which defaults to three).

What Fantasyland is worth

Fantasyland is not a fixed jackpot. The value of a 14-card deal depends on:

• The royalty table (top pairs still pay; a clean 14-card pack makes a lot of them).
• How often the arrangement scoops a typical normal-play board.
• How often it stays, and what the next Fantasyland is worth after that stay.
• Effective stack. A 20-point stack clips both the scoop and the stay chain.

The opening Library and the Trainer treat Fantasyland as continuation value. Stretching a fragile top pair of queens can be correct when the stack is deep and the rest of the board is safe. It is often wrong when the middle is empty and a king on top would also foul.

Heads-up versus three-way

Pineapple is commonly dealt heads-up or three-way. Multiway changes two things:

• You get paid (or pay) once per opponent. A scoop against one player and a lost royalty against the other can still be a winning hand.
• Fantasyland against two opponents is a larger swing. Qualification frequency and foul risk both matter more.

OFC Lab’s multiway Trainer grades heads-up and three-way lines with opponent policies. The opening Library is heads-up: blind sets, plus selected “after opponent” spots where a known enemy set changes the best placement.

Related formats

Progressive Pineapple still enters on QQ+, but KK deals 15 cards, AA deals 16, and trips deal 17. Stays typically return you to a 14-card deal.

Ultimate Progressive uses the same card-count ladder but keeps your count when you stay, with a default cap of three re-entries.

2-7 Pineapple ranks the middle as a deuce-to-seven low. Fantasyland is KK+ on top, or a 7-5-4-3-2 wheel in the middle.

Ultimate + Progressive + Jokers is the 54-card game: two wild jokers, Ultimate-style stays, Progressive counts, high middle.

All five are in OFC Lab. Regular Pineapple, Progressive, and Ultimate Progressive stay on the Pro plan after the trial. 2-7 and the joker format are High Roller.

A practical way to learn Pineapple

1. Play until you can set five cards without fouling in your head.
2. On each 3-card street, name the discard before you place. If you cannot say why that card is worst, you do not have a line yet.
3. Track how often you enter Fantasyland versus how often you aimed at it.
4. Take the same spots into the Trainer. Compare your placement and discard to the engine’s EV, then browse the opening Library for five-card sets you keep misplaying.

Practice mode and library browsing do not consume trial solves. A completed Trainer line, Fantasyland analysis, or Taiwanese rollout does. Details are on pricing and in the study guide.