Badugi Poker
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PLAYING BADUGI IS EASY

Badugi is one of the relatively new poker varieties offered online and offline. It is also referred to as Asian poker because of its Korean origin.

How to Play

1. Players are dealt cards face down, starting from the one on the small blind, going clockwise. The cards are dealt one at a time until all players have four cards each. It is to your advantage to keep the cards hidden from the other players.
2. The first round of betting follows. The amount of bet will depend on the type of badugi agreed upon by the players at the start of the game. There are three types: Limit badugi, Pot Limit badugi, and Half-pot badugi.
3. The first round of card drawing is a chance for the players to replace 0 to 4 cards.
4. Another round of betting follows in the same way as in the first round, but this time the bets can be higher.
5. The second round of card drawing, like in the first round.
6. The third betting round follows
7. The third and final drawing round.
8. The fourth and final betting round.

The survivors of the final betting round then put their cards on the table, face up for evaluation. The winner(s) are determined based on the Badugi evaluation system.

Hand Evaluation

What is the winning hand? In Badugi, the players aim to have a badugi, a 4-card hand where all cards are from different suits and of different values. But getting a badugi is not highly probable and many players will encounter the following hands:

1. Two or more cards from the same suit. Here, only the card with the lowest value shall remain. The others are discarded, resulting to a 3-card, 2-card, or a 1-card hand. For example, if a hand consists of: Ace(spade), 3(spade), 4(diamond), 6(heart), 3(spade) shall be discarded leaving a 3-card hand with Ace(spade), 4(diamond), 6(heart).

2. Two or more cards are of the same value. In this case, only one of a duplicated value shall remain. If a hand has the following cards, Ace(spade), Ace(club), Ace(heart), 6 (diamond), two of the aces shall be discarded, leaving the player with a 2-hand card.

3. A hand may have a pair of the same value and a pair from the same suit. Here, two cards shall be discarded, leaving a 2-card hand.

4. There are also hands with 4 cards from the same suit or 4 cards of the same value. In this combination, three cards shall be discarded leaving a 1-card hand.

Hands are ranked with badugi at the top, followed by the 3-card, 2-card and the 1-card hands. A higher ranked card wins over a lower ranked card. Between hands of the same rank, the one with a lower value wins.

You can play badugi at CarbonPoker.