written by Matt Flynn DeucesCracked Contributor
published over 2 years ago

As if we needed further proof that the apocalypse is on us, PokerStars has opened badugi tables. Dozens of previously respectable players have flocked from the corners of the pokerverse. And wow, they play bad. I have been sorely tempted to teach my 7-year-old badugi, but my wife is Irish and would actually kill me if she found him on the computer earning for the Family. Let me start by giving fair warning. Badugi is high variance. It makes shorthanded limit look like a mortgage. So strap on your seatbelt, and let’s talk basic strategy.

For those who don’t know, badugi is a four-card game usually played with three draws. A badugi is four cards of different suits and different ranks. The royal flush is A-2-3-4 all different suits. There are thee common betting structures: two limits such as 20-40 where the first twos round are 20, four limits such as 20-40-60-80, and half-pot-limit.

Of extreme importance, badugi differs from 2-7 lowball triple draw in that three-card hands play. If no one has a badugi, the best tri-hand wins the pot. If no one has a tri-hand, the best two-card hand wins. Suits have no ranks, so ties are possible.

Badugi is a fairly simple poker game. It is crunchable with modest heuristics, and basic math allows one to derive a great deal about the game. Basic preflop and draw percentages are critical to know. For the relevant tables, see my article I Love Badugi at DeucesCracked.com.

Here are some basic and mid-level strategy concepts:

Concept 1. The best drawing tri hand is the best hand and the most likely to win.

Concept 2. The strongest tris A23, A24, and A34 should be bet mercilessly, especially preflop. Don’t be afraid to reraise with a good tri after the first draw. Don’t be afraid to bet a good tri after the second draw, especially heads up.

Concept 3. In big pots, strong tris are showdown hands. This is especially true heads-up. Once the pot gets large, you must call down very often with A23, A24, A34, and even with 5-tris. This assumes your opponents aren’t weak-tight and have not given away their hand. If you know he’s got a badugi, just fold.

Concept 4. Preflop, with a weak badugi, the goal of raising is to reduce the number of opponents, not build the pot with the current best hand. You do not want a big pot, because collectively a group of two or more opponents can become correct to draw on the second and third draws. So if your badugi is weak, and your raise is unlikely to reduce the number of opponents, don’t raise or reraise. For example, say a player raises and you have J832 badugi in the small blind. Usually you should not reraise unless it is likely to make the big blind fold where he would otherwise call a two-bet. You would still reraise occasionally with a tight big blind for balance, making it harder for an opponent to know you have a modest badugi when you draw none on the first draw. But you do not have to worry nearly as much about balancing in 8-handed badugi as you would in shorthanded hold ‘em.

Concept 5. With a medium badugi, raise away whether or not it will reduce the number of callers. For example, any 9-badugi or better is worth jamming preflop under most circumstances.

Concept 6. If you have a mighty badugi, you really want everyone and their friends in the pot with you. With a strong 7-badugi or better (strong means the underlying tri hand is good, like A347), it can be better to flat call a raise to allow several others to enter the pot. This is especially true in early position. If you are first to enter the pot, however, you should always raise.

Concept 7. Speaking of balance, gainst astute opponents, you have to reraise preflop sometimes with weaker badugis like that J832. If you reraise with strong badugis but not with weak ones, opponents can guess you have a weak badugi when you call a raise then draw none. This is a significant advantage for them. Thwart that advantage by mixing up your play. Occasionally reraise with weak badugis. Occasionally call with strong badugis. And play your nine- and ten-badugis like you do jack-badugis.

Concept 8. A queen badugi is essentially a coinflip vs. A23 to be ahead by the river. But this simple calculation does not factor in implied odds. For example, your opponent will sometimes raise after the second draw to represent a badugi. This puts you in a tough spot, since you won’t know whether he has it. Facing an additional big bet on the river if you call, often you will lay down when he bluffs, provided he doesn’t do it too frequently. The same problem comes up on the river. You check, and he bets. How often will you call? If he only bets when he has you beat, you will correctly fold, and therefore your queen-badugi is better than his A-2-3 preflop. But what if he bluffs sometimes on the river? He will make a badugi about 1 in 5 times if he draws one on the third draw. If he bluffs sometimes, you must call with your queen badugi frequently. Because of that last bet, overall a queen badugi has significantly lower implied value than a better tri heads up preflop against a strong opponent who bluffs well, even if he only bluffs the river.

Concept 9. King-badugis suck. They are weak hands that require modest blind stealing value to be worth playing. If you have little chance of taking the blinds, fold it. There are special circumstances where this is not true, but whatever.

Concept 10. Against a lone opponent who raises with king-badugis preflop and stood pat on the first draw, it pays to raise after the first draw then stand pat. Preflop, king- and queen-badugis are the majority of badugis. Say your opponent always raises king-badugis and will fold queen-badugis to a raise and two more bets. Then well over half the time your opponent has a badugi preflop, your triple-barrel snows will take the pot. So you have good reason to bluff. As a start, if you get him heads up, I’d suggest snowing about a third of the time after the first draw until he wises up. I have not calculated this, so the optimum snow frequency may be different. The point is you should snow a lot against king-badugi players until they stop playing king badugis or start calling all the way. This does not work well against noobs but works great against players with a little playing time under their belts. For this snow trick to work best, your opponent has to know a king badugi is vulnerable but not realize it should be folded preflop most of the time.

Concept 11. In the situation in Concept 10, do not wimp out on the last bet. That is when he will fold.

Concept 12. If he calls a third barrel with king- and queen-badugis, stop trying to bluff him. Wait until he gets more experience.

Concept 13. You can play king-badugis profitably against straightforward opponents who do not snow. Just give up if they stop drawing.

Concept 14. Even if your opponent is straightforward, don’t raise him with a king-badugi from middle position. It is too likely that someone behind you will wake up with a good hand. You need modest blind stealing to make king badugis profitable against fair players.

Concept 15. Bluff! And do it with your weak tris. Most beginners don’t snow nearly as often against tight opponents as they should. This is particularly true with position after the first draw. Suppose an opponent draws one card on the second draw and always takes the third draw if he misses on the second. This player has about a 40% chance of making a badugi. But the real-life chances of him taking the pot can be lower, especially if he rarely calls down with tri hands. He might fold if he misses on the second draw, and even when he hits, he might fold a weak badugi. So what should you do when this opponent draws one and you have a weak tri hand like A46? You should sometimes bluff. One big reason is if you always draw on the second draw, any strong tri hand will likely call you down, especially if you also habitually draw on the third draw when you miss.

How often should you bluff? This is arguable. You have about a 1 in 4.7 chance of making a badugi drawing one card on the first draw. So at the second draw, you’ll have a badugi about 21% of the time. As a start, when a lone opponent draws one on second draw, try snowing 10% of the time you missed. This has you bluffing near a third of the time, a decent initial balance between capturing snow equity and not tipping your opponent off to your strategy. If your opponents play loose preflop yet won’t call with 5-tris like A35, snow much more.

What about when you have position on two opponents and both draw one on the second draw? Quite often your A46 will be behind a better tri hand. If so, you are a considerable dog to win at showdown. You have at best 12 outs to improve to A36 or better, and 47 cards remain unseen. (I say “at best” because your opponents are more likely to hold one of the 2s or 3s you need than random chance dictates.) Plus, when you improve you can still be outdrawn. Together your opponents have about a 63% chance that one or both makes a badugi, assuming they take the third draw when they miss. Your chances of showing down the best hand are low.

But what if they routinely fold these better tri hands against you when you appear to have a badugi? You remain a dog to win at showdown, but now you have a good chance of getting them to fold the better hand. So you should bluff sometimes. The frequency hinges most on how often they will fold those better tri hands. Don’t bluff people who don’t fold.

Concept 16. Don’t bluff with strong tri hands. This is critical. If you have A23, A24, or A34, it is almost always terrible to snow. You bluff to make better hands fold, but if your opponents drew a card, you very likely have the best hand. Even A25 and A35 have substantial tri-hand showdown value, so think twice before snowing with them. This strategy affects how you think about good tris preflop.

Concept 17. Wait, here’s when you should bluff with strong tri hands. There is one freak situation. Sometimes you will face a lone and sticky opponent who thinks you snow a lot. Such opponents call down often with tris. Sometimes one will also have good reason to believe that you have a weak tri and that therefore you are likely to snow. For example, say you open-raised on the button then drew one. He might expect you to bluff. In theory it can be optimal to sometimes fake-bluff by standing pat after the first or second draw with A23, A24 and A34. I say fake-bluff because you are representing a bluff, but you probably have the best hand. If he will call you much more often when you stand pat than when you draw one, it can be profitable to fake a bluff with a strong tri to induce action. But this is a freak situation. If your opponent will call or checkraise anyway, it is horrible not to draw.

One nice side effect of this freak play is your observant opponents will think you are nuts.

Concept 18. If they like their tri hands, bluff less. Once opponents figure out that you snow a lot, they should routinely call down with tri hands. Once they start calling with tri hands, you should bluff less.

Concept 19. Don’t snow before the third draw against three or more opponents. This is because it becomes very likely that someone will either hit a badugi or call you down with a good tri hand. As with most things in poker, there are exceptions. The big one here involves opponents who won’t call the river with tri hands, and especially opponents who will also play and then fold king- and queen-badugis. Against them the value of snowing often exceeds the value of drawing. The only limitation is how much snow can fall before they figure out what you are shoveling.

Concept 20. You should snow more with position. But you should still snow out of position.

Concept 21. Position is huge if players snow or if they checkraise with tri hands. Otherwise it is less important.

Concept 22. Because good tris are so important, you really want two cards to a royal (A-2-3-4) preflop, and A-2 becomes a solid preflop hand in manyway single-raise pots and in late-position heads-up pots.

Concept 23. Blind stealing is important. If your three remaining opponents will fold unless they have a badugi or 3 to a 7 or better, you nearly break even on stealing blinds alone by raising any two cards from the cutoff. So when it is folded to you in the cutoff or later, you should raise with a huge range of hands, or at least until they wise up.

Concept 24. You should play many two-card hands out of the blinds against a solitary late-position raiser who raises with a wide range. If you do not, he has an easy expected profit by open-raising with almost any hand then playing sensibly postflop. If the raiser instead raises only strong hands from late position, tighten up.

Concept 25. The variance in full-ring badugi is quite high. A 30-bet swing is nothing. What’s more, you might see 7-badugis and better every other hand for an hour, then not make a badugi for the next two. Be prepared to take a beating.

There are many more basic concepts to the game, but these will get you started.