Rules for Playing Badugi Poker

 

The underlying structure of a badugi game is just like traditional draw poker, but the goal is very different. We’ll cover hand rankings in greater detail in a moment, but for now you should know that each player wants to get the lowest cards possible without having any cards of equal rank, or any cards from the same suit. A hand with four cards of different ranks and suits is known as a “badugi”.

For this explanation, we will assume that you are playing at a $2/$4 fixed-limit table. badugi, just like most poker games, requires that a dealer button is used to mark the dealer position. After each hand, this position moves clockwise around the table, which is important for rotating player position. To start the hand, the player to the left of the dealer position must pay the small blind, which in this case would be $1. The player to the left of the small blind must post the big blind ($2). Once these blinds have posted, the dealer proceeds to deal four cards, faced down, to each player at the table.

The players can look at their own four-card hand, but no one else’s. Once all cards have been dealt the first round of betting, known as the pre-draw round, can begin. This betting round is started by the player to the left of the big blind who can choose to call the big blind (bet $2), raise (bet $4), or fold his hand. Play continues clockwise around the table until each player has bet as much as every other player, or folded. In these fixed limit games there can be no more than three raises per round.

After the first round of betting has come to a close, the first draw begins. Starting with the first player to left of the dealer position, each player can choose to discard any number of cards and receive the same number of replacement cards. After this there is another round of betting with the same limits, and the pattern continues. In total, there are three draws, and four betting rounds. The first two rounds of betting utilize the low limit ($2), while the second two rounds upgrade to the high limit ($4). If at any point only one player remains in the game, then that player wins the pot.바둑이사이트

After the fourth betting round comes to a close, all remaining players must discard any cards necessary to ensure that they have no cards of duplicate rank or suit. The remaining cards constitute the players hand, which must be revealed at this point in the showdown. The player with the best hand wins the entire pot, but if two or more players have equal hands, then they split the pot equally.