Badugi

Badugi Blinds

Badugi uses blinds like a lot of other games like Hold’em, Omaha and Stud Poker to guarantee some action on the table. The player left of the button posts the small blind and the player left to him posts the big blind.

Badugi Game Structure

Each player gets four cards face down, only known by the player. Then the first round of betting takes place, you can call, raise or fold. After the betting round the players can draw cards. You can replace your cards with new ones in this draw phase to try and improve your hand. If you really dont like your hand you can even discard all four cards. Then a second round of betting takes place, you have the option to bet or fold, or you can check if there is no bet. Another round of drawing and betting takes place, then a final draw and betting round is played. After this there is a showdown if there are two or more players still in the hand.

Purpose of the Game

In the game of Badugi you need to make a four card hand that is as low as possible, and has four different suits and no pairs (a Badugi). The best hand is 4-3-2-A (every card a different suit). Aces are always low in Badugi, and a hand is valued by its highest card, straights are ignored. A player that is holding 9-8-4-3 (nine Badugi) loses to a player with 8-7-3-2 (eight Badugi) both with different suits. If the highest cards in a Badugi are the same, we look at the next cards, for example one player has 7-5-4-2 and another player has 7-4-3-2, then the second player has the better Badugi and wins.

If there is a showdown but there are no players with a Badugi, the player with the best three card or two card hand wins the pot. For example if you are holding 7d-4d-3s-Ah you have two diamonds, therefore the highest one is ignored sou you have a three card hand 4d-3s-Ah, this would lose to a Badugi but would win of 9d-8d-5s-Ah because that is a three card hand of 8d-5s-Ah and therefore the previous hand wins because the 4 is lower then the 8. There are also two card hands like 2s-2d-7c-7d, the pairs cancel each other out so you get 2-7-X-X. If you have 5 cards of the same suit you have a one card hand, for example Kd-Jd-9d-5d, this hand will be resolved to a one card hand of 5-X-X.