How To Play Badugi

Badugi Rules

Learn the Rules of Badugi. Badugi is a new game recently introduced to Pokerstars

Play of the hand

Play begins with each player being dealt four cards face down. Each player may observe those four cards he is dealt, but not the cards dealt to other players. The hand begins with a “pre-draw” betting round, beginning with the player to the left of the big blind  (or the player to the left of the dealer, if no blinds are used) and continuing clockwise. Each player must either call the amount of the big blind (put in an amount equal to the big blind), fold (relinquish any claim to the pot), or raise (put in more money than anyone else, thus requiring others to do the same)

Once everyone has put the same amount of money in the pot or folded, play proceeds to the draw. Beginning with the first player still in the pot to the left of the dealer, each player may discard any number of cards and receive an equal number of replacement cards (called the “draw”). Replacement cards are dealt before the next player chooses the number of cards to draw. The discarded cards are not returned to the deck but are discarded for the remainder of the hand.

The first draw is followed by a second betting round. Here players are free to check (not put in any money, but also remain in the hand) until someone bets. Again betting proceeds until all players have put in an equal amount of money or folded. After the second betting round ends, there is another draw followed by a third betting round. After that there is the final draw, followed by a fourth betting round and the showdown, if necessary.

If at anytime all players but one have folded, the sole remaining player is awarded the pot. If there is more than one player remaining at the conclusion of the final betting round, the hands of those players are compared and the player with the best badugi hand is awarded the pot.

Hand evaluation

Badugi has a different ranking of hands than traditional poker. A badugi hand consists of one to four cards (from among the four cards in a player’s hand) with distinct ranks and suits. Thus duplicates of suit or of rank are disregarded. Any four-card badugi hand beats a three-card badugi hand, a three-card badugi hand beats a two-card badugi hand, and a two-card badugi hand beats a one-card badugi hand. A four-card badugi hand is called a “badugi”.

Two badugi hands containing the same number of cards are evaluated by comparing the highest card in each hand (where ace  is low). As in lowball, the hand with the lower card is superior. If there is a tie for the highest card, the second highest card (if there is one) is compared. If the ranks of all the cards in the badugi hand are the same the two hands tie. Suits are irrelevant in comparison of two hands.

Thus the best possible hand is of any four different suits.
The worst possible hand is

Here are a few examples:

• beats (both are four-card hands) since the highest card is compared first and the is smaller than .
• beats since the former is a four-card hand and the latter is a three-card hand. (The is disregarded as a duplicate spade, so the hand is a three-card 247.)
• beats . They reduce to the three-card hands A59 and A2J.
• beats :K; both are three-card hands, but the highest in the former is the while the highest in the latter is the
• beats as the former is a three-card hand (after disregarding the ) while the latter is a two-card hand (both kings are disregarded since each is the same suit as another card in the hand).

If one can construct two (or more) different badugi hands with the same four cards (as in the final example), the better badugi hand is evaluated against the other hands. This occurs when there are at least two cards of the same suit one of which is paired. Here disregarding the paired, suited card generates a better hand than disregarding any other card.