Playing Badugi

Badugi is a very popular game in South Korea, where the name originated. Badugi is a generic name given to a dog that has spots or patches of different color on its coat, originated from Baduk. This is symbolic of the rules of the game, as winning hands consist of completely different suits and values. Furthermore, the three rounds of drawing are called breakfast, lunch, and supper. This is representative of feeding Badugi the three meals

Badugi is also known as Badougi, Paduki or Padooki)[1]i it is a triple draw poker variant with the objective of making as low as possible poker hand (Ace is low and King is high). The betting structure and overall play of the game is identical to limit Hold'em , but unlike traditional poker which involves a minimum of five cards, players' hands contain only four cards at any one time. During each of three drawing rounds, players can trade zero to four cards from their hands for new ones from the deck, in an attempt to form the best badugi hand and win the pot. The best hand in badugi, a four-high badugi. (A234 of four different suits)

A badugi hand consists of one to four cards (from among the four cards in a player's hand) with distinct ranks and suits. Thus duplicates of suit or of rank are disregarded. Any four-card badugi hand beats a three-card badugi hand, a three-card badugi hand beats a two-card badugi hand, and a two-card badugi hand beats a one-card badugi hand.[3] A four-card badugi hand consisting of all four suits is called a "badugi".[4]

Two badugi hands containing the same number of cards are evaluated by comparing the highest card in each hand (where ace is low). The hand with the lower card is superior. If there is a tie for the highest card, the second highest card (if there is one) is compared. If the ranks of all the cards in the badugi hand are the same the two hands tie. Suits are irrelevant in comparison of two hands.[5]

The worst possible hand is K♣K♦K♥K♠ amd the best A234 of four different suits.

Here are a few examples:

- 2♠4♣6♦7♥ beats A♠2♣3♦8♥ (both are four-card hands) since the highest card is compared first and the 7♥ is smaller than 8♥.
- 4♠5♣6♦K♥ beats 2♠3♠4♦7♥ since the former is a four-card hand and the latter is a three-card hand. (The 3♠ is disregarded as a duplicate spade, so the hand is a three-card 247.)
- A♣2♠2♣J♦ loses to A♠5♦9♦9♥. They reduce to the three-card hands AJ2 and A95.
- 2♠3♠4♦7♥ beats 4♠5♠6♦K♥; both are three-card hands, but the highest in the former is the 7♥ while the highest in the latter is the K♥.
- 5♦7♣K♣K♥ beats 2♠3♦K♠K♦ as the former is a three-card hand (after disregarding the K♣) while the latter is a two-card hand (both kings are disregarded since each is the same suit as another card in the hand).

If one can construct two (or more) different badugi hands with the same four cards (as in the final example), the better badugi hand is evaluated against the other hands. This occurs when there are at least two cards of the same suit one of which is paired. Here disregarding the paired, suited card generates a better hand than disregarding any other card.

This game is also played pot-limit, half-pot-limit, and no-limit.