The new Badugi Poker

Posted by Nick Niesen on October 26th, 2010

Badugi is a poker variant that has grown increasingly popular during the last few years. It originates from Asia, but has not spread to the rest of the world until recently. It is today played online as well as offline by poker enthusiasts all over the world. Learning Badugi is very easy if you already master other poker games, such as Hold?em Poker.

Badugi is a four card game with three draws. The players with the lowest hand will win the pot. Unlike other poke variants, getting one pair, two pairs, three of a kind or four of a kind is undesirable in Badugi. Getting two or more cards from the same suit is also bad. The best hand is therefore containing cards from four different suits, and no cards should have the same rank. Such a hand where all the cards are of different suit and rank is called a Badugi!

When playing Badugi, you will be dealt four cards. The first card will be dealt to the player on the small blind, and the dealing will then proceed clockwise. Only one card is dealt to each player at a time. The betting will depend on which type of Badugi you are playing. There exist three different variants: Limit Badugi, Pot Limit Badugi and Half Pot Limit Badugi.

In Limit Badugi, all the bets are made in incremental units. During the first and second round, each player is allowed to bet the lower level bet. If you for instance play $4 / $8 Badugi, you will be allowed to bet $4 during the first and second round. During the third and fourth round, you can be the higher level, i.e. $8. Just as in the other Limit Poker variants, betting will be capped at four bets per round in Limit Badugi.

In Pot Limit Badugi, bets are not made in incremental units. You can instead raise your bet any amount as long as you bet no lower than the minimum bet and no higher than the amount of money currently found in the pot. The minimum bet is determined by the big blind. Let?s say that the small blind is $4 and the big blind $8. One caller has already bet $8. The next player can then choose to bet as low as $8. The total value of the current pot is $4 +$8 + $8. The player can therefore also choose to bet $4 +$8 + $8 + $8, since the maximum bet is based on the current pot on top of the initial call. The maximum bet in this situation is therefore $28.

Half Pot Limit Badugi is very similar to Pot Limit Badugi, but a player is only allowed to raise the value of half the current pot. Let?s say the pot contains $2 + $4 + $4. Half of $2 + $4 + $4+ $4 is $7. The next player can therefore raise $7+ $4 = $11. The lowest allowed bet is determined by the big blind, just as in Pot Limit Badugi.