How I Fell in Love With Badugi Poker

 

I had been playing Texas hold 'em for about 6 to 8 months online before I came across the poker game badugi. I first played the game of badugi poker as I entered a freeroll tournament at one of the online poker rooms I play in almost daily. Once the tournament started I realize that it wasn't a Texas hold 'em freeroll tournament. So I did what any Texas hold 'em player would do in my position; Bluff the pants off my opponents. I started to control my table for the first 20 minutes before they realize I was bluffing almost all my hands. It did come down to a few showdowns but I won the hands and didn't know how I won.

At this point I am starting to lose my big chip stack. So I folded a hand and quickly Google the rules for badugi poker. I learned that the best hand was 1, 2, 3, 4, all off suit. After I learned this I came back to my table ready to take down the tournament. Well that wasn't the case of course being a new badugi poker player. I came back to the table playing better then I did bluffing every hand. I couldn't believe how easy this poker game was and wondering why it's not popular as the other poker games.

While all of this is going through my head, I just lost about 3 4ths of my chip stack. I had to look over the hands to understand how I lost that hand. I had 6, 4, 3, 2, all off suit so I had badugi. This is called a 6 badugi. My opponent won the hand with 5, 4, 3, 2, all off suit. This is called a 5 badugi. Remember, the lowest hand wins. So I lost that hand by one point or one card. I was focus on winning all of my chips back and more. I wanted that guy out of the tournament for taking my chips.

Feeling like this I fail to realize that the big blind is now higher than my whole chip stack. The big blind came my way and now I am all in with one of the worst badugi's in the game. I have a J high badugi. I thought to myself, I had risk this hand by trying to get a lower badugi or let the hand ride out and hope that I am the only one with badugi. So I let the hand ride out only to lose to an 8 high badugi.