Badugi poker is a new craze on the internet. It originated in Korea and is now increasingly becoming popular in the US and Europe. If you play online poker, then you have probably heard of this game by now. It is fairly easy to learn, you just need to understand the basic rules and card rankings.
Badugi poker is essentially a four-card game in which the WORST hand wins. Thus, your objective is to make the worst hand possible. If you consider yourself to be unlucky anyway, then this might just be the perfect game for you!
The game starts out with each player being dealt four cards in a clockwise direction. The player on the small blind is usually the first to receive his or her card. Once everyone has four cards, the player left of the big blind will begin the first round of betting. The amounts depend on which variation of the game is being played: half pot limit, pot limit, or limit.
Obviously, Badugi poker is played similarly as other poker games, in that each player must raise, check, fold, or call. During the first round, players can choose which cards they want to keep and which ones they want to replace through drawing. Choosing to draw no cards is referred to as “standing pat.” During the second round, the low stakes are used as the betting increment, and in the third round, the high stake is used.
The “best” winning hand is rainbow A234, which is referred to as “the nuts.” If you can, try to make a hand that includes one card from every suit. When ranking a hand in this game, you need to tray ranking backwards, with each card being from one suit. For example, a winning hand would be Ah, 2s, 3c, 4d, and the next best hand would be Ah, 2s, 3c, 5d. This is known as the “Badugi’s.”
A hand that contains two cards of equal value OR from the same suit is called a 3-card hand. If no one else has Badugi, then a 3-card hand can be enough to win with. 2-card and 1-card hands hardly ever win. You can still play them, but don’t bet all your money on them. Examples include AA44 (2-card) and AAAA (1-card).
It is also important to know how to rank your hand. In Badugi Poker, hands are ranked backwards. For example, out of A238 and 2346¸the latter will win. This is so because the rankings are counted backwards, and 6 is lower than 8. Hopefully, you will find the rankings to be easy to understand. If not, here is a guide for you to go by:
Top 5 Badugi Hands
1. A234
2. A235
3. A245
4. A345
5. 2345
Just follow the pattern to get an idea of the rest of the rankings! In addition, remember: try getting one of the aforementioned rankings with one card from each suit. Badugi poker is a bit different than other games, but it is very fun and not all that hard at all to learn. The game is also fairly short, as it only lasts 3 rounds.
