Badugi Poker Strategy

Badugi Poker is like any other poker game. To be good you have to be disciplined, remain calm and in control. You need to know when to throw your cards away. Overall discipline is the best Badugi strategy you can use.

When involved in a hand obtaining a Badugi is your first priority. If you hold ace, 2, 3 different suits and your fourth card copies a suit of another card with no draws left, and people have been standing pat, get out! Although you have the best three card hand, it'll be useless against a badugi. If you are dealt the above example you will only ever draw to badugi 47% of the time after drawing three times. So you could lose to Kd, Qc, Js, 10c. This tends to make the game very frustrating.

Dealing with this frustration is crucial in Badugi. It's an exciting game, which is why its popularity is soaring, but play for just 10 minutes and you will get frustrated. It's great fun but having three cards to a Badugi and missing the fourth card to complete it on all three rounds of draws can drive even the most mild mannered player crazy. Though it does, of course, lead to great bluffing opportunities.

Here's how someone who has watched Crazy Mike Caro play Badugi described the game:

Here's what Mike has to say about it: "It's aggravating, exciting, exasperating, and exhilarating. And then you play the next 10 minutes." He's right! I've watched him play the game. Wow! Just when you're thrilled that you have all the right cards, except for one, you realize that the remaining card isn't going to be easy to get. In Badugi, you're dealt four cards and it's lowball with 4-3-2-ace being the best hand. Well, not exactly. You can't have any pairs, and, unlike traditional lowball, you can't have two of the same suit. If you do, one card doesn't exist. Then, you can only play three cards, and any four-card hand beats you. Oh, and you get to draw three times!

So, now imagine you only need one more card of a different rank and suit than what you are holding. Come on! Noooo! Not that one! That's the aggravating part! But if you draw the right suit and don't pair, you feel like jumping up and down and yelling: "badugi!"

Play Badugi at VC Poker today