Common Mistakes in Badugi

Mistakes To Avoid When Playing Badugi Poker Game

In mastering any poker variant, it is even more important to avoid basic mistakes than it is to learn how to make complex expert plays. Regardless of how much knowledge you have of a game, if you consistently make errors in play, you will be a losing player.  This article will teach you the most common mistakes in Badugi that beginners and advanced players alike make all too often.  Plug these leaks in your Badugi game, and you will have much more money in your pocket at the end of a session and enjoy the game more.

• In Badugi, the temptation is to play almost any hand you are dealt.  After all, you have three draws to improve, don’t you?  As a result, some players routinely draw three cards, or two cards when all they have is something like an eight and a seven in their hands.  This is the quickest road to being felted in Badugi.  When you start out behind in a hand, you will usually end up behind as well.  Worse, you will often convince yourself that you have a chance to win, and will keep chasing with the second or third-best hand, even once the betting limits double after the second draw.  By focusing on playing solid values aggressively, raising with pat hands and one-card draw to a seven or better, and only staying on two-card draws in late position in unraised pots with two card lower than five, you will keep more of your ammunition for situations in which you will be favored to win.  Of course, one of the frustrations of Badugi is that you will still often get run down by other players’ draws, however, by giving yourself the best possible chance to win a hand, you will ultimately be a profitable player as the luck evens out.
• On the other hand, when you feel that you do have the best hand, it is a mistake not to raise and re-raise with it.  Remember that the more players who remain in a hand drawing, the better the chance is that someone will get there, so unless you have a close-to-unbeatable hand, you need to try and get as many players out of the pot as possible.  This is especially true when you are dealt a vulnerable pat hand, such as a jack, queen or king-high Badugi.  While you are a slight favorite to hold up with this hand in a heads-up confrontation, as each additional player comes in, you become more and more of an underdog.  In fact, at a table where you know three or four players are seeing the draw every single hand, you are actually better served not to even play this hand, because you are likely to lose with it the great majority of the time.  At that sort of table, if you have something like K-4-2-A, you are better off discarding the king and trying to make a better Badugi.  If none of the others make a pat hand, your three-card hand is likely to be the best, and if someone does get there, your king-high hand will almost always be a loser.
• Finally, you need to be aware of how many outs you are likely to have when you are drawing against a pat hand, and then take into consideration the odds that the pot is offering you to continue.  For example, if you are playing in a $5-$10 game, and the pot size is only $30 after the second draw, you do not have the pot odds necessary to chase a one-card draw with a $10 bet, unless your opponent is likely to be bluffing a pat hand.  Even if he has just a king-high Badugi, you have at most 10 outs, which is worse than 4:1 odds of hitting.  Since the pot isn’t offering you a good price to play on, you should fold.

Avoid these common mistakes, and you are certain to be more profitable in Badugi, regardless of the stakes you play.