[Tom Bayes]

Yeah, we've been discussing "Badugi" (also called Padooki or Padoogi) in the Other Poker forum.

For those who don't know, badugi is a variation of triple draw lowball that is played with 4 cards. The goal is to make the lowest hand with all 4 cards of different suits, so 432A rainbow is the nuts. Any hand with 4 different suits is called a "badugi" and beats any non-badugi hand, so KQJT unsuited (the worst possible badugi) beats a hand like 4c3c2dAh. If no one has a badugi, then the player with the best possible three card hand wins.

I've only played microlimits-chasing is rampant and no one really knows what they are doing. I don't have much of a handle on the game yet besides that drawing 2 and 3 cards every time is fishy and you want to draw "smooth" (i.e. draw to a low hand) to give yourself a decent chance to win if no one makes a badugi. Standing pat with a hand like a Jack-high badugi is pretty dangerous-someone will probably chase you down.

HL stands for "Half Pot Limit" which is big-bet with training wheels. As the name indicates, the maximum bet is half the pot size. I believe that it's usually correct to bet the maximum when the situation calls for you to bet.