None of which might count as the most urgent question you have about your poker game. You might even think this kind of thing wasn't for you. But if you are even a little bit curious, you might like a new game coming to PokerStars from tomorrow. It's called Fusion Poker. Fusion is a new game that blends together Hold'em and Omaha. Texas Hold’em can be a hard poker game to master; however, learning can be a rewarding challenge. In fact, getting to understand Texas Hold'em terms such as “bluffing”, “having position” and “going all-in” are some of the most appealing things about this form of poker. Collusion – Poker is an individual game. Soft play, chip dumping, etc. Will not be allowed and may be subject to penalties. Etiquette Violations – Repeated etiquette violations will result in penalties assessed by the staff. As in Whisky Poker, the dealer deals a 5-card hand to each player and a spare hand of 5 cards. The play begins with the player to dealer's right. The phases of play and options are exactly as in Whisky Poker. When a player knocks and the others have had one more turn, all the cards are shown and the hands compared.

How To Play Poker Rules. Each of the many variations of poker has its own unique set of rules for play. There are, however, some standard rules that apply across the board in regard to certain circumstances. Learning and understanding these rules will make learning different variations of poker much easier and more enjoyable.

Introduction

Although this American game, whose name is sometimes spelled Whiskey Poker. is based on poker combinations, the mechanism of the game is entirely different from poker. Whisky Poker is what is classified on this web site as a commerce game: a game in which players improve their hands by exchanging cards with a common hand on the table. It is described in many late 19th century and early 20th century card game books, but is less well known nowadays. A version of it is still played in Mexico, where it is known as La Viuda (the widow), or possibly La Vida (life). I will describe North American Whisky Poker first, followed by the differences in Mexican La Viuda.

Players, Equipment and Objective

From 2 to 9 people can play, using a standard 52-card pack without jokers. Each player needs a supply of chips, used for scoring. If playing for money, the value of a chip should be agreed before beginning.

The objective is to collect the best 5-card poker hand, by exchanging cards with a spare hand dealt to the table.

Deal

The first dealer is chosen by drawing cards (lowest deals), and thereafter the turn to deal passes to the left after each hand. Before each deal, each player contributes one chip to a central pool.

The dealer shuffles and the player to dealer's right cuts. The dealer than deals out the cards one at a time clockwise, beginning with the player to dealer's left. One more hand should be dealt than the number of players. The spare hand, sometimes known as the widow, is dealt to just before the own dealer's hand. The deal continues until each hand has five cards.

The players look at their cards, without showing them to the others. The spare hand, sometimes known as the widow, is kept face down in the centre of the table.

Play

The play begins with the player to the left of the dealer and continues clockwise. There are three phases.

In the first phase, the spare hand is face down, and at your turn you have three options:

1. Pass. You keep your cards, but reserve the right to exchange cards in future. The turn passes to the next player.
2. Exchange. You place your hand face up on the table, and take the spare hand in exchange. You are not allowed to look at the spare hand before deciding to do this, and you do not show the spare hand to the other players. The second phase of play now begins. Your discarded cards form the new spare hand, and the player to your left is next to play as usual.
3. Knock. You keep your cards and give up your right to exchange. This causes the play to end before your next turn.

When it comes to the dealer's turn, if no one has exchanged, and the dealer does not wish to exchange either, then after the dealer has passed or knocked the spare hand is turned face up and the second phase of play begins.

In the second phase the 5-card spare hand is face up on the table, and at your turn you have the following three options:

1. Exchange one card. You discard one card from your hand face up to the table and take a card from the spare hand in exchange for it.
2. Exchange five cards. You discard your whole hand face up and take the whole spare hand in exchange for it.
3. Knock. You keep your cards and signal that the play will end before your next turn.

The play continues until someone knocks. The other players then have one more turn. When the turn reaches the (first) player who knocked, everyone shows their cards.

Scoring

When the hands are shown, the player who has the best hand (according to the standard ranking of poker hands, without wild cards) takes all the chips from the pool.

There is an alternative method of scoring, which works as follows. Each player starts with a small number of chips, usually five, which are not assigned a money value. When the cards are shown, the holder of the lowest hand must pay one chip to a central pool. The first player to lose all five chips to the pool is the loser of the game, and must pay for the whisky or other refereshments consumed during the game.

La Viuda

This variation, which is currently played in Mexico, was explained to me by Rudy Quezada. It is best for around 4-7 players.

The players agree on the value of a chip - say $1 per chip - and each player must buy an equal number of chips - usually two or three chips each. The money paid for the chips will go to the winner of the game. An extra chip called 'La Viuda' (the widow) is placed in a central pool. (Rudy Quezada suggests that it might have originally been called 'La Vida' (life), since it gives an extra life to the player who buys it.)

The game is played with a standard 52-card pack plus two jokers. The jokers are wild cards, and in addition there is a wild card determined by the number of chips in the central pool. In the first deal, the Aces are always wild, because there is one chip in the pool. 11, 12 or 13 chips in the pool correspond to wild Jack, Queens and Kings respectively; 14 chips would correspond to wild Aces again, 15 would indicate wild twos, and so on.

The game is dealt and played counter-clockwise. As in Whisky Poker, the dealer deals a 5-card hand to each player and a spare hand of 5 cards. The play begins with the player to dealer's right. The phases of play and options are exactly as in Whisky Poker.

When a player knocks and the others have had one more turn, all the cards are shown and the hands compared. The Spanish terms for the hand types, from high to low, are:

• Quintilla (five of a kind)
• Flor Imperial (royal flush)
• Flor Corrida (straight flush)
• Poquer (four of a kind)
• Full (full house - Tercia + Par)
• Color (flush)
• Corrida (straight)
• Tercia (three of a kind)
• Dos Pares (two pair)
• Par (pair)
• Carta más alta (high card)

The player who has the worst poker hand must pay one chip to the pool. Since the pool now contains two chips, twos will be wild in the next deal.

A player who loses all their chips is out of the game, unless they buy 'La Viuda' - the extra chip placed in the central pool at the start of the game. This costs twice the value of a normal chip; the payment is added to the money to be collected by the winner. If having lost your original chips you choose to buy 'La Viuda', you can continue playing until you lose that chip as well, and are finally eliminated from the game.

'La Viuda' can only be bought once, and only immediately after a player loses his or her original supply of chips. If the first player who runs out of chips buys La Viuda, subsequent players will be eliminated as soon as they lose all their chips with no chance to buy into the game again. If the first player chooses not to buy 'La Viuda', the option to do so passes to the second player who runs out of chips, and so on.

Note that when 'la Viuda' is bought, the number of chips in the pool remains the same as in the previous hand, so the wild card also remains the same, instead of increasing by one as it ususally does.

The game continues until all but one player have lost all their chips, and the last surviving player collects all the money paid for chips.

In rare cases it can happen that when the cards are shown two players have equally bad hands. The rules used in Mexico for resolving who wins in these cases were explained to me by Johan from Tamaulipas:

1. If two hands are otherwise equal, a hand with fewer wild cards (or none) beats a hand with more wild cards.
2. If two hands are equal as poker hands and have no wild cards (or an equal number), then look for sequences of two or more adjacent cards of the same suit. The hand with the best such sequence is better - longer sequences beat shorter ones and if they are equal in length higher sequences beat lower ones. Examples:
   • 8-8-9-5-4 is better than 8-8-9-5-4 because the 8-9 sequence is higher than the 5-4 sequence.
   • 8-7-6-5-4 is better than 8-7-6-5-4 because the sequence 6-5-4 is better than 9-8.
   • Q-Q-7-4-3 is better than Q-Q-7-4-3 because 4-3 is better than nothing.
3. If two players have the same hand and neither has a sequence (or both have equal sequences), then the number of red and black cards in each hand is counted. The hand which has more cards of one colour is better. Example:
• J-J-7-7-5 is better than J-J-7-7-5 because four red cards are better than three black cards.
4. If there is also a tie for most cards of one colour, a card is drawn from the deck and the colour of the drawn card has priority. Example:
   • K-K-8-6-5 versus K-K-8-6-5. The first hand has three black cards and the second has three red, so a card is drawn from the deck. If it is black (for example 9) the first hand wins; if it is red (for example 3) the second hand wins.
5. If the hands have the same number of cards by colour, then all the cards from both hands are shuffled together and each player draws a card from the top of the resulting stack: the higher card wins. This procedure is known as Manotazo. Example:
   • 7-7-10-9-4 versus 7-7-10-9-4. These are equal as poker hands, there are no sequences in suit, and each player has three red cards and two black. So these ten cards are shuffled and whoever draws the higher card will win.

Variations

Paul Martin reports playing a version with a shortened pack: two players play with a 20-card pack with just A-K-Q-J-10 in each suit, and an extra rank is added for each additional player, so that for example 7 players would use a a 40-card pack ranking A-K-Q-J-10-9-8-7-6-5. The winner of each hand scores 1 point, and the first player to reach an agreed target number of points wins the game.

Mike Baron reports having played a version in which when comparing flushes, the suit is compared first, using the suit order from high to low: spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs. So for example any heart flush beats any diamond flush, irrespective of the ranks of the cards. However, this is not the usual rule: the Mexican players I have asked say that flushes are compared in the normal way used in poker: the ranks of cards are compared starting from the top.

Rules & Strategy for Badugi & Badeucy Poker

Badugi is a draw game gaining popularity in the poker world these days and for good reason - it's a very fun, action-packed poker game.

Although it shares many aspects of its structure with other draw games, such as 2-7 Triple-Draw Lowball, Badugi uses an entirely distinct system for evaluating the winning hand.

A hand in Badugi is aptly named 'a Badugi.'

What is Badugi?

The origin of the card game Badugi is somewhat undetermined although many people have noted the similarity to the South Korean word 'baduk,' which means 'black and white pattern' - similar to what you might find in the game Go.

In North America it was reportedly played as 'Offsuit Lowball' in the 1980s in Winnipeg and a comparable high-low game was played in Toronto.

In Vegas some say it originated with poker pro Paul 'Eskimo' Clark, who reportedly brought the game back with him from his military service in Vietnam. These reports are unconfirmed, though.

How to Play Badugi

1. Badugi is a 'blind game,' meaning the player to the left of the dealer puts in the small blind and the player to the left of the small blind puts in the big blind.
2. Starting with the player on the left of the dealer and moving clockwise around the table, every player is dealt four cards facedown, one card at a time.
3. Once all players have their four cards the first betting round starts with the player to the left of the big blind.
4. Once the betting round has completed the players enter the first drawing round.
5. Starting with the player on the dealer's left the player announces how many cards he would like to throw away from his hand and receives new ones in return.
6. The dealer deals all of the cards to that player at once and moves on to the next player.
7. A player can choose to throw away no cards, keeping their hand intact. This is known as standing pat or rapping pat.
8. Once all players have received their new cards the second betting round begins, starting with the player to the left of the dealer.
9. This pattern repeats until either:
   • Only one player is left, the rest having folded.
   • The players have completed the betting round after the third drawing round.

If you'd like more information on things such as betting rounds or blinds, head to this article:

Badugi Hand Rankings

Once all betting is complete the best Badugi wins the pot.

1. A Badugi must be made up of the lowest one to four cards from a player's hand.
2. Hands are counted from the highest card down; the value of the hand is based on how low the highest cards in the hand are.
3. Aces are low.
4. All cards used must be of different suits and ranks.
5. Any four-card Badugi beats any three-card Badugi.
6. A two-card Badugi is beaten by any three- or four-card Badugi.

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How to Read Badugi Hands

• A♥2♣3♦4♠ - This is the best possible Badugi, known as a 'four-card 4.'
• A♥2♣3♦3♣ - Since you cannot have a pair this hand can't use the second three, making the hand a 'three-card 3.' This hand would lose to any four-card Badugi.
• 2♣3♣7♥9♠ - This is a three-card 9. Since the 3♠ is of the same suit as the 2♣, the higher of the two cards cannot be used.
• A♥2♣3♦10♠ versus 4♥6♦7♣9♠. The second hand wins with a four-card 9 beating the four-card 10.

Any two players holding the same hand split the pot. Once the player with the winning hand has received the pot, the player who was to the left of the dealer becomes the new dealer for the next hand.

Play Badugi online, free

The best way to get a proper handle on how to play Badugi poker (and how to play it well) is to play some actual Badgui hands, either live or online.

The best way we've found to get some free Badugi poker in is on PokerStars, where you can create an account and access the play-money games. You can play free Badugi poker online until your heart's content; then, when you're ready to try it out for real-money you can easily add a deposit to your account.

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How to Play Badeucy Poker

Two poker games that have exploded in popularity over the last couple of years are Badugi (as explained above) and 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball. Both are draw poker variants and tend to produce a lot of action.

Somewhere along the line someone also decided to make a split pot game by combining the two games. Badeucy was born.

Aces Are Bad

As a quick refresher: In 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball you're looking to make the lowest five-card hand. Straights and flushes hurt your hand and an ace is always high.

In Badugi you're looking for a four-card hand with one of each suit. This is called a Badugi. If more than one player has a Badugi, the lowest hand wins.

Normally the lowest Badugi is A-2-3-4. However, in Badeucy, aces are also high for the Badugi hand. This makes the best Badugi hand 2-3-4-5.Most Badeucy games run six-handed.

In Badeucy the goal is to scoop the full pot by taking half with the best 2-7 hand and the other half with the best Badugi.

Playing Badeucy

Most Badeucy games are played six-handed and fixed-limit betting is generally used. A button will determine the dealer position and the two players to the left of the dealer post the small and big blinds.

Once blinds are posted each player is dealt five cards. After a round of betting the remaining players may exchange cards or stand pat.

Players can exchange up to five cards, but this is not typical.

There are three draws in Badeucy with a round of betting after each round. Betting on the deal and after the first draw is in the small bet amount, or the size of the big blind.

Betting on the second and third draw is done in the big bet amount, typically double the big blind. After the third draw and final round of betting the remaining players go to showdown.

The player with the best 2-7 lowball hand wins half the pot and the player with the best Badugi hand wins the other half. In the event the same player wins both hands, he or she scoops the pot.Play Badeucy Now!

Basic Badeucy Strategy Tips

Like most split-pot games you want to focus on starting hands that give you the best possibility to scoop.

First, stay away from higher Badugis when possible. Since everyone is getting five cards instead of four the odds of improving to a lower Badugi increases.

For starting hands try and focus on playing hands requiring just two cards to complete a hand. Preferably you want at least three suits to start with. That way you have three draws to your Badugi and you can focus on your 2-7 hand.

Pump Your One-Way Hands

Unlike Stud 8 or Omaha 8 this is one game where you want to pump your one-way hands.

Let's say you get dealt 2s-3s-4s-5h-7d. You have the nut 2-7 hand but no badugi. In this case, don't worry about the other half and try and pump the pot.

Odds are that you will have multi-way action to the end and win half of a nice pot. Yes, there is a chance you could get quartered by someone else hitting the same 2-7 hand.

However the odds of that happening are not the same as in Omaha Hi-Lo. If there is a lot of action in a pot after the first draw and you have to draw more than one card it might be time to abandon the hand.

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Unless your game is very loose a lot of action after the draw is usually being driven by one or more players with at least half a made hand. These players are freerolling and pumping the pot. You're drawing and should wait for a better spot.

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