Discipline in Poker

Lately I've been playing a lot of Badugi on Poker Stars.  It has reminded me of one of the most important attributes you need to have in poker.  Discipline.  It's easy when you hold a three card, ace-deuce-trey Badugi to call a big bet against a pat hand.   But it is rare that you are getting the proper odds. So I have had to re-learn discipline.  It reminds me that I may be doing the same in Hold'em.  Its easy to talk yourself into overestimating implied odds to make a call.  So maybe this will help all my poker games

Learning Badugi 3 - Four Card Badugi Combinations

So now I want to start to get an idea of some of the odds involved in Badugi, and see if I can draw any conclusions based upon these numbers.

Total Possible Badugi Hands:
52*51*50*49/ 4!  = 270,725

4 card Badugi Hands: (no pairs, no matched suits)
52*36*22*10/4! = 17,160

Chance of being dealt a pat 4 card Badugi:
17,160 / 270,725 = 6.34%

Combinations of various 4 card Badugi Hands:

Highest Card	Formula	# of combinations
King	4*36*22*10 / 3!	5,280
Queen	4*33*20*9 / 3!	3,960
Jack	4*30*18*8 / 3!	2,880
10	4*27*16*7 / 3!	2,016
9	4*24*14*6 / 3!	1,344
8	4*21*12*5 / 3!	840
7	4*18*10*4 / 3!	480
6	4*15*8*3 / 3!	240
5	4*12*6*2 / 3!	96
4	4*9*4*1 / 3!	24

This means that the median badugi pat hand is somewhere around a Jack high Badugi.

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Learning Badugi 2 - Tips From Greg Raymer

The Ante Up Poker Magazine had WSOP main event champ Greg Raymer on their pokercast to share his Badugi tips before the AIPS Badugi event. It's clear Greg barely scratch the surface of his Badugi knowledge, but he still provided some great tips. I've outlined some of the key points here, but I'd highly recommend you listen to the entire interview (the 2009-11-20 podcast) to get the most of it.

• The first key is to play only good starting hands. Greg stated there are only 3 hands you should play.
  
  1. Pat Badugi - You can usually play any 4 card Badugi you are dealt pat.
  2. 3 low cards - If you have 3 unsuited cards low cards (e.g. 7 or an 8) you can play it. Position matters so you need stronger hands in early position.
  3. 2 card draws when opening in late position, defending the big blind or playing short handed. Both cards should be 4 or lower. Sometimes you can expand to include a 5.
• If you are opening the pot, ALWAYS raise.
• An A-2 draw is a favorite over a 5-6-7 with 3 draws to come despite needing to draw an extra card.
• A rough 4 card king high Badugi is a slight dog (basically a coin flip) to a better 3 card draw (e.g. A,2,3)
• If you are drawing fewer cards then all other players, you should always be betting/raising while draws remain.
• If you are drawing more cards you should always be checking then you can fold, call or raise as appropriate.
• When playing short handed, you can play more 2 card draws as well as 8 or 9 high 3 card hands.
• You can consider breaking a Q-5-4-2 Badugi if other players start standing pat. If heads up you may just want to fold or grit your teeth and call your way down.
• Snowing is a type of bluffing in draw poker. It involves not drawing cards, even if you do not have a 4 card hand. This may fool other players into thinking you have a 4 card hand, then you can bet them off their better 3 card hand.
• If you hold a 2-3-7 Badugi, you would rather draw against a pat jack high Badugi, than an A-2-3. You are less of a dog against the jack high Badugi.

Anyway those are a few of the highlights from the I captured from the show. Be sure to listen to it to get all the details.

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Learning Badugi 1 - Introduction

I was recently introduced to Badugi when playing in Event # 11 of AIPS IV coordinated by Ante Up Magazine's pokercast. I've gotten a hooked on the game. So I've started playing Badugi cash games on Poker Stars. So I thought I'd share my experiences as I learn the game.

For those that don't know Badugi is a 4 card draw games. The object is to get the lowest unpaired, unsuited hand possible (aces are low). So the best possible hand is A, 2, 3, 4 of four different suits. The tournament played as a limit tournament with 3 drawing rounds and a blind structure similar to a limit Hold 'em tournament.

For example, a $2-4 Badugi game would have $1 small blind and a $2 big blind. Everyone would be dealt 4 cards, then there is a $2 betting round. Then everyone that didn't fold can draw 0 to 4 cards. Then there is another $2 betting round. Then there is a second drawing round. Then a $4 betting round. Then the third drawing round, then a final $4 betting round.

If you still pair a card or match a suit after the drawing rounds, you cannot play one of your cards so you play a 3 card hand. A king high 4 card hand beats a 3 card 7 high hand.

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Learning Badugi Index

Here is an index to all my Badugi related posts.

1. Introduction
2. Tips from Greg Raymer
3. Four Card Badugi Combinations

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