Badugi Poker Rocks

Badugi is one part razz, one part draw poker, and a whole lot of fun—depending on who you talk to.

Enteratlantis is now offering this unique style of poker, which originated in Korea. The site is running both poker tournaments and sit-and-gos, although the latter is seldom attracting the higher-limits players.

The more frugal players are giving it a try, though, and they seem to be enjoying it.

At a $5.50 buy-in, nine-handed sit-and-go today, Enteratlantis player "Sesamo" was playing the game for the first time and was poker chip leader with four players left.

"It's nice to have something different," said Sesamo.

Both he and "aaa222xx," another first-timer to the game, said they would very likely play again. Of course, it helps that they both made the money.

Badugi is a draw poker game that is similar to lowball, where players try to get the four lowest cards possible, all of different suits. So, A-2-3-4, all of different suits, would be the best badugi hand a player could have.

There are three different drawing opportunities, where players can draw anywhere from zero to four cards, and a betting round occurs after each one.

Time will tell if the game will become popular online. DoylesRoom had offered badugi a couple of years ago but withdrew the game from its selection due to lack of customer interest.

Enteratlantis is clearly trying to spark and maintain interest, setting up small-stakes tourneys throughout the day. A $2.20 buy-in tournament on Sunday attracted 112 entrants.

In Las Vegas, players can find a fairly regular mixed-games format at Bellagio, which contains badugi, for as cheap as $2-$4 and as expensive as $4,000-$8,000. The Imperial Palace poker room features badugi as part of its mixed games, as well, every Sunday at 7 p.m. Treasure Island also offers a standalone $3-$6 badugi game, although there are rarely enough players to form a game.

Top 10 Interesting Blackjack Facts

1. There is great dispute amongst the Italians and French as to who first invented the game of blackjack, although most think it to be the French.

2. The game was originally called vingt-et-un (French meaning 21).

3. It is well documented fact that Napoleon loved the game of 21 and played it when he had time to kill on his exile in Elba.

4. The name Blackjack came about due to a variation in the rules of the original game where payouts were given if a player held the black Jack of Spades.

5. Blackjack was banned in the US at the turn of the 19th century and went "underground" until 1939 when the state of Nevada removed its bans as it gave birth to Las Vegas.

6. In the early 60's Edward O. Thorp wrote a book entitled "Beat the dealer" detailing the mathematical workings of this casino game and is known as the father of card counting.

7. The publishing of Thorp's book lead to increased player attendance and winnings at casinos. The casinos then altered some of the standard rules, bringing about new variations of standard games.

8. Al Franesco was the inventor of blackjack team play, earning him and his team millions of dollars and resulting in the formation of many famous card counting teams over the years including the famous MIT card counting team document in the movie "21".

9. The seats positioned around a dealer at the poker table in blackjack are called "bases", and referred to as "first, second or third base", however these are the only baseball terms that appear in the game.

10. There is a Blackjack Hall of fame. It was launched in 2002 and honours blackjack experts, authors, and professional poker players who have made significant contributions to the game.

My Choice

Games are so diverse and numerous nowadays that it's hard to pick up "the one" that topples everything else for us. I choose Texas Hold'em for various reasons.

First, it's a poker game. Poker cards are available all over the world and a kind of household game device.

Second, the game takes roots in America. It's becoming very popular in the English-speaking countries and those under heavy influence of western culture. I won't exaggerate its status in poker game industry, but you can imagine that when globalization is on the way and modernization keeps head up, what's popular in the developed country surely would find its followers in other countries.

Third, my own situation guides to the game. I am fairly good at English. I make my choices when concerning different products or services on the basis whether it's "in" in the western world. I won't deny it's kind of vanity style. However, that's a style I can live with, and I live with it happily. HOHO.

Search for the Unexpected

A group of unicorns is called a blessing.

A group of kangaroos is called a mob.

A group of owls is called a parliament.

A group of ravens is called a murder.

Mozambique has an AK-47 assault rifle on its flag.

Camels have a straight spine despite their hump.

One in 10 Europeans is allegedly conceived in an Ikea bed.

A surfer once sued another surfer for "stealing his wave." The case was thrown out because the court was unable to put a price on "pain and suffering" endured by the surfer watching someone else ride "his" wave.

The = sign was invented by 16th Century Welsh mathematician Robert Recorde, who was fed up with writing "is equal to" in his equations. He chose the two lines because "noe 2 thynges can be moare equalle".

NASA boss Michael Griffin has seven university degrees: a bachelor's degree, a PhD, and five masters degrees.

27% of female lottery winners hid their winning ticket in their bras.

In eighteenth century English gambling dens, there was an employee whose only job was to swallow the dice if there was a police raid.

In ancient Egypt, killing a cat was a crime punishable by death.

In ancient Greece, where the mouse was sacred to Apollo, mice were sometimes devoured by temple priests.

In a deck of poker cards, the King of Hearts appears to be sticking his sword through his head.

In Calama, a town in the Atacama Desert of Chile, it has never rained.

88 is used as a symbol. The 8th letter of the alphabet being H, Neo-Nazis take 88 as salute code (HH as "Heil Hitler").

In China, due to sound resemblance, 88 is used as a shorthand for "goodbye" in IM chats.

If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die.

On the door to Tutankhamen's tomb, so goes the legend, was inscribed a curse: "Death shall come on swift wings to him who disturbs the peace of the king..."

When Columbus landed on U.S. shores in 1492, his men plucked wide leaves from trees, marked them with images, and played the first round of poker game on New Continent.

In the country of Turkey, in the 16th and 17th centuries, anyone caught drinking coffee was put to death.

Cat Got Your Tongue

Count to three; tell me what's on your mind.
Blackberry, you think of business mobile phone.
Blueberry, maybe it's your favorite savor of ice cream.
Strawberry, you would probably think of chewing gum.
…
Don't get me wrong, I am not into any "rainbow berry". I am talking about instinct and direct association. Next, I would try my experiment deeper and ask a guy, who is totally unaware of my subject. H stands for hint; G stands for guess.

H: Badugi, it's very popular and famous in Korea.
G: Spicy vegetable? Spicy sauce? …
(Click the link to see the right answer yourself, if you choose to skip the following part.)

H: Spade, it's a black spade.
G: Dirty miners underground dig for coal?

H: Heart.
G: Love, a romantic couple in the moonlight.

H: Diamond.
G: Crystal-clear little ring with shining light reflecting in… It hurts eyes.

H: Club.
G: VIP cards, red carpet, massage … Wait a minute. You are talking about the suits of poker cards, aren't you?

Badugi is a kind of poker game which originated from Korea. Poker players draw cards to form their respective hands. It's totally an alien among poker games in respect of poker rules, for the winning laureate goes to the one who has the lowest poker hand.

Korea is also famous for gimchi (spicy cabbages).

About the picture that I copied from a website—I always have a weird thought and uncontrolled fear that the images don't look like they are popping out in 3D but instead sinking into the graphic. In fact, I just can't see through it. Let me know what you see in the comments section.

Tilting in Poker

Poker tilt is when we do things we normally wouldn't because we are upset or irritated or disappointed for one reason or another. Although we know so many things, having the discipline to apply them every time we play is another matter. We know we shouldn't tilt while playing at a poker table; we know that we should stay focused at the table, but it is not what we know, it is what we do that separates us from the average poker player.

Emotional control is absolutely necessary to succeed in poker. Tilting is bad. Tilting costs us money. We all know this in our heads, but sometimes it is difficult to control. Learning how to control your emotions is probably the most difficult task in poker to master. The main thing to remember when playing online poker is … it is poker. It is a game of skill, but also a game of luck. Sometimes our opponents are going to go into a hand with the worst of it and come out of it with the best of it. If we understand that it is part of the poker game, then it is less likely to bother us. The thing that occasionally puts me on tilt is when I think I played a poker hand incorrectly. Normally when I do this, I have to get up and walk away from the table to clear my head. If that doesn't work, then I have to get up from the game entirely and call it a day.

Did You Know

"If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live."
This quote over the significant decline in the population of honeybees is attributed to Albert Einstein.

John Montague, Earl of Sandwich, was a man of doubtful integrity and a compulsive gambler who lived in the 1700s. He was so reluctant to leave a poker game even for a meal that he had a servant bring him a piece of meat between two slices of bread so he could eat with one hand and play cards with the other poker players. The new invention was dubbed … a sandwich.

"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." Dick Rowe said of the Beatles. The former was the executive of Decca Records (UK), the very company who rejected the Beatles. It happens in 1962.

In France, Blackjack call this land hometown. In French decks, the four suits represent the four classes: Spades represent nobility, hearts stand for the clergy, diamonds represent merchants, and clubs are peasants. Maybe here poker rules are different, too.

"Music is well said to be the speech of angels".
Scottish essayist Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) said this. But 100 years before his quote, across the English Channel (or La Manche according to French), a big name had the exact opposite feelings:
"Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung."
By Voltaire (1694-1778)

"All the evidence shows that God was actually quite a gambler, and the universe is a great casino, where dice are thrown, and roulette wheels spin on every occasion." Quoted from British scientist Stephen Hawking.

"Americans always try to do the right thing—after they've tried everything else."
—Winston Churchill

Host Your Poker Game At Home

The first thing you should do before you consider hosting a poker game at home is check the local laws in your area. Once you're sure no laws are broken, skip down to the section you are interested in.


Getting People Together
Hopefully this is the easy part. Typically, you are going to need somebody to make phone calls and get people together. You'll also need somebody to supply the house, table, poker chips and food/beverages. These can be the same person or several people, whichever is easiest. Sometimes people will even bring felt table tops just for poker, so tasks can really be split up. If you work at a bar or restaurant, sometimes you can hold free poker tournaments at your business, but again check with your local laws.

Setting Up Poker Tables, Chips, Cards
Somebody in your group will need to aquire poker supplies. I suggest convenience store or just Walmart for poker chips, cards, tables and dealer buttons.

Blind Levels and Payout Structures
You should visibly post your tournament's blind levels, payout structures, and rules so that every player (old and new) fully understands the game they are getting into. This will avoid unnecessary conflict in the future. You should also decide how you will handle chipping up.

Game Types
Whether you're running a friendly home game, or a larger tournament, you'll need to make it clear what style of game you intend to play. Cash game or tournament, texas holdem or seven card stud, limit or no limit, whether to allow rebuys, addons or bounties, other variants, and how to handle buyins and fees.

Moving and Seating Poker Players
Moving and seating players can get hectic in a larger tournament, but with a few simple rules you should be able to keep it under control. In a smaller game the emphasis is on fairness by ensuring quick table balancing.

Dealing and Shuffling
Consistent dealing and shuffling procedures can effectively ensure fair and speedy play.