How to Play Badugi

Updated August 2026 · 5 min read · By the Beyond Hold'em team
The short answer

Badugi is a draw game played with four cards, where the best hand is the lowest four cards of four different ranks and four different suits. Repeat a rank or a suit and that card stops counting. Aces are low, there are three draws, and the best possible hand is A-2-3-4 with one card of each suit.

The rules in six ideas

Coming from Razz, the low-card instinct is right and the shape is new: four cards instead of seven, and suits matter for the first time in the rotation.

1. Four cards, not five. The whole hand is four cards, and all four of them play — if they can.

2. Four different ranks and four different suits. A hand that manages both is a badugi, and that is where the game gets its name.

A badugi, and not a badugi
A♠
2♥
3♦
4♣
✓ four ranks, four suits — the best hand there is
A♠
2♥
3♦
7♠
✗ a second spade — the 7 dies, and this is a three-card hand

3. A repeat kills a card. Pair a rank or duplicate a suit and one of those cards stops playing. You are left with a three-card badugi, and sometimes a two.

4. Any four-card badugi beats any three-card one. However low the three cards are. A rough four beats a perfect three, every time — this is the rule that decides most pots.

5. Aces are low, so A-2-3-4 rainbow is the nuts. Nothing beats it, and nothing ties it but another one.

6. Straights are irrelevant. A-2-3-4 would be a straight almost anywhere else. Here it is simply the four lowest ranks, and nobody cares that they run in order.

Try it — which hand wins?

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Both players are at showdown. Who wins?

How the betting works

Blinds, and four betting rounds: one on the deal, then one after each of the three draws. Played fixed limit. Nothing is face-up at any point, so unlike the stud games there is no board to read — what you learn about an opponent comes from how many cards they take.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best hand in Badugi?
A-2-3-4 with one card of each suit. Aces are low, and four different ranks in four different suits is the best a hand can do.
What is a badugi?
Four cards with four different ranks and four different suits. Any badugi beats any hand that is not one.
What happens if you have two cards of the same suit in Badugi?
One of them stops playing, and you have a three-card badugi instead of a four-card one. The same is true if you pair a rank.
Is a three-card badugi ever good?
It wins if nobody has a four-card badugi, and those pots happen often. But any four-card badugi beats it, however low your three cards are.
How many cards do you get in Badugi?
Four, with three chances to draw. It is the only game in the rotation that is not played with five cards or seven.

Terms to know

badugipatsnow

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Badugi is coming to Beyond Hold'em — the skills transfer. Razz is where the low-card discipline comes from, and it is playable right now.

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