Badugi Poker: What Is It And How Do You Play It
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.
The Workings of Badugi
The game commences with a four-card face-down deal to each player. The first betting round ensues. The first player to place a bet is the one just before the large blind. A player is allowed to call, fold, or raise to the house limit. The players who did not fold are now able to draw from no cards at all up to four. These cards remain in their hands and are not played. Because of this rule, a player must pay strict attention to his discards and revalue his odds. In some games, the rounds are referred to as the time of day, much like streets in Texas Hold’em.
Do not discount the fact the hands that win in Badugi, will get you nowhere in traditional poker. It is essential that you master the composition of hand rankings in Badugi. Do not play without a thorough knowledge of this. In this game dual suits and duplicate cards are of no use, only discrete suits and values are of any worth to your hand. As a matter of fact, the name Badugi is in reference to a hand comprised of distinct suited cards. At the end of the game, while everyone is comparing hands, the first item to look for is the active card count followed by the lower value of the highest card keeping in mind that aces are low. Ergo, the best of the best Badugi hands will consist of ace, two, three, and four, all unsuited. The worst of the worst would be four kings.
Winning Badugi Strategy
The three drawing rounds in Badugi make it somewhat similar to 2-7 triple draw poker, of course the hand rankings set it apart as duplicate cards, whether two, three or four count for nothing. In all of the poker games, a player’s position at the table is very important. In Badugi, however, it is critical. When a player is able to observe his opponents’ draws from the catbird seat, he can determine the value of his hand relative to theirs. If an opponent draws many cards, the indication is that his hand is weak, the opposite for very few draws.
Let us assume that you have a Badugi, i.e. a hand of four cards, and want to set about determining the odds that your drawing opponent will make his own Badugi. Every time a player swaps a card, it means he must hit the suit not present in his existing hand. The odds are 10 to 52 that he will do this because he can’t match even one of the three values in his hand. Add to this that he might draw a lower high value and the odds are even greater.
Now suppose you hold a four-card ten high hand, another players chances of hitting on a lower, distinct value are 6 in 52 because any cards higher than ten in the right suit cannot best your hand.
As the first betting round is starting up, a player has little better than a 50% chance of drawing to a unique four-card hand over each round, and little better than a 20% chance in each round.
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