Badugi is four card triple draw game where the lowest hand wins. Each player is dealt four cards face down and the goal is to make the lowest possible 4 card hand, each card of different suit, with no pairs (this is known as Badugi). There are four rounds of betting and three draws in this game. After each round of betting players may discard from zero to four cards, and the dealer will deal them the new cards.
The procedure for Badugi:
- Dealing of the cards
As in typical poker game the dealer is determined by high card, player to the left of button posts Small Blind, and the next player posts Big Blind. Dealer deals four cards face down (one at a time) for each player starting from the SB.
- First round of betting
The first round of betting starts with the player to the left of BB, who has the option to fold, call or raise. Action continues clockwise around the table until betting is complete for the round.
- First round of drawing
Beginning with the first player still in the pot to the left of the dealer, each player may discard any number of cards and receive an equal number of replacement cards (called the “draw”). Replacement cards are dealt before the next player chooses the number of cards to draw. The discarded cards are not returned to the deck but are discarded for the remainder of the hand unless the deck becomes depleted, at which point the discards are reshuffled to reform the deck (this could be in the middle of a draw request, but the deck should first be depleted, then reformed after which the draw may continue from the reformed deck).
- Second round of betting
Second round of betting starts with player the left of dealer button. In case no player before you makes a bet, you will have the option to check besides calling, raising and folding. Betting proceeds until all players have put in an equal amount of money or folded.
- Second round of drawing (see point 3 for details)
- Third round of betting (see point 4 for details)
- Third round of drawing (see point 3 for details)
- Fourth round of betting (see point 4 for details)
- Showdown (in case more than one player remains in the game)
Once the last round is over, every player who still has cards (has not folded) will put their cards face up on the table and the dealer will identify the winning hand based on the Badugi hand evaluation system.
Important: Badugi hand is four card hand with each card of different suit and no pairs. Thus duplicates of suit or of rank are disregarded. The best hand in Badugi is A-2-3-4. A hand can contain 4, 3, 2 or one card, but a 4 card hand beats a 3 card hand, 3 card hand beats a 2 card hand and so forth. Aces always count for low.
Two badugi hands containing the same number of cards are evaluated by comparing the highest card in each hand. As in lowball, the hand with the lower card is superior. If there is a tie for the highest card, the second highest card (if there is one) is compared. If the ranks of all the cards in the badugi hand are the same the two hands tie. Suits are irrelevant in comparison of two hands.
Note: The Blinds are determined by the size of the game.