How to play Badugi: four cards, four suits, lowest hand wins.
Badugi — also known as Padooki, Korean for "spotted dog" — is a lowball draw variant you'll find in mixed games, high-limit cash games, and private home games. Traditional hand rankings are thrown out entirely: the goal is the lowest four-card hand with all four suits represented. Aces are low, kings are high, and everything you know about made hands gets turned upside down.
Rankings by live cards.
Traditional poker rankings are thrown out entirely. A card only "counts" if its suit and rank are both unique in your hand — duplicates go dead. Any four-card Badugi beats any three-card hand, any three-card hand beats any two-card hand, and so on. Tap through the categories.
4-card Badugi
Four different suits, four different ranks. This example — A-2-3-4 rainbow — is "the wheel," the best possible hand. Roughly 2,800-to-1 against being dealt it on the first four cards.
3-card hand
Only three cards count — here the 3♣ duplicates the 3♦'s rank, so it's dead. A three-card A-2-3 is a strong drawing hand, and three-card hands win pots surprisingly often.
2-card hand
Suit and rank duplicates knock this down to two live cards (A♠ and 5♥). You'd need to catch perfect on multiple draws — usually a fold.
1-card hand
All one suit — only the lowest card plays. The worst category in the game. Unplayable.
Read each hand as a number.
When two players hold the same category, the lower hand wins. The easiest way to compare: read the cards highest-to-lowest as a single number.
Think of each hand as a number read highest-to-lowest — the lower number wins. QT98 beats K32A because Q is lower than K. When the highest cards match, compare the next card down, and so on.
How a hand plays out.
Badugi is a draw game, closest in structure to 2-7 Triple Draw: blinds and a button like Hold'em, then alternating rounds of betting and drawing. The three draws — where you can also "stand pat" — are highlighted. It plays best six to eight handed.
Post blinds
Small blind and big blind post forced bets, exactly as in Hold'em. Dealer button rotates clockwise.
Deal four cards
Each player receives four cards face down.
First betting round
Starting left of the big blind, players call, raise, or fold.
First draw
Discard up to four cards and receive replacements — or "stand pat" and keep all four.
Second betting round & draw
Another round of betting, then a second draw.
Third betting round & final draw
A third betting round followed by the final draw.
Final betting & showdown
One last betting round. Remaining players reveal — the lowest Badugi wins the pot.
Starting hand guidelines.
The central challenge: completing a Badugi is genuinely hard. Even three perfect low cards of different suits complete a Badugi only about 51% of the time across all three draws — which means three-card hands win a large share of pots, and your starting standards matter enormously.
chance a perfect three-card hand completes any Badugi after all three draws
Play 3-card hands (three different suits, all 8 or lower) drawing one card.
Draw two cards only if your remaining cards are two unique low cards (A, 2, 3, or 4) of different suits.
Never play a hand that requires discarding three or four cards.
Fold rough Badugis like 7-J-Q-K rainbow in multiway pots where opponents will likely outdraw you.
Standing pat (drawing zero) is a powerful play — even with a mediocre Badugi, pat hands pressure drawing opponents.
The draw count is the tell.
The number of cards an opponent draws is your single most important piece of information — far more reliable than any physical read. Standing pat means a made Badugi; every extra card drawn means a weaker hand.
Lowest hand. Hardest to make.
Four suits, four ranks, low wins.
A card only counts if its suit and rank are unique. Any 4-card Badugi beats any 3-card hand — and A-2-3-4 rainbow is the nuts.
Start with three good cards.
Play 3-card hands of three suits, 8 or lower, drawing one. Never play anything that needs three or four new cards — and remember even perfect draws only complete ~51% of the time.
Count their draws.
Pat means made, one means drawing, two means speculative. Bet into drawers, respect early pat hands — and use your own draw count as a weapon.