Badugi Poker And How It’s Played
- Filed under: Poker
- Date: Aug 15,2010
Badugi is at essence a draw game. Not everyone will have heard of Badugi so are not familiar with its odd betting structure and somewhat esoteric game play. It is a game of four cards with three rounds of draw where bets are placed and players start their quest to form the winning Badugi hand into showdown. Asia is where it is most commonly found and has quite a following there, but it is slowly wending its way west. The game is usually played in a fixed limit betting structure. There are two blinds and game play is fundamental to the majority of poker games. The game can be played also with pot or no limit as is the norm in tournament play.
Badugi Goes Like This:
To start the game, the dealer deals four face-down cards to each player, round one of betting follows starting with the player right ahead of the large blind. One can call, fold or raise up to the house limit. Players who stay with the game post-round one betting can then draw no cards at all or up to four cards. These drawn cards are not played. All players must be very cognizant of their discards and update their odds accordingly. Interestingly, similar to the streets used as terms for rounds in Texas Hold’em, Badugi uses the time of day to describe rounds.
Of special note is that successful hands are valued very differently from your usual poker version. You must be very clear on how hands are ranked, do not play Badugi unless you are. In Badugi, the only cards that count are those with distinct values and suits. So duplicates, or pairs and dual suits are worth nothing in your hand. The very name Badugi refers to the hand comprised of separate and distinct suited cards. As you compare hands, first consider the count of live cards, then the lower value of the highest card, realizing that ace is low. So, the epitome of the winning hand would contain ace, two, three and four, all unsuited. At the very bottom of the scale lies the hand of four kings.
The Utmost Badugi Strategy
Like 2-7 triple draw poker, Badugi has three drawing rounds. Unlike it, and very much so, is the difference that duplicates play in hand ranking. And with all poker forms, position at the table is important, but in Badugi it is critical. It serves as a very important observation point to watch your opponents draws, many cards indicate a weak hand, few a strong one and you can determine your own strength in relation to this.
A badugi is a hand complete with four cards. Imagine that you have a Badugi and desire to calculate the odds of your opponents hand while he draws. If the player swaps one card, he must draw the suit that is not represented in his hand. Odds here are 10 in 52 because the drawing player also does not want a match on any of the three cards in his pre-draw hand. Factor into your calculations also that the poor guy may draw one of the lower high value cards to his great dismay.
Suppose you hold in your hand a four-card ten high. In this case, the player has a 6 in 52 chance of hitting a lower, discrete value as any card higher than ten in the correct suit will not make his hand better than yours.
Before beginning that first betting round, the player has a little more than a 50% chance of drawing to a discrete four-card hand during each round, which adds up to a 20 % chance of doing so in each round.
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