Badugi Poker Guides
Badugi is a draw poker game similar to Triple Draw (i.e. There are no community cards like in Texas Hold´em Poker) in which the players try to get the lowest value four-card hand comprising of four. Badugi, also known as Padooki among other names (Korean for “spotted dog”), is a very unique variant of lowball poker. It is most often found in mixed games, though often played on its own in private games, high limit Las Vegas games, and tournaments.
The Basics:Strategy Guides and Tips:
Table Limits and Stakes:
Other Related Articles:
Variations of Badugi:
The first thing to know is that badugi poker is not the most common and popular game around, so not all poker rooms actually have this game available for players to play. Also, not all rooms accepting the game are reputable, reliable or safe. So we will go through and explain in a sort of review about two of the most reputable and highly popular online poker rooms. Also, these rooms accept and allow US players to play.
Play Badugi Online at PokerStars.com - The Most Famous Poker Room
The most popular place to play any online poker is at PokerStars.com. They have the most players and the biggest betting stakes around, so you always have people to play against. Also, they usually have the greatest variety of different tournaments, freerolls and ring games available at all times of the day, especially with sit and go's. The only drawback is with their cash/ring games as we will explain below.
Badugi Hands
The minimum stakes for playing badugi with real money is $0.25/$0.50 blinds. Although this might not seem like much, it is a lot for players who frequent the penny games. The second poker room we will talk about has much lower stakes. Although, Poker Stars lets people play the high limit and high stakes badugi games where the blinds go as high as $200/$400. These are the highest known stakes on the internet for badugi. Also, there are between 100-500 badugi players playing at all times of the day online. Also, almost all of the ring/cash games are fixed limit (FL). Most tournaments are pot limit (PL), but you will rarely see half-pot limit (HPL), at least at the time of this writing.
Besides the ring games, there are satellite tournaments for badugi and even possible entry into the WSOP (World Series Of Poker) for their main badugi event. WSOP buy-in's can be won online but you can actually have a chance to win a trip to the actual televised tournament shown on ESPN. This will surely impress your friends! Also, there are free games available so you do not have to have any money to practice these games. Otherwise you can win money without having any by winning freerolls or making it into the top positions.
PokerStars is also offering 100% match bonus up to $600 (as of April 2010). Their promotions and bonuses just keep getting better so I would recommend visiting the PokerStars homepage to view their current bonuses if you are interested. Also, they have frequent player points and a VIP status program with multiple levels. So players can win these sort of comp points (more frequent with fixed limit badugi), and exchange them for prizes, cars and even instant buy-in entry to the WSOP. There are also some very serious and massive prize tournaments for badugi besides the WSOP and they are exclusive to PokerStars.
Badugi Pokerstars
Play Online Badugi Poker at Carbon Poker Room
The second most popular place to play badugi is at Carbon Poker. Unfortunately, Full Tilt, the second most popular card room of them all, does not have the game available but they may in the future. Carbon is another highly reputable and safe place, but their major disadvantage is not having as many players and the average stakes are much lower. This is also an advantage because players can play on the penny tables with $0.02/$0.04 blinds, which are not available over at PokerStars. Their highest stakes are $10/$20 blinds.
Another advantage is that fixed limit, pot limit and half-pot limit badugi is equally available in the ring games. You will also find that they are available in tournaments, but they do not have as many tournaments. Also, the cash games allow a maximum of 5 people to play, which reduces the high variance and improves each person's chance of winning. If you read our strategy guides, you will see why the 5 player tables are excellent when playing badugi online and how skilled players can win much more money by having smaller tables and fewer competitors.
Besides the regular online card games, Carbon has other casino games like video poker, blackjack, roulette and etc. This is very unique for an online poker room and another benefit of signing up here. They also have massive 'bad beat' jackpots that regularly grow up to $100,000 or more and are awarded to any random player who gets a bad beatduring their time playing.
Lastly, their bonuses are the same as PokerStars at the time of this writing, which is a 100% match up to $600 on your deposit. If you are interested in them, check out Carbon Poker and read about their bonuses and games.
Lets take a look at the online badugi rules. If you have played this poker game before among friends or in a live casino setting, you will already know the basic rules of badugi, which translate equally online. You can read on for a refresher, and if you are new to the game of badugi, listen up. The game is fun and the rules are simple. A couple minutes from now when you’ve finished reading this page, you will 100% be comfortable enough to sit in an online real money game.
Badugi Rule Variations
Basic Badugi Rules
We will start with the basics of online badugi rules. You will find that the rules are actually pretty easy to understand, and even though each round of badugi is longer than other forms of poker, it is just as simple once you understand the betting structure, the hand ranks, and the rules.
The Goal
The goal in badugi poker is to have the lowest hand out of all your competitors, while having no cards of the same suit, and having no pairs or better in your hand.
The Blinds
Just like in most forms of poker you are familiar with, players in badugi post forced bets or “blinds” in the form of the small and the big blind.
Betting and Play
So the cards are dealt to each player, everyone receiving 4 cards face down to all other players. At this time the players can bet, fold, call or raise their hands depending on how much they like them. After this first round of betting, there is a drawing round. In the drawing round, each player can discard 0 to 4 cards to the dealer in exchange for new cards.
Following that drawing round is another betting round, where players can check, bet, call or raise the bets. After that are 2 more identical rounds for both drawing and betting, followed by a showdown if there are still more than 1 players left in the pot. Obviously at that point, whichever player is holding the lowest 4 cards that are not of the same suit, and do not contain any pairs is the winner, and gets the full pot. If two players both have a “badugi”, which is four cards of all different suits and no pairs, the winner is decided by whoever has the lowest 4 cards.
When you play Badugi online, all you need to do is click the cards that you want to discard in each round, and the computer will automatically deal you your new cards. The checking, betting, calling and raising can all be done by pressing the easy to use controls located on the bottom right of the poker table.
Now that you know all of the online badugi rules and important things to actually play and win, the only next logical step would be to actually start playing for real money online. Luckily there are now safe and secure, amazing online poker rooms that feature Bagudi as one of the varieties of poker on offer. Check out the following poker sites that currently spread Badugi poker:
- Pokerstars.com [read full review]
- Carbon Poker [read full review]