432A Badugi Poker

Here is one for the “know when you’re beat” series.

Remember the villain who I posted about making a great read that I had his 6 low badugi beat?

Same villain here in this hand.

I know this guy, he’s very tight and had I taken even two seconds to stop and ask myself what his raise meant I’d have tossed the hand. Soon as he flipped it over I realized WHO it was and thought “you schmuck”.

Moooooooooooraaawwwr.
PokerStars Limit Badugi t50/t100 – 7 players

UTG+1: t720
HJ: t120
CO: t1,600
Button: t3,055
SB: t1,120
BB: t2,940 (Hero)
UTG: t2,445

Dealing Hands: (t0) (7 players)
UTG folds, UTG+1 folds, 2 folds, Button calls t50, SB calls t25, Hero checks

First Draw: (t75) (3 players)
SB discards 2, Hero discards 3, Button discards 2,
||
SB checks, Hero checks, Button checks

Second Draw: (t75) (3 players)
SB discards 2, Hero discards 1, Button discards 1,
||
SB checks, Hero bets t100, Button raises to t200, SB folds, Hero calls t100

Third Draw: (t475) (2 players)
Hero stands, Button stands,

Hero checks, Button bets t100, Hero calls t100

Button showed , a Badugi: 4,3,2,A
Hero showed , a Badugi: 9,6,4,3
Button won t750

This villain is a good player and a nice guy so I don’t mind loosing to him specially when I’m learning something in the process! ;)

Carbon poker’s $200 badugi pot limit freeroll is tough. I took a few days off from it because I’d been going deep again and getting frustrated with coming up empty handed.

Went 121/1896 today and I’m glad I’m able to consistently go deep but I need to figure out if my strategy needs to change somewhere or if it’s luck or wtf…

I’ve tried ultra tight and that wasn’t really working out. I feel like I’ve found a balance that works for me it’s just a really tough game with how crazy some of the play is. You have freeroll maniacs aplenty willing to come back over the top to 4 bet all in a KJ62r then stand pat all the way vs a dealt 742Ar. Gotta dodge those.

Nub’s too…they can cost you big time getting mixed up in a hand with a nub when you’re on the wrong side of a close one. Dodge them too.

You need to watch for the sandbaggers. Guys playing ‘country dumb’ with the cards 532A in their top shirt pocket just waiting for the first good player to decide “he’s a nub and I have him crushed with my 743Ar”. Definitely dodge those.

Then when you get deep you end up getting moved to a table where you’re short stacked in comparison to the rest of the table and you have good players looking to make things real hard on you by tossing lots of chips around at the most inopportune times.

It’s a nice to know I’d still be a profitable player even in these conditions it would just be really nice to actually profit from this game.

How to play Badugi!

Badugi is a lowball variant of poker and as such is played like any other variant in it’s class of triple draw poker. If you’re not familiar with triple draw poker don’t worry it’s easy to catch on from an example but I do assume you have at least a basic understanding of common poker terms. If not please go bone up at the wiki or some other resource as there are plenty of great ones to choose from.

Badugi lowball meaning you want the lowest hand possible but suited and paired cards count against the hand. A 432Ar (r=rainbow or hand with one card from each suit)

Which brings me to my first tip – use the four color deck option when playing badugi. I don’t care how much you hate 4 color decks I recommend trying it as it’s a huge help in not misreading hands in badugi.

432Ar is the stone cold nuts and can NOT lose although…it CAN split a pot.

Preflop play is the same as in holdem. Players 1 and 2 left of the button post SB and BB and players are dealt their hole cards. You get 4 cards in badugi. One left of the BB is UTG and preflop play starts there.

Once the betting round is complete the SB starts the drawing rounds. On the “flop” or “first draw” players may take up to 4 cards with no restrictions. A betting round ensues followed by two more draws and betting rounds.

At showdown hands are compared starting with “are there any ‘badugis’?” A ‘badugi’ is any hand with one card from each suit that means one club, one spade, one heart and one diamond. If only one player has a badugi they win as a badugi beats all non-badugis. (hands with 1, 2 or three cards) If more than one badugi is at the showdown the highest cards in each hands are compared with the lowest card being the winning hand. If the high cards are the same, say 973Ar vs 9432r the 94 wins. You keep going down the line of cards until one hand wins or they are exactly the same and its a push.

If there are no badugis then you compare 3 card hands with any 3 card hand beating all 2 and 1 card hands

How can a hand only have 1, 2 or 3 cards?

Remember I said suited and paired cards count against a hand?

Lets look at some hands

This is the worst ‘badugi’ you can make. It’s a four card badugi just like 432Ar but it’s miles from being as good!

Here we have a pair of 5’s so one of them does not count in your hand and you have a 3 card hand of 765×. Pick a 5 and toss it.

Here is a flush, with suited cards only the lowest card of a suit counts so this is a ONE CARD HAND. Axxx

This hand sucks, it might look good to a beginner but you only have 2Axx. You can only count the As and the 2d the other 2s gets canceled out by both those cards and the 4d is no good because of the 2d.

Lets take a look at a poorly played hand with a beginner who, knows the game is lowball but has no idea about the suits/pairs thing.

beware the feral cow packs. they hunger.
PokerStars Limit Badugi t30/t60 – 8 players

HJ: t2,040
CO: t1,280
Button: t2,050
SB: t1,200 (Hero)
BB: t780
UTG: t1,480
UTG+1: t2,120
MP: t1,050

Dealing Hands: (t0) (8 players)
UTG calls t30, UTG+1 calls t30, MP folds, HJ calls t30, CO calls t30, Button calls t30, Hero folds, BB checks

NOTE – don’t even THINK about playing my cards from the SB with 6 in front of you

First Draw: (t150) (6 players)
BB discards 2, UTG discards 1, UTG+1 discards 1, HJ discards 1, CO discards 2, Button discards 1, BB checks, UTG checks, UTG+1 checks, HJ checks, CO checks, Button checks

Second Draw: (t150) (6 players)
BB stands, UTG discards 1, UTG+1 discards 1, HJ discards 1, CO discards 2, Button discards 1, BB checks, UTG checks, UTG+1 checks, HJ checks, CO checks, Button checks

Third Draw: (t150) (6 players)
BB stands, UTG discards 1, UTG+1 discards 1, HJ discards 1, CO discards 1, Button discards 1, BB checks, UTG checks, UTG+1 checks, HJ checks, CO checks, Button checks

HJ mucked
CO mucked
Button showed , a 3-card: 3,2,A
BB showed , a 2-card: 4,A
UTG showed , a 3-card: 5,3,A
UTG+1 showed , a 3-card: 4,3,2
Button won t195

That hand was one of the first couple in a new SNG but it was just brutal. Someone needs to take that hand down but that’s not the point.

Can you spot the newbie?

It’s the BB with he/she only has a 2 card 4Axx. The BB should have kept and and been drawing to those two cards.

This hand also shows great 3 card hands in the other hands at showdown. These are the kind of hands you want to be betting out and raising with to try and raise the value of the hand and drive other draws out. 32Ax is great till it runs into that 2Axx getting free cards and hitting KQ2A on the river.

Another tip is – don’t let the suits confuse you too much because once a ‘badugi’ is made the only thing that matters is how low it is. If talking about hands saying 432Ar confuses you think of it this way.

All those hands are 432Ar and as far as showdown is concerned they are all the same hand. (I used a 4s in each hand to show how there are more than “4 × 432Ar’s” possible just being built with one of the 4’s in the deck. there are 24 ways to make a 432A but I’ll get into that more in another post)

There is a lot of BS floating around this planet of ours. Such a limitless supply that if we could bottle and burn it as fuel, this rock we live on just might be Ok till the sun decides to swallow us whole or some humungo feral space rock feels we looked at it funny so he’s gonna headbutt downtown New York. (nothing personal NY I just hate the Rangers)

Lots of stories floating around about the origins of Badugi. Truth is not much is really known about where the game originated. Most popular (and with the info at hand most probable) theory is that the game originated in Korea. One popular myth is that ‘Badugi’ is Korean for ‘spotted dog’ but apparently no such word exists for spotted dog in the Korean language and the only usage of the Korean word for badugi is when speaking about the game. David Lenton has the best article about the origins of Badugi on his site playlowballpoker.com.

It is widely accepted that Paul Eskimo Clark introduced the game to the US after his tours in Vietnam. Interesting story about my father here, I’ll save for another post.

I’m sure there is a bunch of BS floating around about badugi which is fitting since there is so much room to BS within badugi!

Snowing in Badugi

If you google define:snowing you will see

Definitions of snowing on the Web:

• Snow is a type of precipitation in the form of crystalline water ice, consisting of a multitude of snowflakes that fall from clouds. …
  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowing

* deceiving, misleading, or winning over by glib talk, flattery, etc.

www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/The-Catcher-in-the-Rye-Study-and-Homework-Help-Full-Glossary-for-The-Catcher-in-the-Rye.id-53,pageNum-137.html

• deceiving, misleading, or winning over by glib talk, flattery, etc.

Yep, that’s snowing. I did that search as I write this. I had no idea if I would get a result I could use here but I was pretty sure I would which is why I always feel surprise when someone asks what snowing is. It’s bluffing. It’s deceiving and misleading your foes so that you might win with the worst hand.

“Ah HA!” you say “the fun stuff, well bring it on!”

Snowing is the art of making villain believe he is second best and getting a fold. Some think snowing is “standing pat when you don’t have a badugi” and yes you are doing that but it’s not always just about making your opponent think you have ‘a badugi’. You will face opponents who will make their hands, have your imaginary badugi beat and you can still convince them that getting away from the hand is the best option. You have to pick those spots carefully as they will be WAY too costly when you make a mistake and get called.

I’ve seen a lot of questions about snowing in badugi and most seem to think you want to snow with hands like

or

or even

These are not good hands to snow with. They are worth too much drawing with them to waste them with a snow. No the whole idea behind snowing is to turn losing cards in to winning cards. Winning cards don’t need ‘help’ they know how to win on their own it’s the crap cards you have to help along.

One strategy I’ve seen is to use flushes as snowing hands and it’s not a bad strategy at all. A flush in badugi is tied for worst hand with 4 of a kind. Both are one card hands in badugi and should never be drawn to but they do offer snowing potential. You’re turning cards that lose to over 270,710 hands or so into a #1 badugi in the mind of your opponent and baby 432A just don’t lose.

Using flushes to snow with can give you a nice natural frequency to your bluffs. They are rare enough that you won’t be snowing too often yet common enough to be a useful too in your arsenal. Quads or trips could be another good hand to snow with as are weaker 3 card hands such as 789×. The possibilities are limitless just make sure you’re not falling into the trap of thinking snowing with a hand like 32Ax is a good idea because “if I get looked up I’ll have the winner”.

There are times you will want to semi-bluff a hand like 32Ax because you know your image and a bet will induce a look up call from a weaker hand but again it’s dependent on the situation and you’re knowledge of the table conditions/villains.

I’m going to show some basic snows here, it’s up to you to figure out more creative lines.

Feral Cow Poker Hand Converter
PokerStars Limit Badugi t400/t800 – 3 players

SB: t2,420 (Hero)
BB: t7,110
Button: t2,470

Dealing Hands: (t0) (3 players)
Button folds, Hero raises to t800, BB calls t400

First Draw: (t1,200) (2 players)
Hero stands, BB discards 1,

Hero bets t400, BB folds

Hero collected t1600

Real basic snow here. It’s three handed I’m in the SB the BTN folds so this starts out as a blind steal and when he calls it turns into a snow. I stand, he draws 1, I bet he folds.

Next up green snow!

Moooooooooooraaawwwr.
PokerStars Limit Badugi t200/t400 – 2 players

Button: t6,900
BB: t5,100 (Hero)

Dealing Hands: (t0) (2 players)
Button calls t100, Hero raises to t400, Button calls t200

First Draw: (t700) (2 players)
Hero discards 1, Button discards 2,
||
Hero bets t200, Button folds

Hero collected t800

I play this like it’s a premium 3 card draw. Villain knows I’ll hammer all manner of premium 3 card hand HU if he calls the bet at first street I would have stood pat and fired out again. It looks like you made your one card draw and are strong.

Here villain and I have been going back and forth HU for a while and he has a tendency to chase me down if I’m betting and drawing so soon as I saw the cards preflop I knew this next one was going up on the blog.

Milked from the teat of a feral cow
PokerStars Limit Badugi t400/t800 – 2 players

BB: t6,250
Button: t5,750 (Hero)

Dealing Hands: (t0) (2 players)
Hero raises to t800, BB calls t400

First Draw: (t1,200) (2 players)
BB discards 2, Hero discards 1,
||
BB checks, Hero bets t400, BB calls t400

Second Draw: (t2,000) (2 players)
BB discards 1, Hero discards 1,
||
BB checks, Hero bets t800, BB calls t800

Third Draw: (t3,600) (2 players)
BB discards 1, Hero stands,

BB checks, Hero bets t800, BB folds

Hero collected t4000

With this hand I know as soon as I stand pat the hand is over but if I keep betting and drawing I can string villain along and then pat on last street. As you see the bet gets a fold.

Like I said these are all very basic snows and will generally look as such but when you’re SH or HU great cards are harder to come buy. As long as you’re not bluffing at every pot snowing in badugi can earn you profits you otherwise had no right to.

Here are a couple examples of snow attempts I’ve busted.

This first one wasn’t a bust but it’s one I took note of as a probable snow and later on in the game I do bust the same guy it will be the second hand.

Hmm the cows keep spitting that hand back out at me. I can’t seem to find anything wrong with the HH so I’ll type this one out.

The table had just gotten down to four handed. UTG raises, I fold, SB folds, BB calls. UTG stands pat, BB discards 1, BB bets, UTG calls?!?.

The BB just went fishing and he’s caught something. UTG has been playing any rainbow and he’s been pushed off some weak badugis this game already. Villain (BB) knows this so he tests the waters with a lead out bet. I suspect it’s a feeler because this guy knows how to check raise and being only 1st street he knows psudo-Hero would bet any 4 cards into a draw. Other than him catching a really marginal badugi and he does not want to risk a CR no other conclusions make sense to me here.

If Hero raises here villain would call and continue his draw but with the weak call he’s knows humpty’s on the edge of the wall all he needs is a good push.

Play continues with (BB)Villain stands pat now and (UTG)Hero discards 1. The transformation is complete. Hero keeps chasing last street only to fold at showdown. This was the first time in a long time during this game that villain did not show his pat hand. Generally means little but here with how everything made complete sense to me at the time I’m pretty sure this was a snow. So I make a mental note and play on.

A few hands after we got down to 3 handed this hand happened.

Milked from the teat of a feral cow
PokerStars Limit Badugi t300/t600 – 3 players

BB: t4,645
Button: t4,030 (Hero)
SB: t3,325

Dealing Hands: (t0) (3 players)
Hero calls t300, SB folds, BB raises to t600, Hero calls t300

First Draw: (t1,200) (2 players)
BB discards 1, Hero discards 1,
||
BB bets t300, Hero raises to t600, BB raises to t900, Hero raises to t1200, BB calls t300

Second Draw: (t3,600) (2 players)
BB stands, Hero stands,

BB bets t600, Hero calls t600

Third Draw: (t4,800) (2 players)
BB stands, Hero discards 1,
||
BB bets t600, Hero calls t600

BB showed , a 3-card: K,Q,6
Hero showed , a 3-card: 3,2,A
Hero won t6150

To be honest I wasn’t thrilled about calling the raise preflop but I remember thinking “Ok shady…we’ll play” I took an extra few seconds and I’m thinking he took that to mean I was weak and exploitable. We both draw 1 but I toss the wrong card. I chuck the 7 instead of the J. >.< Luck is with me though and I catch a the 2 for a J32A.

He bets out again. I really get the feeling this is turning into a snow line for him so I raise. He RRs so I cap it. He stands pat. This was exactly what I was expecting so I stand. I was considering breaking the hand here and probably should have but I wanted to see what he was going to do in the face of a pat hand. He bets out! Gawd I luv’em. He’s not going to budge. Ok in the off chance I’m wrong I call and break.

I’ve already decided in my head I’m calling down with 3 cards if I have to I’m about 90% sure this is a bluff and sure enough…Villain gave me a NICE CALL! after that one. He said the hand started with trip-K’s one of which he tossed to help sell the bluff.

Snowing can be a great tool if like all tools you use the right one for the job at the right time. Same thing with looking people up. Either one done too often will cost you a lot of chips over the long haul. Pick your spots!

432A

My breaking badugi post showed a hand with break value but I didn’t really talk much about that. I figured most people will look at the hand and see what I’m talking about. I should not assume that’s the case.

I had

The 3 card hand within that, 642x is a good drawing hand.

Ok Bob but we have a badugi so who cares if it has good draws?

Well my good reader, YOU do. What is the object of the game of badugi? It’s not to make a badugi which seems to be what many people think. No it’s to make the best hand for a given hand right?

Sometimes as in the example hand you will have a badugi and know that someone just drew to a better hand. You have a couple of choices in that situation.

You can bluff. If you RR everything enough villain might believe you and fold here but because of history you’re screwed. You know he’s got an 8 or better 98% of the time in this situation and no way he folds it, brute force is out.

You can fold. I still haven’t figured out why but even when it saves me chips I still end up with less chips after folding than I had when I started the hand. Hmmm two draws left and I’m not really feeling ready to admit defeat. (pride will cost you chips at poker trust me)

Or you can do what I did and break the hand. I RR here because the 3 card is good but it’s not great and I’ve only got two streets left to try and catch our villain. My best shot is HU. So I toss the Ten and cross some fingers…

It was a bad play by me especially since I know exactly whats going on in this hand but it shows how carefully selecting weaker hands can give you more options. If I had say T863 and villain bets into me there it’s auto fold. I would still be taking T863 out on a nice date it’s just I’m not going to marry the cards. 863x are probably dead cards and 63xx very well could be too so you’d muck.

In the beginning it can be hard to toss cards like that. You just don’t want to believe someone is not on a bluff. You’ll probably know the player well enough to know it’s not a bluff and still be looking up more often than you should with cards you know are beat. As I’ve said before knowing when to lay good cards down is one of the keys to long term poker success. Looking someone up to keep them honest is one thing but doing it consistently in the wrong spot too often makes you a target for abuse.

Next thing I want to talk about is how really knowing what’s in your hand will open options in play. Sounds strange right?

I looked at my hand. I know what my cards are.

Do you really?

There is one regular villain at our game who can be very tough to beat. I don’t generally take notes on players but that is going to change. I read a great article on player notes recently and the article really hit home seeing what notes should be on poker players. It’s a good read I recommend it. I keep great mental notes but you can get so much more specific with real notes, anyhow after losing to this person for more than a couple games one stretch I really focused on his play. He’s got some creativity in his game.

I realized that in early positions and with a full table he’s playing a much wider range of starting hands than one might think even after playing many games with him. What he’s doing is let’s say he gets dealt 852×. He’ll raise. Players will raise hands like this up into hands like 789x drawing and betting the whole way trying to induce a fold but that’s not what he’s doing.

He’s looking at this hand as two separate hands. The 852x which he will play if he gets enough folds (he will pick spots to snow from here!) and the 52xx which he will play if he gets too many callers. A hand like 852x in a 4-way pot is about 20%. HU vs 32Ax it’s about a 2-1 dog, not great but if you get folds and can isolate a couple of tight players you should be making moves trying to take down the pot. If you get loose callers left or more than a couple calls you break the 3 card and lay back till you catch or you get out of the way cheap if you don’t improve and someone bets. Obviously there are other plays off this line as well it’s up to you to know when you can make them.

It didn’t take too long to put this together once I REALLY focused on his play. The dealer was kind enough to help expose some of this in two games with kind of long streaks of crap cards.

It’s something I do as well but I was not using this at fuller tables like this player does. This play has more value later in the game when there are less players because the chances that everyone got dealt 3 jokers and a rules card are much higher than they are when there are 8 players. But if like everything else in poker, you pick your spots wisely it gives you more options to make a profit from weaker cards OOP.

There are four parts to your hand and you should be aware of them individually, as the different size hands and as a whole. Call it a zen thing if you like but if you’re only looking at your cards as the hand as a whole you’re probably missing options in your play.

Here’s a tip. Lets say its you and the button. You’ve called his raise pre flop and on the first draw you make your hand a smooth 8. You check raise, after the long pause he calls and draws one. You bet out and he raises. How do you play now?

Call. He’s caught a hand. Unless you have a top few nuts hand my experience says he’s got you beat. I wouldn’t recommend folding something like this because it could be close but I’ve seen this play out many times and it almost always ends the same. (I’ve played a TON of badugi) Villain broke a bad badugi or it was a snow (shouldn’t be the case in these instances though) and he came right back with a monster. I say you shouldn’t be catching snows here because if you have a hand like 43Ax you should be drawing not standing pat. The hand has more value drawing to it than snowing with it as proven by the fact that he just drew ONE to a monster to suck back out. If it was a snow and he caught a badugi it’s probably not going to beat you.

Naturally if the situation involves someone you know to be a class A move master you need to consider 3 betting but I would weigh that decision carefully.

I’ll show you a hand that went from K low to Q low to…check back to watch this hand transform from rags to razor sharp cards!

432A

I’m sure most of you already know about this great hand history converter but I just found out about it from DeathDonkey. Thank you Chris! This thing is great. I had tried it once before when I read somewhere it handled triple draw games but for one reason or another it was not working for my HHs. I’ve tried a lot of converters so I don’t recall what the problem was with this one but looking at the revisions badugi may not have been added yet.

So without further ado I present to you…

Feral Cow Poker Hand Converter

Feral cows can do what your favorite hand converter can’t do.

Big thanks to Chris for letting me know this was working for stars badugi (works for all stars games!) and a HUGE thanks to qyayqi and vbnautilus at Feral Cow Poker for making this tool available. The best by far I’ve seen!

If you are blogging here on DC and you want to use this hand converter you’ll need to fix the image tags and the link back to Feral Cow.

I’ve deleted a large section of this original post because the Feral Cows, obviously regular readers of my humble badugi blog, saw that there was a problem that only they could fix so they (insert whatever it is feral cows do here) into action! There is now a deuces cracked blog option!

Makes sense that feral cows would read my badugi blog imo. I mean if you know your poker history you know it’s as American as bailing out Chevrolet, bombs for oil and 24 hour moon pies. Poker is something they learned from watching countless hands played by campfire light on the trail. Wacthing. Learning. Waiting. Plotting…

Feral cows might not be the most intelligent creatures on the planet but make no mistake. Converting hands is an innate primal instinct so deeply ingrained in their DNA you would have to pull it out, strand by strand, with tweezers so small yet with a grip so strong it would rival that of the jaws of the rhinoceros beetle in a tug of war. Although, you wouldn’t have much cow left.

Big thanks go out again to vbnautilus, qyayqi

This hand happened last night after my post and it’s an example of break strength. When I raised here I fully expected a fold or two. Not only do I not get any folds but UTG takes 3 and the SB comes along to draw 2 every street.

The reason I left the names in is so a certain someone can see the hand. The BTN questioned my play saying “what a weird thing to do.. stand pat, raise and then draw” and “weak hand or bluff”. I tried to tell her what happened but I think she thought I was making shit up or something.

Alfie bets out into me first draw KNOWING I raised and stood pat. We play together we know each others game and he lives in the Philly area, I’m S.Jersey so we’re friendly on the game and as happens in poker friends, don’t like beating up on each other so him betting into me there tells me he’s got a good hand. Kind of froze me for a sec then I realized I have a playable draw and the move is probably to RR and drive the rest out. He’s showing me respect by not CRing me and he would someone else.

I told the BTN all this but I think she thinks we were working together but I really did want to drive the rest out. I think I have outs and don’t need someone else in the hand drawing.

So here you go Ms_An exactly how I told you it happened at the table.

Feral Cow Poker Hand Converter
PokerStars Limit Badugi t50/t100 – 6 players

UTG+1 rogerjr2005: t3,845
CO Hero: t1,960
Button Ms_Anthropy: t1,655
SB shirleypurly: t1,395
BB alfie thekid: t1,780
UTG tanf666: t1,365

Dealing Hands: (t0) (6 players)
tanf666 folds, rogerjr2005 calls t50, Hero raises to t100, Ms_Anthropy calls t100, shirleypurly calls t75, alfie thekid calls t50, rogerjr2005 calls t50

First Draw: (t425) (5 players)
shirleypurly discards 2, alfie thekid discards 1, rogerjr2005 discards 3, Hero stands, Ms_Anthropy discards 1,

shirleypurly checks, alfie thekid bets t50, rogerjr2005 calls t50, Hero raises to t100, Ms_Anthropy calls t100, shirleypurly calls t100, alfie thekid calls t50, rogerjr2005 calls t50

Second Draw: (t925) (5 players)
shirleypurly discards 2, alfie thekid stands, rogerjr2005 discards 1, Hero discards 1, Ms_Anthropy discards 1,
||
shirleypurly checks, alfie thekid checks, rogerjr2005 checks, Hero checks, Ms_Anthropy checks

Third Draw: (t925) (5 players)
shirleypurly discards 2, alfie thekid stands, rogerjr2005 discards 1, Hero discards 1, Ms_Anthropy discards 1,
||
shirleypurly checks, alfie thekid bets t100, rogerjr2005 folds, Hero folds, Ms_Anthropy calls t100, shirleypurly folds

Ms_Anthropy mucked
alfie thekid showed , a Badugi: 8,6,5,2
alfie thekid won t1200

This is not going to be so much a starting hands article as it is about hand selection, the importance position and what I like to call “the table”. I never really noticed the table till I started playing badugi. I’ve seen sort of the effect I’m talking about in other casino games but not poker. Schooling is part of “the table” effect.

Schooling is where you have cards but nobody will fold and the fish circle around you till one of them catches and BAM a suck out. It’s part of why so many “pros” hate limit versions of poker. You’re not going to put huge amounts of pressure on someone to fold with one big bet. Pressure sure but it’s nowhere near the same calling for most of your stack. Lots of suck outs in limit.

I realized today that the table is really a combination of all the other players tendencies and as a general rule limit tournaments will be tighter than a freeroll but looser than a cash game. Especially early. I know I’m much more likely to chase 2Axx through the turn when it’s still cheap than I am at later stages of the game.

The stages of a SNG also play into the table effect as I just illustrated. The “cheap” factor of early wagers means more people are willing to call with draws and you end up with a schooling effect early. When a table is schooling hand values decrease and it can be drastic. It’s the reason med suited connectors can turn a profit in multi-way pots in hold em.

Take 732Ar vs 43Ax with three draws to go. And lets say we know the pat hand only raises a 7 low or better so we’re tossing an 8. Troutulator says it’s about 81/19% If I add 3 hands to that mix, one good 3 card 642x, one drawing to an ok hand but he’s dead money and one with a 2 card 5Axx now that smooth 7 low drops almost 20% in equity.

On pokerstars a full badugi ring is 8 seats so that’s 3 more people being dealt cards to start. Even if early raises are heeded and you weed it down to one or two you’ve probably been called with good to very good cards and in limit no matter how much you fire at them many people will see all the cards they have a right to. I think schooling in hold em is a little different in that it’s the community cards that the fish are circling waiting to suck a meal out where in badugi 8 people see cards, a few are bound to have good starters. With 3 card hands winning as much as they do there are a bazillion good 2 card hands worth calling a raise with.

So it’s better to play any cards good, bad or ugly a bit more passively early on. I rarely bluff 8 handed no matter how many are actually IN the hand. People WILL call early and suck outs are to be expected often. I will play aggressively, absolutely but I pick my spots very carefully and most will be 100% situation specific. With good players you will get picked off if you try for second too often and let me tell you something it IS obvious.

I see this all the time where players are getting away with taking shots only because people didn’t improve to something like a 3 card 63Ax so they wont call but they are taking note and they WILL call you down eventually.

Here is a hand from today. 8 players one is sitting.

I’m UTG with

I call, fold, call, fold, fold, call, call, sitter folds.

I draw 1

We check around to the BTN who hesitates just enough that I know it’s a tell for her. You can’t rely on timing tells all the time because most are telling you a story you should not believe but this was one of those sub-conscience tells many people can’t avoid. I always wondered how the HELL?!? anyone could pick up tells at online poker and now that I really see them it’s amazing how much some people leak.

SB folds, I call and MP2 calls.

Draw 1

I CHECK!

You might say “you SHOULD check a 97 badugi” and you would be right most of the time but I know this person and she would not have hesitated that split second with a better hand.

MP2 checks, BTN bets, I raise MP2 folds BTN is frozen…she finally calls. I bet another round and she shows

I had her pegged for a J low but I’ll take it.

MP2 is expecting me to only raise a 7 or better most of the time and he knows it’s not profitable to be looking me up with an 8 in this situation. I’m not worried about him he’s either going to raise or fold. If he raises I’m beat but he’s ONLY raising a 6 or better here. He has no bluff for this spot and I believe he’d muck an 8.

Getting back to the main topic, I see players play bad badugis (should call those bad-dugis) pre-flop with a full table from early/mid position all the time. Trust me when I tell you It’s not worth doing. Guys willing to fire off all barrels early with PAINT.

You may get it to heads up eventually where any badugi has an advantage over almost every drawing hand but it will cost you in the long run. The median dealt badugi is Q752r. That’s the middle of the road in 4 card rainbows. 50% of badugis are better than Q752 and 50% are WORSE. It’s like a 98764 in 2-7 triple draw and there are HUNDREDS more hands that beat the badugi version.

It also means that most dealt badugis are pretty bad as far as badugis go. Good plays are all well aware of this and will tend to seriously discount your hand if it was dealt to you preflop. You can take advantage of this when you score a dealt monster and someone else catches one but what about those times the hand is not so good?

You’re in the BB and get dealt

3 limp and the SB raises (you expect all limpers will call) what do you do?

Villain known to protect her blinds now and again plus she has no problem betting good cards. My read was she’s on a draw. What do you do?

You could call and pat but that leaks way too much information. Everyone will know you got shit cards and you’re beatable. Maybe even bluffable. RR and pat? Ok but if she’s pat then you’re probably beat and QJT2 has no break value. You can’t toss the Q and expect a winning hand if you catch. In fact this hand is so bad you’d need to draw 3 and at that point you are so far behind you’re looking at the back of your own head wondering when you got SoOooo bald.

If villain is only on a draw you’ll most likely have 4 to the turn or river and the chances of one of them catching a better 4 card are very good. Player get priced in real fast in limit badugi when there are a couple players and a raise or two.

I mucked this hand and saved some chips when as prophesied the limpers call villain is drawing one and hits her 4 card scooping the pot with

You are UTG with

what do you do?

Again look at the hand. JT87 no break value to this hand, meaning if someone pats and you think you’re beat you can’t break the hand and try to draw to win. You’d have to discard the J and the T at a minimum. J642 has break value to it. You could toss the J and you’re drawing to a good hand if you think someone caught your weak badugi. Oh don’t forget there is a table full of players waiting on you to act SoOoo.

I mucked the hand and saved chips when the CO made

Not a great hand but would have beat me

If you had those cards in position or with fewer players OOP you might be able to play them it always depends on the situation. Only you can make the call to hold em or fold em.

Game is 5 handed, you in the SB, 3 good players who are playing tight at the moment and a sitter who is in the BB. Fold, fold, BTN limps.

You have

what do you do?

First thing you should look at, hand strength and break value if it’s a marginal badugi or worse. KT98 not even close. This hand is fat and ugly.

Next is position. We are O O P so we need to keep that in mind as well but we know wtf we’re doing so we can do things like this if we want.

Next is player tendencies. Sitters in the BB have a SERIOUS tendency to fold even though they could just check. I don’t have any numbers on this but trust me those dudes fold a lot. :P

Now if I raise here villain may interpret this as a take down attempt and he might fire right back. (its a spot I might try one, we have history and he will fold a 2 carder here) I don’t want to be out front with this hand having called a RR wondering if I’m good. It IS possible he limped with a pat hand to induce another 1/2 blind bet out of me since I was SB and BB is a sitter.

If he’s just on a good draw, his calling a raise or RRing me will likely make him pot committed through all three streets. I also expect a fold to my pat if he has marginal cards so I called & stood pat. He drew 1, I lead out and he folded.

Knowing his tendencies allowed me to play the cards without over playing the hand. It would have cost me to raise if he has a hand or gets creative and I buy it so I might be giving away a bet or two in this situation but in the long run I’m making money.

Knowing when you’re beat and better yet when you’re GOING to be beat is an area many players I see need serious work on. I regularly see 3 4 and 5 hands at showdown and that with two or more of them capping the betting along the way. It really boggles my mind to know that some people really can not seem to figure out when a T or a J or even a KING low badugi is no good. In my mind there is no worse play than to be the dead last hand at showdown and there are 4 or 5 people there and you’ve got 4 bets in last round. You might as well dissolve your cash in water and drink it cause all you’re doing is pissing it away.

DO NOT BE THAT GUY!

One of the keys to transitioning your game from mahi mahi to mako is knowing when it’s time to find a better wager. Forgetting the kings 5 ways at home plate knowing when to toss what WAS a good hand a second ago is a subtle skill you want to learn.

I’ll talk more about hand strength, knowing when you’re beat and lots more. Stay tuned!

432A

I’m 43 years old. Nobody alive today has grown up with video games more than I have. I had many of the first video games to be released to the public. We had pong the week it came out. I had this tank battle game you probably never saw that was damn close to the first one out in the arcades. Had 4 joysticks…was kinda cool for its time.

I don’t know why really because he just never struck me as the type of guy who would get as much enjoyment out of what really was just the dumbest thing you’d ever seen, but my mother’s boy friend at the time loved pong. Big biker-ish dude was into cars, bikes, guns, german shepherds yet he was like a little kid playing that thing.

Two white rectangles, kinda like the paddle in the game breakout if you’ve played that, and a fuzzy white square “ball” and it was TV tennis. Only, the paddles had a bit of “keep moving depending on speed” to em. The ball was slow as I don’t know what I was in third grade at the time and I can remember thinking we were the coolest people ever because we had one of these and nobody else I knew did…felt that way for like a couple weeks anyway. Then I was bored of it. I’d play once in a while but only if bored.

I’ve always had the best joysticks/mouse thingy I could get. I still have old game systems like a sega with the SF stick. That thing ROCKS! I’ve been using a trackball instead of a mouse for years and would never be without one. I’ve got a nice logitech, they make great TBs but this one has really big buttons, which I love, but they normally cost me chips at the poker tables. I’ll be moving my hand back to make a play and bump a button misclick. No big deal it does not happen often it’s just when I get a misclick it’s normally bad.

So today I’m playing a lil badugi and catch a 7something rainbow on 1st street in the CO. It checks around to me and I bet. The hand continues that way with everyone drawing or folding along the way. It was looking like another uneventful one badugi hand when I reach to make the last bet and BUMP I click check. Ok…no big deal the button was drawing and chances are he folds anyway. The draw also eliminates a CR here so imagine my surprise when BAM up come some chips. I know this guy and had he been pat I’d have tried a CR soon as he stood. He’s got a tendency to fire back with bad hands and a 7 low badugi is good enough to go to war with. I don’t figure to be bad here so I fire back, he calls. He’s got a 3 card.

I guess he figured I had checked paint and he could push me off it. Thing is he knows I know his act well and I’m calling damn near anything like that he throws up. Total gift to me. :D

My “mouse” is still in the red when it comes to hands it decides it wants to play but at least today it made me a profit!

I’m sorry I only have that one hand up at the moment but I’m really not happy with posting the raw HH like that. Nothing will convert play money hands that I know of and if there are any I haven’t found one that will handle badugi SNGs. I’m hoping that might change else I’m going to have to write my own. As far as videos go I’ve tried a few programs and CamStudio seems like the best free option so far. If anyone knows of better (I’m on a budget and there is no budge in my budget…gotta be free) please let me know. I also need to find one of the microphones I own.

432A

BTW – I think those times when someone gets sucked out on with a 432Ar when holding something like 532A should be called getting tea bagged because you get slapped in the face with DA NUTS.