Badugi Rules

Badugi is a poker game that you can play in several online poker rooms and it’s a newer game to most poker players unless you have lived or visited Korea in the past. Badugi has been played in Korea for awhile, but it has only become available to online poker players for the past couple years and it’s a very fun game to try out if you haven’t already. The rules of the game are simple, but it’s fairly different then most poker games so make sure you read all of the rules below.

To start a hand two players need to put in the small blind and big blind and the players putting in the blinds will rotate one spot clockwise every hand so that one player isn’t always paying the blind. Once the blinds are in the pot then the dealer will deal each player four cards face down. The player to the left of the big blind is the first player to act in the first betting round and will need to decide whether to call the big blind, raise the big blind or fold their hand.

After the round of betting every Full Tilt Poker player will have the opportunity to exchange some of their cards for new cards from the deck. The small blind is the first player to discard and the action moves clockwise from there. Every player can discard 0-4 cards based on what they think is the right move. After the first discard the players will have another round of betting and then there is another discard turn for each player. Players will then have a third round of betting and then a third chance to discard any cards the want. After this the players will have one last round of betting and then if there are still players left in the pot they will need to flip their hands over to see who wins.

In order to win a hand in Badugi you will want to have the lowest possible hand out of the players left in the pot. The lowest possible hand in Badugi is A-2-3-4 of different suits. In Badugi your cards need to be all different suits in order to have a four card hand which is known as a Badugi. If you have only three cards that are different suits then you will only have a three card hand and you would lose to anyone who has a four card hand. You don’t need a four card hand to win, but you can’t expect to win a big pot when you don’t have a hand with four different suits. The ranking of the hands is the same as Razz where the only card that matters is your highest card. Since the lowest hand wins you need to have the lowest fourth card. If you have a 10-2-3-4 and your opponent has a 9-8-7-6 then you would lose because your highest card is a 10 and your opponent’s is only a 9.

Badugi is a very fun poker game and although it can be a little boring to play because the tough hand requirements you will have fun. There still aren’t that many online poker players who are playing Badugi yet, but there is still action to be found in the large online poker rooms.