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This is the only real Badugi video I could find on the internet. Stox & Savvy are being very quiet on the issue.
There is a rumour that HUCK SEED stars in this play badugi poker video somewhere but I couldn’t find him and I’ve watched it four times already.
Our last article focused on multi-way hands so this time I’m going to write about the differences in how we’d play hands when the pot gets to be heads-up. I’ll start with an example: We are playing limit Badugi and are on the big blind with the hand Ac3d8s3s:
The first player to act raises, 3 other people call so we are left with a decision. Our hand is too weak to re-raise and too strong to fold. The pot is offering us great odds so we decide to call. Now for the hard part, how many cards should we draw?
We could drop 2 cards and hope to try and make a nut type hand but that won’t really be necessary to win the pot most of the time. If we are drawing 2 cards it’s even less likely we will make a Badugi with the first draw, which is when our hand will be most valuable. An 8 low Badugi will scope most of the time even multi-way, if you lose its just a little bad variance. So we decide to draw 1 card, hopefully make our hand and win a nice pot.
The first player to act raises and everyone folds around to you. Now what? Again we are in that situation too weak to re-raise & too strong to fold so again we call.
How many cards should we draw? An 8 high Badugi would win HU most of the time as well but what you should realize is that more often than not a good 3 card Badugi will win in HU situations. A38 has no showdown value HU so this time we will change 2 cards hoping to make a good 3 card hand early. If we don’t then its no huge loss, our implied odds were good but it didn’t work out.
If we are playing PL Badugi situation 2 would be an instant fold since we are showing so much weakness it makes it very easy for the villain in the hand to put pressure on us. Situations like this make for a good snow attempt.
Snowing: This is when a player will stand pat and bluff that they have a made Badugi. There will be an article on snowing in the very near future so stay tuned.
A good friend of mine has asked me to each him how to play Badugi. He is a strong Hold’em player with a couple of years experience but like most when it comes to Badugi he is a little lost.
So far he knows the rules of Badugi and I have given him some guidelines for starting hands. He knows the hand rankings and I have shown him the Badugi software post on here. He has started to play limit Badugi to get a general feel for the game but will be moving on to PL Badugi after he has played a few thousand hands.
I was reviewing a session for him today and noticed a few spots where he wasn’t playing optimally, over the next few posts I will be showing you his mistakes and how you can avoid repeating them.
In multi-way pots he was often folding reasonable 2 and 3 card hands because he thought being out of position would make him easy to exploit. Well position is very important but what he didn’t realize is he was getting protection from all the added players in the hand. If 4+ players are seeing the first draw its very likely someone will complete a Badugi so it becomes more of a pot odds game.
Multi-way bluffing is much less common because players generally realize someone will complete a Badugi most of the time. Players are much more likely to play in a straight forward manner taking the huge pot odds they are usually offered to try and scope the big pot in front of them.
Good hands to play multi-way that you would not normally play are hands that need to hit to have showdown value. An example would be 854 or 765, as 3 card hands these are trash but if you can get in multi-way their value increases. If you do hit a Badugi make sure you re-raise to protect your hand, now you don’t want it to be multi-way any longer. Scope that pot!
Latter on when my friend switches to PL Badugi he will have to be much more careful about how he plays these hands, in general he would be folding them unless the table is particularly passive pre-flop. Position in PL Badugi is extremely important as now you can actually buy pots & bully the other players.
In the next article I will focus on a few heads-up situations.
I’m often asked how to win at poker or what the difference is between a winning poker player and a losing one. The first answer I always give is often met with confusion and sometimes a little distain. My answer is of course bankroll management, with no bankroll you are out of the game…. permanently. As Doyle Brunson writes in super system “You’re broke, you’re done!”
You could be the best poker player in the world, you could be Phil Ivey crushing all the games around you but if you don’t have the skills to manage your poker bankroll you will be broke or even worse you won’t be playing in your most profitable game. Its a fine balance you have to strike and when you mix in games like Badugi or Omaha you have to make sure you are playing within your limits and at your limits.
Poker players generally spread into three groups;
Group A: The porridge is too hot.
The casual players that play for entertainment and to gamble! These players want to win big or go home early, it’s not a bad strategy if you can afford to reload and love the thrill of a big score.
Group B: The porridge is too cold.
The nit, the player that has built up his roll to $5,000 and still plays $5 sit and goes. Sure he wont go broke but he has the bankroll to move up and play $10, $20, $100 sngs. He could be costing himself thousands by not moving up.
Group C: The porridge is jusssssst right!
The guy that gets it just right, or at least most of the time! This player knows when to step up and down, not only is this the best way to improve their game its the fastest way to make the most money!
Here are the basic rules for Poker Bankroll management, before you sit down in any game you should have at least:
If you are coming from a hold’em background these rules might see a bit excessive but you have to factor in the added rounds of betting that Badugi has.
It’s a heart breaker and an ass shaker, you will have nights when the cards do not fall your way, being dealt rubbish cards all night long and missing your draws. Not to worry, if you play within our rules you can afford it. You wont tilt off your roll and be stuck playing freerolls until next payday!
On the other hand when you are winning and dancing around your computer at 3am you are able to move up quickly into higher limits, your bankroll will sky rocket and you’ll be sitting on a beach sipping cocktails this time next week.
For short-handed Badugi contrary to logic, your variance actually increases when there are fewer players in the game. A looser style of play also brings higher variance. If you see a juicy game its ok to take a shot but be careful not to play scared or chase losses if things don’t work out as planned.
Badugi is a new game but the software developers are already out in force (Woohoo!!) If like me you love analysing your game, checking stats and graphs then I have some great news:
PokerHands is a poker tracker, that will read your hand historys into a database. Once in the database this software will enable you to replay hands, create graphs & analyse various aspects of your game. This software is still under development but Cartridge Software are constantly releasing working beta versions, which are free to download and use.
Features:
Screenshots:
Troutulator is a freeware poker equity simulator that supports the following games:
Screenshots:
Overcards.com have a stack of scripts available for all forms of poker these are all open source, easy to customise and FREE!.
Features:
The Texas Hold’em craze is still intact but players are now starting to diversify the games they play, one of the games now growing in popularity is Badugi. The game itself is shrouded in secrecy; the usual poker authors have yet to produce any literature on the subject so most people have to teach themselves. Most poker training sites have been begged to make some new videos/strategy articles but they have yet to produce the goods.
Badugi is a drawing game; it’s a little like triple draw low ball with a forced blind structure taken from Hold’em. If you haven’t already you should read our Badugi Rules article before you continue. To learn the game of Badugi it’s probably best to just jump right into the smallest game you can find and play a few hands.
Making notes will drastically improve your game, these are some points you should consider:
A typical hand of limit badugi
This page is a follow up to the page Badugi Rules
Firstly I have to thank PokerStars for their fantastic replayer, this makes review & discussion of poker hands extremely easy.
First round of betting: The blinds are posted (This is a $3/$6 game) and one player folds.
First round of betting: The button now has the option to raise/call or fold. He raises to $6
First round of betting: The player in the small blind can raise, call or fold. He calls.
First round of betting: The player in the big blind can raise, call or fold. He also decided to call.
First drawing round: Each player can draw any amount of their cards. In this situation each player changed 2 cards.
Second round of betting: Both the SB and BB now check. The button now decided to bet again. This is a good bet as he has position in the hand & wants to pressure the other players.
Second round of betting: Both the SB and BB can now raise, fold or call. They both decide to call.
Second drawing round: Each player can draw any amount of their cards. In this hand the SB and BB each changed 1 card & the button player didnt change any.
The SB leads out and bets $6, the BB folds. The SB now likes his hand!
Third round of betting: The button decides to raise to $12. The button likes his hand too!
Third round of betting: The SB decided to call the bet. Although he could still raise or fold.
Third round of drawing: Each player can now redraw any amount of cards. SB decides to stand pat (this means he is not redrawing any cards) the button player now thinks the hand he liked in the previous round isnt enough to win so he has decided to draw one card.
Forth & Final round of betting: The SB bets out $6
Forth & Final round of betting: The button calls $6
Showdown: The SB wins $63 with a Jack high badugi!
