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PokerStars Adds New Badugi Poker Game To The Roster

As the world’s largest online poker room, it comes as little surprise that PokerStars.com and PokerStar.net are expanding the already massive list of available poker variants to offer members a classic Asian game known as ‘Badugi’.

Badugi is an ancient card game originating in Asia that could be compared to both Triple Draw and Lowball poker games. The betting structure parallels that of a standard poker game with blind bets, but players may only have 4 cards at any given time. Three drawing rounds ensue throughout a hand, where players attempt to develop the lowest possible, off-suit hand. Therefore, best possible hand would be something like Ac-2d-3h-4s – called a ‘Badugi’.

During each of the three drawing rounds, players may discard from zero to four cards, replacing them with new ones from the deck. The player with the lowest hand at the end of three drawing rounds wins the entire pot.

PokerStar.com has instated Badugi in all formats, Ring Games, Multi-Table Tournaments and Sit’n’Go Tournaments. Cash tables are offered in stakes of $0.25/$0.50 up to $2/$4 and have already attracted a good number of interested participants. The $1 to $10 SNG Badugi Tournaments, offered in Fixed Limit and Turbo styles, are bringing in good numbers, though the more expensive $50+ variety is slow going for now.

MTTs are also drawing a lot of attention, especially the $2+$.20 variety, available in Fixed Limit and Pot Limit, having registered its largest numbers at 112 players in a single session. Congratulations go out to PokerStars member “Tenace”, who took 1st place in that Badugi tournament on December 1, winning $56.01 of the $224 prize pool.

PokerStars is not the first online poker room to offer Badugi to its players. Doyles Room tested the poker variant, but withdrew it from the lineup due to lack of player interest. It should be interesting to see how PokerStars members take to the new game once the initial fascination wears off.

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