Long term online poker success with winning strategies – register for free!

The best strategies With the correct strategy, poker becomes an easy game. Our authors show you how to succeed, one step at a time.

The smartest thinkers Learn from and with internationally successful poker pros, in our live coaching sessions and in the forum.

$50 starting capital PokerStrategy.com is free of charge. Additionally there is a $50 free starting capital waiting for you.

You are already a PokerStrategy.com member? Log in here

Badugi

Badugi (also known as Asian Poker or Padooki) is a poker variant from the family of draw poker games.

The overall play of the game is similar to that of deuce-to-seven triple draw. The big difference is the hand ranking system.

Badugi is played with up to 6 players. There is a maximum of 4 betting rounds. It can be played with a fixed limit, no limit, pot limit, half pot limit or spread limit betting structure.

In Badugi games it is common to use forced bets in the form of blinds.

Rules of the game:

At the beginning of a given round, the two players to the left of the current dealer post the blinds. Every player is then dealt four cards and the first betting round begins.

There are now three drawing rounds, each followed by a round of betting. In the drawing rounds, every active player may discard any number of cards from his hand and receive an equal number of new cards from the deck. If the deck runs out of cards and there are not enough cards left for every player to redraw, the discarded cards from the previous rounds are reshuffled and added to the deck.

In the showdown the remaining players compare their hands to determine the winner. This is done as follows:
1. Every player has to remove any paired cards from his hand.
2. All suited cards have to be discarded as well. A Badugi hand only consists of unpaired, unsuited cards.
3. The player who is left with the highest number of cards wins the round. Any 4 card hand beats hands consisting of 3 cards or fewer. A 3 card hand beats every 2 card hand.
4. If more than one hand contains the same number of cards, for example if several players have 4 cards left, the hand with the lowest cards wins. The ace counts low, i.e. as 1, and is therefore the lowest card.

When two hands are compared, it is always the highest card in each hand that is relevant. If player A's highest card is a ten and player B's highest card is a nine, player B wins. If they tie for the highest card and both of them have a ten, the second highest card is compared. If both players have the same second highest card, the third highest card is compared.