Learn and Play Badugi Poker

You have reached our Badugi poker main page where you can find many different guides and article exclusively dedicated to this game. The links just to the right will provide you with guides on how to play the game, learn the rules, get better at strategy and play poker online. You can also find a few other articles about badugi and another game known as baduci, which is a variation of badugi but with a slightly different spelling. In fact, you can find more about this game here in our article base than you can over at Wikipedia.

First of all, badugi poker is a card game that originated in Asia and is also known as padooki poker or badougi poker. Badugi is also gradually becoming much more popular in the United States for a number or reasons. One reason is because this game is a change from the regular types of poker games and there are also many inexperienced players to make money from. Players tend to find a new game and try to learn it as quickly as possible to get an edge and more experience against newer players.

What is badugi poker? Start learning how to play badugi

Badugi is a form of lowball triple draw poker with 4 card variation where up to 8 players can play on a table. The betting style is quite traditional still and is set up similar to Texas holdem where the button, small blind and big blind alternate around the table. Although, the rules and strategy of the game are quite different than many other poker variations.

In badugi poker, each player is dealt 4 cards during the starting deal. Then there is an opportunity to trade in weak cards and draw 3 times for additional cards, followed by a round of betting after each draw. The objective of badugi is to make the strongest 4 card hand. Since this is a lowball game, the goal is to collect the lowest cards possible. Aces are low and kings are high. Also, players need each of their 4 cards to have a different suit. Ideally, each 4 card hand should contain a spade, heart, diamond and club card. If two cards have the same suit, one of them must be ignored and this is damaging to your hand.

In fact, players may only be allowed to make a 3 card badugi hand or even smaller hand if all of the cards do not contain a different suit. Note that all 4 card hands beat any 3 card hand. All 3 card hands beat any 2 card hand and so on. So the most powerful badugi poker hand is A-2-3-4 with each card being a different suit. If the ace and 4 cards were spade for example, your qualifying hand would only be A-2-3 unless you are still able to trade in the 4 and draw a better card. So the rules are not too difficult to learn.

Playing and practicing badugi online at Pokerstars

Once you have read the articles on this site, you should begin practicing the game online. Pokerstars is one of the few online poker rooms that now support badugi poker. This is actually one of the most recent additions to their game software. Even better, they do have about 200 players on average at the time of this writing so players do get lots of competition and more of a selection of opponents to play against.

You can play there for free or with real money. This room is great for practicing without having to risk money so read up on the rules and strategy and then practice at Pokerstars. Like they say, you can't become good at the game by reading out of a book, you actually have to get your hands on it and play. One thing to note is that all of the budagi tables are fixed limit so you cannot go all in with this game. There are also tournaments, sit and go, and some weekly freerolls. Pokerstars also has some bonuses that will match whatever you deposit. The last time I heard, they match 100% up to $600 but their promotions tend to change or become better at certain times so check them out for yourself by clicking the image below.