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The Insider's Guide to Badugi
Background
In the highest stakes games found in Las Vegas casinos, and in home games all around the world, it’s rare for only No Limit Hold’em to be played. Players are always looking for something new to keep the action alive – a new game that can’t be played by rote, in which the player who is fastest to adjust and develop a strategy from scratch will do best.
One of the most recent variations to hit the poker scene in a big way is Badugi. Badugi is really the name of a hand-ranking system of Korean origin, which is different to the one usually used in poker, and it can be applied to most poker games. A Badugi differs from a traditional poker hand in the following ways:
- A Badugi consists of four cards instead of five.
- A Badugi is a low hand, with the ace being the lowest card (i.e. 4-3-2-A is the best hand).
- Each card must be a different rank and a different suit to count towards the hand. Straights are ignored.
Any Badugi beats any three-card hand. If a player cannot make a three-card hand, they play their best two cards instead. As before, any three-card hand beats any two-card hand, and any two-card hand beats any one-card hand.
Most games can be played with the Badugi hand rankings (see ‘Variants’, below), but by far the most common version is Triple Draw. Triple Draw Badugi will make its major series debut in WCOOP this year, and will be played fixed limit, with two blinds and no antes (for reasons that should become obvious, Triple Draw Badugi makes for a short-lived pot limit or no limit game). The lower limit is used before and after the first draw, and the higher limit is used after the second and third draws. The game is typically played eight-handed, both live and online.
Starting Hands
Many people will tell you that Badugi is a high-variance game, because there are three draws and a lot of action. In fact, it’s very difficult to make a Badugi. Think about it. Your opponent has 8h 7c 6d 5s. You are drawing one to a 3h 2s Ac. How many outs do you have?
In actual fact, you have just four outs – the 8d, 7d, 5d and 4d. The other 41 cards in the deck will lose for you, making you a 41 to 4 underdog (10.25 to 1). Similarly, when two drawing hands do battle, the best is often an enormous favourite. For example, with one draw remaining, a 3-2-A can be over an 82% favourite against a 4-2-A. To win, the 4-2-A needs to improve to a Badugi (not easy in itself), and then hope that the 3-2-A doesn’t improve to a better one.
That high-variance comment certainly doesn’t apply to the best hand, does it? Unlike in a game like Omaha, it’s actually very difficult for the worst hand to catch up.
But you certainly shouldn’t just wait around for a pat Badugi. What can make Badugi high variance is the fact that in an aggressive game, raising before the first draw will often make the pot quite large. That, in combination with the likelihood that your opponents will be bluffing, the chance that your drawing hand is already winning, plus the chance of a big payoff should you hit the best hand, means that often you’ll correctly be betting or calling bets with a draw.
Obviously, getting involved in big pots with the worst hand is not something you want to happen often. Because the best hand is often such a huge favourite, you should try your hardest to be the person with that hand, and not the person doing the chasing.
So what should you enter the pot with? Obviously, a pat Badugi is a strong hand, and any pat Badugi is usually worth playing aggressively. However, how you play a pat Badugi is very dependent on the action - in early position you might back off with a very rough hand such as a K-Q-J-9, and see what develops. A rough Badugi is a much more marginal hand in a multi-way pot, particularly if a player in early position has already entered for a raise and been called or reraised. In such a situation, you might even fold your hand immediately, because the chances that you are already behind, combined with the chances that one of your opponents will draw out, makes for an unattractive proposition.
With a weak pat Badugi, you should try to get the pot heads-up, in order to maximise your chances of winning the pot. If you can’t accomplish that, then you’re better off keeping the pot small. This reduces the pot odds your opponents receive to draw out on you, and makes it easier to make a correct fold yourself when you feel you’re beat.
Conversely, with a strong Badugi or a strong draw, you welcome large pots and multiple opponents, and you should play accordingly. Raising to make the pot large accomplishes two goals – it extracts value from opponents who are losing, encourages them to chase you when you might be a big favourite, and makes your decisions on future streets easier (you’ll usually be getting good odds to at least call).
Avoid sucker draws like 8-7-2-x or 9-4-3-x. When you don’t make a Badugi, these hands will have no hope of standing up on their own. When you do make a Badugi, you might lose a huge pot to a smoother hand. There is really not much upside to these draws.
Drawing
As with 2-7 Triple Draw, if you drew fewer cards than your opponent did, you should usually come out betting after the draw, whether you improved or not. If you and your opponent drew the same number of cards, but you had the betting lead before the draw, you should also usually keep betting. If you were ahead before the draw, you’re very likely to still be ahead – even more likely than in 2-7.
Normally, if you make a Badugi while drawing you should subsequently stand pat, unless you have strong reason to believe you’re still behind. With one draw remaining, a Badugi is typically a 75% favourite or more against a single opposing draw.
After The Draws
Because it’s so difficult to make a Badugi, a common weakness of beginning players is that they fold too readily when they miss after the third draw. Therefore, your bluffs may be more successful than usual, particularly if you represented a Badugi by ‘snowing’ (standing pat with an incomplete or trash hand) on the last draw.
How you react to a bet yourself is very opponent-dependent. Some players simply don’t bet after the last draw without a Badugi, and you can take advantage of that by folding unless you have a Badugi yourself. However, if your opponent is aggressive, and particularly if they were still drawing on the third draw, your calling range should be much wider, including all Badugis and stronger three-card hands. A-2-3-x can be an excellent bluff-catcher and should usually be played as such.
Dealing Tips
Badugi is dealt just like Triple Draw, except that each player gets four cards instead of five. Remember to burn a card before each draw, and that each player should declare how many cards they want to draw before you deal any replacements. Also remember that if you deal a face-up wheel card (A, 2, 3 or 4) to a player, they must keep it, and if you deal any other card face-up it must be exchanged.
If you run out of cards, you’ll need to reshuffle the deck. Exactly which method you use doesn’t really matter as long as you are consistent (see previous issues of InsidePoker for some ideas).
Variants
Because the Badugi hand ranking system can be applied to most games, there are many possible variants. Single Draw Badugi, Stud Badugi, and community card games with half the pot going to the best Badugi are novel additions to a home game.
One of the most popular variants is Badeuci, which is played as Triple Draw, except half the pot goes to the best Badugi, and half goes to the best 2-7 Lowball hand (if there is no Badugi, the 2-7 hand scoops the pot). Strategy is to usually draw to the 2-7 hand and hope to make a good Badugi along the way. Give it a try!
Lastly, if you’re a British player, you should be aware of the variation Padooki. This game ranks incomplete hands differently to Badugi – it’s better to have two suited cards than a pair, for example. Always ask if you’re unsure what rules are being used in your game.
