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.

Spring Cleaning for my Blog

The sun is shining with selflessness on this cozy spring morning. I just strung out six pairs of socks along the washing line. Maybe the mattress needs to be aired too. And the timing is perfect to start my blog renovation project.

Colors and fonts are changed. I add some purple this time, maybe brown next time.

Abundant widgets are deleted so they won't scare off new visitors. It's a hard choice but I think it hurts more to have a turtle-speed website. Though I try to follow some example to conceal some useful but not so nice widgets, the code part is just beyond me so I give it up.

Underlines of hyperlinks are removed to make text layout more smooth. Besides, I think these lines are really urrrrrgly. I went to numerous professional sites for the magical tip. Finally, I add the code "text-decoration: none" in the Edit HTML section. And Bingo!

The sidebar part needs to be better organized. And I should look for a nice background picture …

Anyway, I will keep trying to post articles of updates I'm doing and add a bit more non poker stuff to give my blog a bit more variety.

Learning is Winning

The other day, I was caught by a friend who asked me about the ABCs about Texas Hold'em. I was eloquent in explaining to him about poker glossaries, poker hand rankings, so on and so forth. But the cat got my tongue when it turned to bet structure.

The thing is, I can play comfortably in the game, but I took it for granted that I should have known therefore the poker rules and other "small" things.

So I logged into my poker room account, observed every step during the round, and took notes of what I was missing before.

Note 1

First of all, on the table there is a position called "Button". Basically it's the reference subject in the poker game. And this button rotates clockwise after each round of game.

The first player next to the button clockwise chooses to bet the small blind. Small blind is half of the big blind. Don't blame me if I am a little off the subject... For example, Room XYZ 3/6NL: No limit for bets, with 3 as small blind, and 6 as the big blind and minimum bet.

The second player next to the button clockwise chooses the big blind. As soon as he bets the big blind, which equals the minimum bet at one time, the 2 hole cards are dealt.

From the next player to the button, they have the privilege to see their hole cards before they decide to call the bet, raise or fold. So the button always is the last person to act. And he/she can see all other players' moves before making his own decision. So the button has an utmost advantage.

Then the ball rolls to the small blind. He can choose to call the blind, raise or fold, which in his position, would mean the loss of small blind.

Remember it's always the first person next to the button who has the first speak.
I am into my game once again... My hands are hot right now. I'll be inspired to do the teaching another day, I think.

Who Moved My Chips

I am not saying that I am reckless. But sometimes I just didn't know where my money has gone.

If there is someone I have to blame on, some of these flashy poker rooms are on my list. Quality of graphics is always these online card rooms' selling point, which however leads to the negligence of clear indication. At the end of a round, I even don't know who the winner is. I don't know if the server is unstable or something and I have to admit internet bandwidth is one of the elements involved. What I can see is the "montage" of poker hand actions in the twinkling of an eye. And then, a new round begins!

The story doesn't stop there! I don't know how much money I am offering to the poker room—the rake.

As luck would have it, I had the honor to chat with Robert Border, a WPT champion. He is obviously one of the best. "Professional poker player", that's the only title I can find for people like him. "Usually casinos don't put that (the information about rake) where most people can find it, it's buried in back pages…" Now I learned another inside rule! But not the exact percentage, still searching!

I wonder some guy in another corner of the world may meet the same problem. After all, these things are not registered in official poker rules.

Just now, news told me the French people pay 6,000 euro a kilo for a black mushroom—truffle. It really takes my thoughts away, and my breath, too.

Retrospect

I always try more luck than my knowledge when sitting at the poker table. As soon as my butt touches the chair, I forget those golden rules and calculation theories. Everyone did that, the consolation thought told me time and again. This time, after-thought urges me to write about my experiences and lessons.

Pot odds mean little to me when I was holding a 6c9c, with a board containing Kc3c4c4dTh. At that moment, my priority is the application of slow play, rounding in more players with more money. Flush is so big a hand, at least for me, so rare—my "professional" experience of Texas Holdem is no more than 300 hours!

Oh my! I just wish I was as clear-minded as when I mucked my hand and saw the playing as an on-looker. I bet right that a flush defeated a straight once. That hand made me once proud of my know-how of this game: not novice any more; I can type out my pundit-like opinion with "lol"s following my talk without the feeling of self-mockery.

My story: Last Friday, I spent the whole afternoon in one poker room, with my 8 other long-time "comrades". That round, my gut feeling told me to all in with 260 bucks. At that moment, I temporarily put my money's fate in the hand of luck, and luck just let me down …

Need a cute alias?

I have been hanging around online poker rooms for a while. The other day, while I was logging into one of my favorite sites, a thought came to mind. Why stick to your boring alias, like "happyguy1799", bla-bla? Why don't you change your "gender" online? It must be a real experience.

So, I followed my gut feeling, created a new account at an online casino, with a charming username "gigi". I took extreme caution when filling personal profile, leaving as few hints as possible that I was the opposite sex. I wrote: my favorite celebrity is the combination of Brad Pitt and Chris Ferguson; my dream is shopping on the Fifth Avenue after winning large at Bellagio Casino and Resort.

I doubt if I am the only guy who pretends to be a woman online. Men in the room would comment "gigi, give me a hug", something like that to distract me. Before using this female ID, I have no idea that players use chat rooms to read, bluff, intimidate and annoy our neighbors at the poker table. Now! I realize women are looking forward to socializing when playing poker. In my opinion, they will be much easier to be affected with all the clutter of people shooting arrogant comments!

After two days enduring fuzzy conversations and forgoing some hands that would confuse even myself, I terminated this "gigi" account.