How To Play Badugi Poker

Badugi has become a very popular form of poker in Southern California and is currently picking up in popularity throughout the world. In case you haven’t learned already, here is how to play the popular Badugi poker.

The game is played with a standard 52 card deck. Four cards are dealt to each player. There are three draws in this game with a betting round after each so the pots can get pretty big.

The goal of the game is twofold. First, you want to get one card of each suit. At the end of all betting rounds if your hand holds one heart, one club, one spade, and one diamond you have a Badugi, PROVIDED you have no pairs. Pairs will hurt you. Make sure it’s one of each suit and each must be a different rank.

Now if two or more players have a Badugi, the winner of Badugi poker is the one who has the lowest four cards. Ideally you want A234, each of a different suit (with Ace being low).

If no one can make a Badugi with their four cards, then at the showdown, each remaining players discard one card. Now the winner is the person who has the lowest three card Badugi. Ideally, that would be A23.

Example: You are dealt Ac 7d 8c 10s

In this hand you have two clubs. You can’t have that if you expect to make a Badugi so discard the higherst one (in this case that would be 8c). You are now left with A 7 10. While a 10 high Badugi usually wins against one opponent, if this was the first draw, I would discard it also since there are three draws to improve. If it was the last draw, I would keep it and hope to make my 10 high Badugi.