A word on Badugi Poker.

 

Some time ago, I think it was January 2010, I came across a weirdly named draw poker variant which was played strictly for low. At the time I was still trying to convince my mother to move away from Rummy and give Texas Hold’em Poker a spin but I was getting nowhere. She still insisted on playing the cards, had no idea how to at least semi-bluff with a drawing hand and won very few if any pots. Not winning did not help the learning as you might have guessed. Rather than just throw my hands up in the air and give up, I thought I would give Badugi a try.

I was quite pleasantly surprised then to note that, she did get it! More so my father who actually won several hands that day. Now let me clarify it was all play tokens with no real money changing hands but we still  managed to successfully experience the competitive thrills that such card games can offer the casual player. 

Badugi poker is perhaps one of the simplest versions of poker out there, at least simple when it comes to rules. You are dealt four cards faces down which remain hidden right up to an eventual showdown. You are playing for a low and Aces are always played as low. Anything from a pair upwards is bad and if you have two cards from the same suit you would have to scrap the higher one at a possible showdown. This said the best Badugi hand would be a 1-2-3-4 rainbow with all four suits represented.

…and that’s just all the rules you need to know to get started.

Badugi is played with Blinds and Antes so anyone familiar with Texas Hold’em knows how this would play out. There are three draws in Badugi, with a round of betting after each and before the first giving at total of 4 betting rounds. Yet before going into what to look out for and what to avoid when choosing what starting hands are worth playing let’s have a go at some examples and how they would fair at a showdown

[ NB – In the following examples lowercase c stands for clubs, lowercase d for diamonds, lowercase h for hearts and lower case s for spades. So for instance King of diamonds would be Kd, nine of spades would be written as 9s ]

EXAMPLE 1			Both hands are valid 4-card Badugi
PLAYER 1	As 2h 5d 9c	LOSES
PLAYER 2	3d 4h 6s 7c	WINS	Highest card (7)is lower than Player 1’s highest card (9)

EXAMPLE 2
PLAYER 1	Ah 2d 3s 4c	WINS	Player 1 has the lowest possible 4-card Badugi.
PLAYER 2	As 2s 3d 4h	LOSES	Player 2 only has a 3-card Badugi since both the Ace and Deuce are of spades.

  Yet if the rules of Badugi are rather straightforward, playing good Badugi is a different kettle of fish! To begin with, as you could have noticed from the two examples above, hands are not won by your lowest card but rather by the best worst card you can show. In example 1 for instance the Player 1 wins because his “highest” card is still smaller than the Player 2’s “highest” card. This irrespective of the fact that the loser had the lowest possible card in his hand (Ah).

When you will have played through a few good hands of Badugi you will become aware of how difficult it really is to get a valid four-card hand, more so if you insist on playing any four cards that are dealt to you. As with any other Poker variant being selective with your starting hands pays. Additionally you should as a minimum be prepared to showdown a strong three-card Badugi if you really want to start winning pots. Most average to good players will bet aggressively with a three-card Badugi as from the second/third draw, so if you happen to have an average four-card hand you might just want to call a bet placed after the fourth and final draw. There again, don’t dive into the deep end of the pool before at least getting a feel of how your opponent is playing his or her hands, or you could be betting away your chip stack sooner than you think.

Since in Badugi your ultimate  aim would be to look down at a dealt hand composed of 1-2-3-4 rainbow, if you happen to be dealt any two of these cards (obviously different suits) you should at least give the first draw a shot, that is if it wont cost you too much. Also as with all poker variants, knowing when to extract the most chips from a relatively weaker hand, play defense or attack relentlessly, is what really separates the winners from the losers. For instance if you are firing bet after bet only to be called by a player who is only drawing one card on every draw, chances are that player is drawing to a potentially strong final hand…therefore beware.

What if you are dealt an average 4-card Badugi hand, what would be your best course of action? Again as stated earlier, before you even dream of firing away, you need to at least be in a position to make an educated guess on what kind of hands your opponents will be willing to play. Definitely a good amount of information can be reaped from the first draw and how opponents respond to your second bet. Some may argue that not betting pre-draw signals weakness but on the other hand a strong bet might alert marginal hands you have something noteworthy and all you’ll end up getting would be the blinds and antes (if any).

Also two aspects that you should always keep in mind, and which apply to all poker variants that utilize the blinds structure, are position with respect to the blinds and then the number of players at the table. Acting last is always a big bonus because you can determine your preferred course of action based on the betting patterns of all your opponents. Yet the number of people at the table will also significantly impact any strategy adopted mainly as a consequence to the number of cards in play.

Consider that with more people playing the chances that one will have a four-card Badugi dealt to them increase proportionally. Therefore on a full table, bluffing with a measly 2 or 3-card Badugi is never the preferred course of action. On the other hand bluffing becomes more effective with 4 or fewer opponents.

Some odds worth noting, if you have a strong 3-card Badugi  like Ac-2d-3h-5h (5h does not count since you have a lower heart 3h) before the first draw, the chances of you hitting on a 4-card Badugi by the final draw is 51%. If by the third draw, all your opponents are still drawing, then Ac-2d-3h is most probably the best hand out there and you should bet/raise.

For anyone wishing to try something different to regular Hold’em, Omaha or 5-card draw….or maybe who feel better with draw poker variants, Badugi should really get your mental juices flowing. For those who would like to try their hand at playing Badugi online, Pokerstars do offer this variant through their client software. However I am not aware of there being any free-rolls or play money tables being offered so you will have to opt as a minimum for a micro stakes cash game, sit-n-go or tournament.

For more information on Badugi try one of the following links

All about Badugi at pagat.com

The Badugi Page on Wikipedia

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Five Card Draw–The grand daddy of Poker

 

Five Card Draw is considered one of the oldest forms of Poker and is one that places a lot of weight on a player’s ability to interpret opponents’ idiosyncratic tells as well as the ability to bluff in a timely and effective manner. Aside from these “clean” skills including when to play certain cards, and when it would be more appropriate to fold, in the old days the game attracted a lot of outright cheating and the consequential thievery.

In its heyday Five Card Draw gave rise to its fair share of card sharps (professional cheats), as well as a lucrative industry in marked cards that were used to swindle unwary punters out of their money and belongings. In those early days betting was seldom if ever restricted to table stakes (meaning you got to lose only the money you brought to the table) which meant that cheating, bad play or plain bad luck could see a man stripped of all he ever owned. As would be understandable, poker was therefore seen as a wicked game that brought ruin to those who played it recklessly or without   at least choosing the venue and players carefully.

Regardless Draw poker variants have their own charm, proof of the fact being that Draw poker remained an iconic representation of the game in the collective psyche right up to the advent of 7-Card Stud by which time it’s popularity as a card room favourite began to wane substantially. Yet Draw poker is far from dead. This year for instance the WSOP will still be holding some Draw poker tournaments in the form of Low Ball and Deuce-to-seven Triple draw.

Play in 5-card draw is simple. A designated Dealer deals 5 cards to each player at the table (2 to 8). Each player then views his cards and determines whether or not to stay on or fold his cards. Then starting from the first active player to the Dealer’s left, players are offered the opportunity to Check, Bet, Raise or Fold. When the first betting round has been settled the remaining players then proceed with a draw. During the draw, players can exchange anything from one to four cards. The Draw is then followed by another round of bets and any remaining player still in the game after the second round of bets proceed to a showdown where the best hand wins the pot.

Draw poker including all related variants places a great deal of emphasis on the psychology of play rather than actual evaluation of (card-related) partial information available at the time of play. For all intents and purposes no draw poker player ever has any significant information regarding an opponent’s holding other than that opponent’s betting and drawing patterns. Tells therefore hold an important niche in the arsenal of tools at the disposal of a Draw Poker player, all the  more so since the list of tools is indeed short.

While Draw poker did attract many players over the course of its history, it does not come as a surprise that many tried introducing variations to make the game more playable or perhaps marginally more exciting. Some speculate for instance that Stud poker developed as an attempt to compensate for this lack of information, which is blatantly obviously in Draw, as well as garner more action and betting during any given round. Still let us focus instead on some of the Draw variants that evolved but which remain strictly speaking part of the Draw family of poker games.

Jackpots for instance was a Draw poker variant that required that a player have at least Jacks or better in order to open for a bet. If no one had Jacks or better, then all hands were folded and a new deal would start over. The obvious angle of this variant was that the range of possible winning hands was significantly reduced leaving only the strongest hands to battle it out through bet-draw-bet and eventual showdown.

With just two betting rounds, Five Card Draw did not really offer the kind of action some players sought. This gave rise to another variation Double Draw. As the name suggests Double Draw offered a further draw and betting round. With two opportunities to improve a hand and three possibilities to manipulate the pot and game outcome through well placed bets, this variant offered more possibilities to those who endorsed its gameplay.

Another Draw poker variant that practically turns poker on its head is Deuce-to-seven Triple Draw poker. This variant is played for low. Aces are high so the best hand you can get (the lowest) would be 2-3-4-5-7. Why not 2-3-4-5-6? Well because in this variant a straight or a flush will count against  you. This variant with three draws and four betting round is perhaps one step closer the the modern more popular Community poker games such as Hold’em and Omaha which both have 4 betting rounds (pre-flop, post-flop, Turn and River).

Some poker pros have made their fame and fortunes playing Draw poker variants. John Juanda comes to mind as well as the mad genius of poker Mike Caro who wrote the chapter on draw poker in Doyle Brunson’s poker bible Super System. Personally I do not favour the rationale behind this branch of poker games favouring instead the structure of community poker games. Yet tastes will be tastes and I am more than sure that there are still poker players out there that love the very texture and game progression of Draw over other Poker variations.

Some actually argue that while 5 card draw does allow for some elements of strategy, ultimately techniques employed at the card table are mostly about projecting the impression of powerful hands using psychology and bluffing against other players. On a more tangible level, some pros recommend to never attempt drawing to straights or flushes (unless the price is right). Fold marginal hands with say no pairs or possible draws and play aggressively when you get good cards.

That’s all I have time for, hope you found all this informative interesting and that I have perhaps piqued your interest in this venerable genre of poker games. If you feel like delving deeper into the game-play and history of draw poker, follow this link.

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A Little Mahjongg

I have to state upfront that Mahjongg is not strictly speaking a card game since it is normally played with domino-like tiles as I have already explained in a previous blog. Still its similarity with the Rummy family of card games as well as it’s addictive gameplay make it more than just worth a mention or two in this blog.

Some months back, in late 2011, I finally got around to purchasing a good set as published by Gibson's. It’s a solid set that comes in a well-finished case with all you will ever need to play either traditional Mahjongg or most of the other versions out there with the exception of the American variant (this set does not come with any Joker tiles). The only aspect of the set which I did not like (but which I worked around by changing the items in question) was the size of the dice that came with it. 3 tiny dice that somehow did not feel right with the rest of the equipment put together.

That said, ever since I bought the set I played many sessions with family and friends and I loved every moment I spent playing. The problem with Mahjongg is that ideally you play in 4 but I have found out that it is possible to play in 3 (should putting 4 players together prove problematic) and still enjoy the game. When you do play 3-handed, one full circuit of hands is logically shorter but this is offset against each individual hand taking a bit longer to complete.

As with any game that is imported, so to speak, from another culture, teaching new players Mahjongg can be somewhat daunting. Regardless I was very pleased with my teaching skills when I managed to not only impart the fundamentals to my 80-something-year-old grandfather but to also see him win his first ever hand of Mahjongg on the third hand played.

The real challenge lies in the imagery adopted on the tiles which is indeed alien for westerners  unless someone sits down to actually explain the various pieces. If you are planning to teach someone how to play Mahjongg I have the following recommendations to offer which might help you with the task.

1. Forget about special hands and Chinese/Asian names, at least for starters keep it simple.

Mahjongg really comes into its own when a player starts using special hands to score extra points. However if you are still teaching a beginner how to put a valid winning hand together it pays to keep special hands out of the equation since in most cases these hands do not strictly speaking adhere to the standard structure of a winning hand. Also rather then call a run of three tiles a “Chow” call it a Run and rather than call a set of three identical tiles a “Pung” just call it a Set. Likewise call a “Kong” a Set of 4 and be done with it. Basically use terminology  the beginner is familiar with, leave the exotic names for later.

2. Some scoring rules need to be kept if anything to maintain the spirit of the game.

I more or less adopt the British Mahjongg Society rule set when I play the game. Following this rule set for instance you are entitled to have either one Chow or run or else all Chow (special hand). Since you would be teaching the game to a beginner just tell him or her that for now he will only be entitled to have one Run in hand and leave it at that.

The following rules should be imparted immediately as they will offer valid building blocks for intermediate or advanced play.

1. The first rule that should be emphasized is that a hidden Pung or Kong(formed by drawing a tile from the wall) is normally worth twice as an exposed Pung or Kong formed by picking a discard.
2. Tiles are picked from the wall in a clockwise direction but gameplay is anti-clockwise
3. If a player claims a discard out of turn (which is allowed under specific circumstances) play will proceed from the player to that player’s right and not from the one who was due to play next.
4. Runs (Chows) can only be formed from discards made by the player to your immediate left since direction of player is anti-clockwise.
5. Chows are worth no points, they just help you go Mahjongg.
6. Flower and Season tiles are never used in play, when a player picks one up he just sets it aside and takes another tile from the Dead Wall proceeding normally after that. Any Flowers or Season tiles score the player holding them 4 points (British Mahjongg rules) each in the case of victory.
7. You Cannot have a Run (or Chow) of either Dragon tiles (e.g. Red, White, Green) or Wind Tiles (e.g. North, South, West), you can can only have Sets of 3 (Pung) or 4 (Kong).
8. For the precise situation of teaching a beginner how to play, only a player going Mahjongg wins any points.

With the above rules in hand a beginner can get down to actually playing some Mahjongg while familiarizing himself with the tiles and what they mean. Obviously it would also help if the tile set were to have Arabic style ciphers as well as Chinese to help in the identification of the various tiles. This is all the more important for the suit called Characters which relies on Chinese characters for the numbers in question to differentiate one tile from another. In time as a player becomes increasingly accustomed to handling the tiles, he or she will learn what each Chinese character stands for. To be fair you only have to learn Chinese numbers from 1 to 9 since these are the only numbers you will have to handle when playing with a Mahjongg tile set.

So far I have made some assumptions for this blog, namely that I am addressing persons who know the game but who would like to teach it to a beginner. However if you would like some fairly good guidelines to playing various variants of the game click here! May I point out before you venture reading the material at the recommended link, that a full Mahjongg set inclusive of Season and Flower tiles is composed of 144 tiles. If you use such a set in its entirety then each wall built will have to be composed of exactly 2 rows (one on top of the other) of 18 tiles each. If on the other hand you opt the leave the Flowers and Seasons out, then you would be using 136 tiles which would make each of the 4 walls of exactly 2 rows of 17 tiles each.

If you are as yet not familiar with the diversity and global appeal of this game you will be surprised to note that there are countless variations out there spanning countries and entire continents. My suggestion is stick to the one you find more congenial and learn that one well before venturing to learn other variations.

The feeling I get when searching for Mahjongg related materials is that currently the Japanese variation has gained significant momentum, though as with all fads surrounding a game or sport, this might change in the future.

That’s all for today, some time over the coming months I might try putting a blog together regarding the full British Mahjongg rule set as well as my experiences playing this variation.

Until next time!

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