Badacey (A-5 & Badugi)

Badacey is a split pot variant of two different draw games in which the best A-5 hand and the best Badugi hands split the pot at showdown.

To learn how to play each game individually, please click the links below:
Click here for rules of A-5
Click here for rules of Badugi

Hand Rankings:
Now that you have studied the rules of the two games, you should have a pretty good understanding of how the games are dealt/played as well as the rankings of the hands as the hand rankings are the same.

How it’s Dealt:
Draw games are played using blinds, with the player sitting to the left of the dealer button posting a small blind, and the player to their left posting the big blind. Badacey is also sometimes played with an ante, to be posted by either all the players or just the big blind.

Each player is dealt five cards face down followed immediately by a round of betting, where players have the option to either call the big blind, raise, or fold. Players still remaining in the hand after the first round of betting is complete now have the opportunity to draw. In order, clockwise from the button, each of the remaining players will select which (if any) card(s) they want replaced by pushing them forward, faced down. A player may discard all five cards at once. Player may ‘Stand Pat’, meaning choose to not discard any cards. Once a player has declared how many cards they want to exchange, there is no changing that decision.

After the first draw, there is another round of betting, beginning with the first active player to the left of the button until action is complete. If you are playing single draw, that’s it, time for showdown!

If you are playing Triple Draw, there will be two more draws with a round of betting following each, for a total of three draws and four rounds of betting.

Determining the Winner:
With Badacey being a split pot game, the player with the best five-card A-5 hand wins half the pot and the player with the best four-card Badugi hand wins half the pot. In the event of two or more players having the same 2-7 or Badugi hands, that half of the pot will be split accordingly. In the event of an odd chip during the split, it is awarded to the hand that wins the 2-7 portion of the pot. In the event of an odd chip during the split of either the 2-7 or the Badugi side, it is awarded to the first active player immediately clockwise from the button.

Reshuffling:
Please note, in draw games, it is possible for more cards to be needed than are remaining in the deck. In this case, the cards are reshuffled, and play continues using the shuffled cards.