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 he Guardian Poker Column |
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| Victoria Coren |
| Tues 21 Jun 2011 |
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Introducing the Badugi 2-7 Triple . .
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Why stop at one variant when you can combine two in one game?
Like the notes do-re-mi, once you have the basics of a poker variant, you can use it to sing any tune at all. Now you know Badugi (I'm talking to you, regular readers . . .), why not mix it into a split-pot game?
You'll that Badugi involves making a four-card low hand, no pairs and no flushes. Aces are low, so the nuts would be A-2-3-4 offsuit. If nobody has a four-card "dugi", the pot goes to the lowest three-card (offsuit and unpaired) hand. |
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Badugi is played with four hole cards; each player may change up to four cards, three times, with betting between each change. 2-7 Triple Draw is similar but with five cards instead of four: you MUST make a five-card hand, aces are now high and straights count against you. (So the nuts would be 2-3-4-5-7, the lowest five cards that don't make a straight, hence the name.)
These two variants combine very well into one: a five-card game with three changes, in which the final pot is split between the best 2-7 Triple hand and the best Badugi. You cannot have the nuts both ways, because aces are high in 2-7 and low in Badugi, but 2-3-4-5-7 with four different suits would be very strong indeed.
In my home game, we're currently loving "Straights and Badugis", our own invention. You play this one like 7 Card Stud, splitting the pot between the best Badugi and the longest straight. You'd be a happy bunny with A-2-3-4-5 (four suits). And you could bluff hard with 2-3-4 offsuit as your up cards, whatever you had hidden in the box.
Meanwhile, I'm off to the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, where Holdem is king. But you'd be surprised how many of these weirder games find their way onto the cash tables. Or will . . .
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