First off, what is Badugi?, you may ask. It's a card game that's beginning to make it's appearance on the poker scene. While it won't be an event at the WSOP any time soon, this lowball draw poker game is being dealt live at Treasue Island in Vegas, and online at Doyle's Room.

Try Badugi at Doyle's Room - Free Tables Available along with real money play
This game is a mix of draw poker, texas holdem, and a little dash of something else.

First off . . .

Betting Forms in Badugi

The betting comes in several different forms. You can find Badugi games using fixed limit betting, pot limit betting, and also an unusual form of betting, half-pot limit.

In pot limit you can raise the size of the pot, and in half-pot limit, you can raise half the size of the pot, which makes sense. When computing the size of the pot, include the cost of a call. So if the hand is small blind ($1), big blind ($2) and one caller ($2), to compute the size of the raise you are allowed to make, add in your call also (another $2 - for a total of $7 in the pot). So in a pot limit game, you can first call $2, then raise $7.

Four Card Poker

In Badugi, you get four cards to play. It is a lowball game, so lower cards are better than higher cards. Aces count as low in this game.

Also, pairs and similar suits will counterfeit cards in your hand. So, if you have two hearts, you can only play one. If you have a pair of something, you can only play one of those cards. In order to have four cards to play at the showdown, you need to have one card of each suit, with no pairs.

Hand Rankings in Badugi

Because this is a lowball game, the lowest hand wins. Also, because suits and pairs can remove cards from play, the first way hands are ranked is by the number of cards you can play. A four card hand beats a three card hand which beats a two card hand. In this game, four Aces is a one card hand, and it's horrible.

A four card hand is called a Badugi. A,2,3,4 of different suits is the best possible hand. Ties are broken as they would be other lowball games. You compare highest cards first, then next highest, etc. The easy way to do this is turn the ranks of the cards into a four digit number, using the highest cards first.

For example, A,2,4,8 would read 8,421. The hand of 2,3,4,5 would read 5,432. 5,432 is less than 8,421 and would win at a showdown.

In a nutshell, the hand rankings are . . .

• a Badugi (four card hand) - use tie breaker rules when necessary
• three card hand
• two card hand
• one card hand

Gameplay

Even though it's draw poker, blinds are used instead of antes. So, as in holdem, the players to the left of the dealer each post a blind. The first posts a small blind, and the other a big blind.

Action begins with betting round number one, and it starts with the player to the left of the big blind, just like holdem. Players call raise or fold until all are equally invested in the pot.

After the betting round, is a round of drawing. This begins with the player to the left of the dealer, and discarded cards are replaced immediately. Players can discard all four cards if the wish.

The game alternates between rounds of betting, and rounds of drawing. There are three draws in total, and four rounds of betting before the showdown takes place.

Last updated on June 21st, 2006.