Badugi Poker
A fun and easy but relatively new to the American poker game scene is the poker game called Badugi.
Badugi is four card poker, with a triple draw. It is a lowball game.
Typically, six people play Badugi.
There are a number of variations of Badugi, which affect the betting.
Badugi is either played as limit, pot limit or half limit.
We’ll take these one by one.
Playing Badugi Poker
In limit Badugi, bets may be raised as determined by a specific or incremental unit per round.
In pot limit Badugi, bets can be anything from the minimum, equal to the big blind, to the maximum equal, or to the pot value as it stands.
In half pot limit Badugi, the bet is limited to half of the current pot.
While betting, players can check, call, bet, raise or fold.
There are three card drawing rounds in a hand of Badugi.
The player either keeps his or her existing hand, or may throw out and draw one to four cards. The aim of winning is to have the lowest Badugi, which is a four card poker hand where no two cards have the same rank or are of the same suit.
If two or more players have Badugis, the one with the lower Badugi wins. If two players hand are tied, they split the pot.
A Badugi Poker hand is as follows:
Similar to Texas Hold-em, there is a small and big blind who starts the pot with half the low, then the big blind, second to the left of the “button” (who would be the dealer).
Cards are then dealt one at a time, down, to each player, clockwise until each player has four cards, followed by a round of betting.
There are then three rounds of draws and betting, where players may “stand pat,” discarding no cards, or draw from one to four cards.
In the first two betting rounds, low stakes are in order, and in the third and fourth, high stakes are in use.
Winning Badugi
To determine a winning hand, remember that this is a low game. High cards are bad. Pairs are even worse. Matching suits are a no-no also. The goal is to discard your high cards and one of your low pair cards until you have four cards that are of one of each suit and no pair (matching rank) That is a Badugi, and the lowest Badugi wins.
Badugi originated in Asia and is becoming popular in the United States and online card rooms.
“Badugis” are also called “Rainbow hands.”
The best “Badugi” is Ace, Deuce, Three, Four of all different suits.
The worst “Badugi” would be King, Queen, Jack, Ten of all different suits, but it’s still a Badugi and could be a winner!
Gaining in popularity, it is suggested you try your hand at Badugi, especially as it becomes more popular in online rooms and in the United States, as it will likely begin to creep more into mixed games as time goes on. Plus, it’s just plain fun and different and a different skill test.