The term “snowing” is actually not exclusive to badugi, but is used in many different types of draw poker. I wrote a detailed article about how to use snowing strategy in badugi. Basically, snowing is just a form of straight out bluffing and it works well in fixed limit games especially. The whole idea to the snow strategy is to “stand pat” and keep betting, raising or re-raising early in the round.

By standing pat after the starting hand is dealt, players begin to assume that you have a powerful 4 card badugi right off the bat and that your hand is so good that you do not need to draw any further. There are certain times when want to pull this bluff and it largely depends on what position you are on the table. Ideally, you want to be the last one to take action, or on the button position. This ensures that you see what everyone else has done before hand and you get the maximum amount of information.

If players are not raising the bet or they are all drawing cards, this would be the best time to use the snow strategy by standing pat and raising the bet. Hopefully, people fold out of the hand and surrender the blinds to you. Make sure you are reading your opponents to determine whether they usually slow-play their hands or not because this can be dangerous. It’s all about taking notes and using certain strategies against certain people.

Another good time to implement the strategy is if you are dealt a bunch of cards of the same suit. If you remember from my previous few blog posts, this means there are much fewer outs of a particular suit, thus making it extremely difficult for anyone else on the table to get a 4 card badugi. The more cards of a particular suit you are dealt during draws, the better it is when you are bluffing. Hopefully, you can get a badugi anyways and turn the game into a semi-bluff or just a powerful hand. Since we are talking about bluffing, we would have to assume the hand is crappy. Remember that “snowing” means you should be standing pat. If players are drawing 2 or more cards per round, it might give you an opportunity to pick up on a good hand before snowing again.

There are times when you would want to restrain from snowing the table. One of the most helpful signs to back off is when you see someone else standing pat, but they are not betting or they are just checking their hands. This is a classic sign of a passive slow-player who is trying to trap the aggressive players. You also do not want to snow when you are the first to act and you have no information about what the other players might be holding. Check out the article mentioned above for some great tips and pointers for badugi bluffing strategy.