Category Archives: Poker

How to play Badugi Poker?

Badugi poker, also known as Padooki poker, is said to have been originated in Asia. Even though it can be played as a no limit or a pot limit game, the most common variant of Badugi poker uses a limit game. If you’re wondering how to play Badugi poker, be rest assured that it is really easy to master. The strategies and rules are quite similar to a normal game of poker. All you need to do is understand the subtleties and variations in the gameplay and the rules. Badugi poker is considered to be a four card game where players need to have the lowest Badugi, i.e., a hand where no cards have the same suit or the same value. If you get two or more cards from the same suit or the same value, the one with the lowest value is kept and the others are discarded. As a result, your hand might transform into a 1 card hand as well.

Understanding the Game Structure

Badugi is a game of poker that is quite similar to the triple draw in its structure. The major difference is that each player receives four cards instead of five and that the hand values are different. There are a total of three drawing rounds wherein players are allowed to discard anything between zero to four cards from their hand and draw the same number of cards from the deck. A round of betting follows each draw and another round of betting is conducted after the final draw. The main object of Badugi poker is to create a win by making the lowest Badugi hand or by getting all others to fold.

The Gameplay

All players are dealt with four cards. The game begins with a round of betting. Once the betting is complete, players can discard anything between zero to four cards and draw the same amount of cards from the deck. This is then followed by another round of betting. The discarding, drawing and betting process is continued for two more rounds. Once the third draw has been played, there is a final round of betting before players (those who are still in the game) reveal their hands to determine the winner.

Badugi Hand Values

The main idea of Badugi poker is not to have cards of the same rank or the same suit in your hand. This means that if you have two aces or two hearts in your hand, you need to change. Having a hand where each card is from a different suit and has a different denomination is the best hand that a player can have. This is followed by the three cards, two cards and one card hands. If players have the same number of cards in their Badugi hand, the card values are compared in order to determine the winner. The player with the lowest highest card wins. If the highest card is the same, the second highest card is checked and so on.

Badugi Strategies

Here are a few strategies to help you out with Badugi poker.

– Your starting hand selection is extremely important. Chasing the game is extremely difficult and expensive in Badugi poker.
– A completed Badugi is always known to be more valuable than a one card draw.
– Try to complete your entire hand as early as possible, even if your lower ranking hands need to suffer.
– If you complete your Badugi before everyone else, consider escalating the bet size to increase the pot value.
– Be extremely careful while changing the high value cards in your Badugi as the card that you receive in the draw might just ruin your entire game.

What percentage of hands should you play in poker?

Did you know that there are 169 possible hands that poker players could be dealt to start with? Out of all these hands, only 5 hands are considered to be “excellent” hands – AK (Same suit) JJ, QQ, KK and AA. Irrespective of your chip position and bankroll, you should always ensure that you play these hands as long as the bet amount is not very high. However, if you have players who have been betting and increasing the bets, you should try to refrain from playing unless you have kings or aces.

By now you must have begun to realize that the main secret of winning in poker is to understand which hand to play. Remember, playing every hand and basing your decisions on the first set of three cards that open up can make you lose a huge sum of money. You need to realize that most sensible players end up folding approximately 80% of their hands. However, if the pot has not been opened before your turn, i.e., no one has called the game before you, you should try your hand in that particular round. Once someone ahead of you raises, your hand selection should be narrowed down considerably before you play further. What this essentially means is that it is OK to bluff, but the best bluff is always the one where you control the outcome of the game, i.e., you have cards that are worth playing with. For example, you should never play in a game where you have a JQ and another player has raised the bet. In this case, KK, AA, QK and KA have a better chance of winning the game.

Let’s bring statistics into the equation. It has been observed that most of the players who end up on the winning side play about 18 – 22% of the hands. If you’re new into the world of poker, you simply need to understand that you should be playing a maximum of 15 – 20 rounds in the entire session. Look at it this way. If your opponents play about 45% of their hands and you play anything between 20 – 25%, you should normally have a major advantage in each of those hands. However, the importance of blinds should not be diminished either.

Another factor that vastly influences the percentage of hands you should play is whether the game is played in a passive or an aggressive manner. There are a number of hands that can hardly be termed as playable the moment someone raises the pot. A raise normally indicates that your opponents have anything between above average – excellent hands. This considerably reduces your own odds of winning.

Remember, the more sessions you play, the more experience you gain. And the more experience you gain, the more rounds you should be able to play. And as most pros like to put it, the number of hands you play should actually depend on your own skill levels. The more advanced you are, the more hands you can play and succeed in.