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Mixing it up: A Brief Guide to APT Hanoi Billions 2023’s Mixed Games

Ben Wilson / 24 Nov 2023

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Mixing it up: A Brief Guide to APT Hanoi Billions 2023’s Mixed Games

In addition to a hefty VND 60 billion (~USD $2.5 million) in prize pool guarantees, and VND 480 million (~$20,000) in exclusive Peel & Play promotions, the upcoming APT Hanoi Billions 2023 – running Dec 1-10 – boasts the largest and most ambitious poker schedule in the tour’s 15-year history.

The festival has a whopping 88 Trophy Events, which includes three flagship events – the APT Main Event, the APT Super High Roller, and the APT High Roller – and the usual Series highlights, plus an eclectic mix of games making their Asian debut.

In addition to the standard Texas Hold’em tournament format, the festival boasts a myriad of NLH variations such as Crazy Pineapple and Super Hold 'em, and there are an immense 41 assorted poker variants and variations on offer during the series, including 15 various types of mixed games with exciting variants such as Badacey and Badeucey making their APT debut, as well as a 19-game Dealer’s Choice tournament.

If that sounds overwhelming, don’t worry, we’ve compiled a list of the various mixed games running and included a brief explanation of how each game plays:

NLH

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In addition to the standard No Limit Texas Hold’em format, there are nine NLH variants on offer over the 88 Trophy Events, ranging from exciting All In or Fold and Crazy Pineapple games to Super Hold’em and Win the Button games, comprising 13 tournaments in total:

All In or Fold

Bomb Pot

There is also a Super Hold’em Bomb Pot tournament running Saturday, Dec 9 at 11pm local time, listed under that format below.

Crazy Pineapple

Deuces Wild

Double Board

Flip outs

Short Deck

Super Hold’em

Win the Button

OMAHA

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With 11 tournaments in the offering – including three Hi-Lo games – Pot Limit Omaha (PLO) is the second-best represented game at APT Hanoi Billions 2023. Depending on the variant, players receive either four, five or six hole cards and must make the best five card poker hand. All hands follow the standard poker hand rankings. Players MUST use two of their hole cards, unlike in NLH where they can use between zero and two.

The Hi-Lo variant plays slightly differently; a split pot game where aces play both high and low, if three or more cards eight or below are part of the five community cards dealt then the pot is split between the best high hand, and the best qualifying low hand. The best low hand is determined by the lowest two cards in a player’s hand, with the nut low being the A-2-3-4-5 wheel straight.

Big O (5 Card PL Omaha Hi-Lo)

PL Omaha High

Omaha Hi-Lo

Omaha Mix In addition to featuring as part of the nine mixed games on offer this series – see below under ‘Mixed Games’ – there is also a PL Omaha High and Hi-Lo mix game on the schedule:

DRAW

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There are seven draw poker tournaments on offer over the series. All draw poker games in the schedule play 6-handed, unless part of a mixed game which play 7-handed. Blinds are posted just like in a normal poker tournament, with a big blind ante (50% of the BB) in play in the NL variants. Standard poker hand rankings apply in basic draw poker, but there are also lowball variants of the game like 2-7, A-5, and Badugi, Badacey and Badeucey which use different rankings – we’ll examine some of these in more detail below.

There are no community cards in a draw poker game, with each player receiving between four and five cards each, depending on the game being played, and then opting to either discard and draw new cards, or ‘stand pat’ where they chose to receive no new cards, with the goal to make the best possible hand in the draws allowed.

2-7 Deuce-to-Seven is a single draw poker lowball variant also known as Kansas City Lowball Players each receive five hole cards and have one draw in which to make the best five-card poker hand. This being a lowball game aces play high, and the best hand is 2-3-4-5-7, followed by 2-3-4-6-7 and so on, with straights and flushes counting against you. So, if you were drawing to a low hand and ended up with 2-3-4-5-6 you would lose to all hands apart from a higher straight or a flush.

There is also a 2-7 Triple Draw variant where – you guessed it – players get three draws with which to make the best hand, so there are more betting rounds than the traditional single draw version.

2-7 Single Draw

A-5 Ace-to-Five is a single draw poker lowball variant also known as California Lowball, which uses an ace-to-five hand ranking where aces are always low and straights and flushes do not count. The ‘best’ or lowest hand is A-2-3-4-5, then A-2-3-4-6, A-2-3-5-6, etc. As always, the highest cards of an unpaired hand are compared first, so for example 7-5-4-3-2 beats 7-6-3-2-A. Just like 2-7, there is also a Triple Draw variant.

Badugi, Badacey & Badeucey Badugi is a four card lowball draw poker variant where the object of the game is to make the lowest hand – in this case A-2-3-4 made up of four separate suits – so no duplicate cards of either rank or suit. The game follows the standard small blind, big blind poker format, but there are no community cards; players are dealt four cards to start and can draw up to four cards over three betting rounds to make their best hand.

Badacey is a split pot game where the object is to make the best ace-to-five low along with the best Badugi. Straights and flushes do not count against you for the A-5 side of the pot, but they do for the Badugi portion. This means the best low is A-2-3-4-5. Aces are always considered low so the best possible hand for the Badugi half of the pot would be A-2-3-4 of all four suits, with a players hand considered incomplete if they do not hold a qualifying Badugi hand. Three unpaired, unsuited cards are classed as a three card Badugi or Tri hand and count towards the Badugi half of the pot, with a four card Badugi beating a Tri hand.

Like it’s Badacey counterpart, Badeucey is another split pot variant of Badugi and 2-7 Triple Draw where the pot is split between the best Badugi hand (with aces playing high in Badeucey) and the best 2-7 hand.

Mixed Draw Games These feature a combination of the above mentioned draw poker games, with five mixed draw poker tournaments on offer over the series:

MIXED GAMES

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In addition to the five draw poker tournaments on the schedule, there are a further nine mixed game tournaments on offer over the series which also feature games like Stud, Stud Hi-Lo, Razz, both limit and NL versions, combined with NLH, and the various Omaha variants in tournaments like R-O-S-E (Razz, Omaha Hi-Lo, Stud, Stud Hi-Lo), and the Nine Game, Eight Game, Seven Game and Six Game.

There is also a Dealer’s Choice tournament, featuring a whopping 19 games to choose from. This plays 7-handed, with the game changing every seven hands, chosen by the player on the button.

Draw poker mixed games play six-handed and the game changes every six hands. Stud and mixed games play 7-handed unless otherwise stated, with the game changing once per orbit (every 7 or 8 hands, depending on the game in question, listed in the event name and on the specific tournament page).

With buy-ins ranging from VND 3 million (~$120) to as much as VND 10M (~$410), this series is an excellent opportunity to expand your poker horizons so come on down to Hanoi and get mixing it up!

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