BADUGI – A COMPLETE GUIDE

 

The Complete Guide to An Upside-Down Poker Game:

Badugi Poker One would think that in any card game, especially poker, the highest hand would be the best hand. Right?

Wrong! Welcome to the world of upside-down hands, the world of Badugi Poker. If you are still confused by this, fear not, we are here with a complete guide to Badugi Poker. With all the fun Badugi rules at your disposal.

Badugi poker is a toppy turvy variation of poker that will surely interest you owing to its unique Badugi rules and hand rankings. Even a hand in this game is called a Badugi. Another interesting fact to know about this game, is that the word is considered to have originated from the Korean word ‘Beduke’ which roughly translates to “a black and white pattern”. It is found in online poker rooms and has also featured at the “dealer’s choice” events at the World Series of Poker (WSOP).

Badugi poker belongs to the draw variant of poker in which players may discard cards from their hand and replace their cards with new ones from the deck. This allows for a more dynamic game where the tables can tilt in your favors at any given point!

In general, Badugi poker can also be considered a lowball poker version, similar to 2-7 Triple Draw and the likes, because the ‘worst hand’ or in this case the ‘worst Badugi’ wins. But in reality, the Badugi rules fall into a category of their own since it is played with four pocket cards, unlike the rest. The quirks of this game will leave you itching to try your hand at it as soon as you can.

The main goal? Make the lowest hand possible and that too, all in different suits. The lowest possible Badugi is A-2-3-4 but all in different suits.

So let’s dive right into the Badugi rules and set them straight.

1. Hand Rankings

The first and foremost thing to understand in any poker game is obviously where your hand ranks. Badugi poker is no different. Well, maybe a little. In a hand, the ace counts as a low card only and to win the pot a player needs the lowest four-card hand possible.

If there is no four-card hand the lowest three-card hand wins and the like.

In Badugi poker straights do not exist, four cards in a row would not spoil your hand, but if you have two or more cards belonging to the same suit, the lowest card will be counted. Further, in a pair again, only one card will be counted. Both suited and paired cards make for a bad hand.

Let’s go through some of the high four-card Badugi:

- The “four-high” Badugi is an A,1,2,3 all in different suits, for a Badugi player, this is the hand that dreams are made of.

- Next, we have an Eight high Badugi; 8,7,6,5 with eight as the highest card and of all different suits once again.

- A little less strong than an Eight high that would be a King High Badugi, with the king as the highest card and all other cards from different suits.

Now let us look at what would make up a three-card Badugi.

- Nine of Hearts, 7 of Diamonds, 4 of Spades, 2 of Spades: This is a three-card Badugi since the Four and Deuce are both of Spades, i.e. the same suit. The player can use the lower card of the paired suit, in this case, the deuce to make the three-card hand. Here the hand would be 9 of Hearts, 7 of Diamonds, 2 of Spades to make a Nine high Badugi. Always remember, a four-card Badugi will beat a three-card Badugi, no matter what the ranks.

- Six of cloves, 6 of spades, 3 of diamonds, 3 of hearts: in this case although the suits are all different the player is still left with unique two cards to play. This set of cards could be useful in a normal game, but according to the Badugi rules, they are not much more worthy than that pile of monopoly notes we played with as kids.

2. Blinds

In the case of blinds, the Badugi rules are similar to other flop based games like Texas Holder and Omaha. The blinds make the game engaging at the table. The players to the left of the dealer button are assigned the small and big blinds, and then the order in which the cards are to be dealt is decided accordingly.바둑이사이트

At the point that a player first buys into the game, they have the option of either waiting for the big blind before playing or posting a blind equivalent or the big blind to be dealt to them at that moment itself. This is possible unless and until a player is seated in the small blind position in which case the player will have to wait for the next hand to be able to get in on the action.