A Guide to Playing Badugi Poker
As a unique draw game variant, badugi is new to many players with unusual betting structure and game play. The four card game includes three drawing rounds where players bet and attempt to build the best Badugi hand into showdown. The game is popular in Asia and is becoming increasingly common in North American card rooms as well. Most commonly, the game is played with a fixed limit betting structure and there are two blinds, with a similar basic structure to most poker games. Additionally, some games are played with pot or no limit, especially in tournaments.
How Badugi Poker Works
The game begins when each player is dealt four cards face down, followed by an initial round of betting starting with the player just before the large blind. Players are able to call, fold or raise depending on the limit structure. For all players remaining in the game after the initial betting round, players are able to draw between zero and four of their remaining cards, which are not used again – therefore, players should pay close attention to the types of cards they discard to update their pot odds. Often times, each round of betting are referred to a time of day, just like streets are used to describe hands in Texas Hold’em.
Importantly, the winning hands are unique from traditional poker, and a full explanation of ranking hands is essential for those looking to learn the game. In the game, only unique values and suits count, so any duplicates (pairs or dual suits) do not count toward a player’s hand – in fact, a badugi refers to a hand which consists of distinct suited cards. When comparing hands, the first factor is the number of active cards and then the lower value of the highest card (aces are low.) Therefore, the best possible hand is Ace, Two, Three, Four (unsuited) and the worst possible hand is four kings.
Optimal Badugi Game Strategy
With three drawing rounds, Badugi is similar to 2-7 Triple Draw Poker although the hand rankings are unique by virtue of its duplication factor. With Badugi, position plays a crucial role in analyzing your strength relative to your opponents – if an opponent draws many cards, you can consider him or her relatively weak while a strong opponent will draw few (or no) cards in a given round.
Suppose you have a badugi (complete hand of four cards) and want to analyze the odds of a drawing player hitting their own complete hand. When a player trades in one card, he must hit the remaining suit not covered in his or her hand – these odds are 10 in 52 since the player also cannot match any of the three values in their current hand. Additionally, you should factor in the odds of the player drawing a lower high value.
For example if you hold a four-card ten high hand, then the player only has a 6 in 52 chance of hitting a lower, unique value (since any cards above ten in the right suit won’t beat your hand.) When heading into the first betting round, a player has just above a 50% probability of drawing to a unique four card hand across each round, with just over a 20% probability in each round.
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