Badugi

Objective

Win chips by making the best Badugi hand at showdown — the lowest possible hand with four cards, all of different suits and all unpaired.

The Basics

Badugi is a triple-draw lowball game. Each player is dealt four cards and has three opportunities to draw new cards. The goal is to make a four-card hand with no two cards sharing a suit and no paired cards, with the lowest possible ranks. Aces are always low. A complete four-card Badugi beats any incomplete hand regardless of ranks.

Setup

Blinds are posted before each hand: the player left of the dealer posts the small blind, the next posts the big blind. Each player is dealt 4 cards face down. Action pre-draw starts left of the big blind.

Betting Rounds

1. Pre-draw — 4 cards dealt. Action starts left of the big blind. Small bet applies.
2. First Draw — Players draw 0–4 cards. Betting follows. Small bet applies.
3. Second Draw — Players draw 0–4 cards. Betting follows. Big bet applies.
4. Third Draw — Players draw 0–4 cards. Final betting round. Big bet applies.

Bet Sizing

• Pre-draw and first draw use the small bet.
• Second and third draw use the big bet (2× the small bet).
• Raises are in fixed increments of the applicable bet size.
• Maximum of four bets per street, unless heads-up.

Key Rules

• A Badugi is a hand where no two cards share a suit and no two cards share a rank. The hand is evaluated by the number of qualifying cards, then by the highest card among them (lower is better).
• When two players hold the same number of qualifying cards, the hand with the lowest highest card wins; if tied there, compare the second-highest card, and so on.
• Paired or same-suit cards are removed when evaluating hand strength — the remaining cards form the effective hand.
• A four-card Badugi beats any three-card hand. A three-card hand beats any two-card hand, and so on.
• A player may draw 0 cards (stand pat) on any draw.
• Aces are always low. Straights do not count against a Badugi hand.

Common Mistakes

• A hand with two cards of the same suit or a paired rank cannot be a four-card Badugi — the duplicate is removed, reducing the hand to three cards.
• A three-card Badugi always loses to any four-card Badugi, regardless of ranks.
• Aces are always low — A-2-3-4 of four different suits is the best possible hand.

At the Table

Four cards dealt; three draws available. Best hand is A-2-3-4 with all four suits represented.