Badugi

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Hand ranking
3. Betting in short
4. Setup
5. Playing a hand
6. Winning the game
7. Tips for beginners
8. Variants

Overview

Badugi is a lowball draw poker game: the lowest hand wins, not the highest. Everyone gets only four cards face down and may exchange cards three times, with a round of betting before the first exchange and after each one. The twist is that only cards of different suits and different ranks count. The perfect hand – four cards of four different suits and four different ranks – is called a badugi; the best of all is A-2-3-4 in four suits. The pot goes to the last player left in or to the best Badugi hand at the end.

• Players: 2–8, each for themselves; 4–6 is ideal.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck without jokers, and chips (or counters, matches, buttons) – the same amount for everyone at the start, e.g. 100 each. You play for chips, not money.

Hand ranking

Cards rank from low to high A 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 J Q K – the Ace is always the lowest card. Straights don't exist in Badugi, and no suit is better than another.

Your hand is made of the cards that count from your four:

• If two cards have the same suit, only one of them counts.
• If two cards have the same rank, only one of them counts.
• Keep as many cards as possible; among equally many, keep the lowest ones.

So you end up with a four-card hand (a badugi), a three-card hand, a two-card hand or a one-card hand.

Comparing hands:

1. More cards always win: any badugi beats any three-card hand, which beats any two-card hand, which beats any one-card hand.
2. With the same number of cards, compare the highest card: the lower one wins. If equal, compare the next highest, and so on.
3. If all cards are equal in rank, the hands tie and share the pot.

Example: 8♥ 7♦ 5♣ 4♠ beats 9♠ 4♣ 3♥ 2♦, because 8 is lower than 9. And K♦ Q♣ J♠ 8♥ (a badugi) beats 3♠ 2♣ A♥ (only three cards).

Betting in short

All chips bet go into the pot in the middle. Each deal begins with two blinds – forced bets: the player to the dealer's left puts in the small blind, the next player to the left the big blind, normally twice as much. With only two players, the dealer puts in the small blind. When it is your turn in a betting round, you can:

• Check – bet nothing, if nobody has bet yet in this round.
• Bet – put in chips.
• Call – put in just enough to match the highest bet so far.
• Raise – match the highest bet and add more.
• Fold – give up: put your cards away face down. You lose what you have already put in.

A betting round ends when everyone still in has put in the same amount. Badugi is usually played with fixed limits. A good start: small blind 1, big blind 2; in the first two betting rounds every bet and raise is 2 chips (the small bet), in the last two 4 chips (the big bet); at most one bet and three raises per round.

Setup

1. Everyone gets the same number of chips. Choose a dealer; the deal passes to the left after every hand.
2. The two players to the dealer's left put in the blinds.
3. The dealer shuffles and deals four cards face down to each player, one at a time clockwise, starting on the left. Look at your cards, but show them to no one. The rest of the deck is the draw pile.

Playing a hand

1. First betting round: it starts with the player left of the big blind. The blinds count as bets, so to stay in you must at least call the big blind. The big blind acts last and may still raise.
2. First draw: starting with the first player still in to the dealer's left, each player may exchange 0 to 4 cards: lay them aside face down, and the dealer deals you the same number of new ones from the draw pile. Keeping all four is called standing pat.
3. Second betting round: it starts with the first player still in to the dealer's left.
4. Second draw, third betting round (now with the big bet), third draw, fourth betting round – always in the same way.
5. Showdown: everyone still in shows their cards, starting with the player who made the last bet or raise; if everyone checked, the first player still in to the dealer's left shows first. The best Badugi hand wins the pot; tied hands share it.

If at any time all but one player fold, the remaining player wins the pot at once without showing any cards. If the draw pile runs out, the dealer shuffles the discarded cards into a new draw pile.

Example: Anna holds Q♠ 6♥ 3♦ 3♣: two threes, so only three cards count. In the first draw she exchanges the Q♠ and one 3 and gets 8♠ and 5♣ – now 8♠ 6♥ 5♣ 3♦ is a badugi, and she stands pat for the last two draws. Ben draws one card three times and finishes with 7♠ 4♥ 2♣ 2♦ – only 7-4-2. Anna's badugi beats Ben's three-card hand.

Winning the game

Play until only one player has chips left, or stop at an agreed time – then the player with the most chips wins.

Tips for beginners

• A badugi with a 10 or higher is weak once others stop drawing; small three-card hands like 3-2-A are good starting points for drawing.
• Watch how many cards the others draw: someone who stands pat probably has a badugi.
• Drawing one card to a low three-card hand is the typical situation – it often fails, so don't call too much on it late in the hand.
• Breaking a high badugi (e.g. throwing away the K from K-4-3-2) to draw for a better one can be right early in the hand.

Variants

All optional – agree beforehand.

• Pot limit / no limit: bets are limited by the size of the pot, or not at all, instead of fixed amounts.