Badugi Drawmaha

Drawmaha, except the draw half is a badugi

Start with Drawmaha: five cards, a flop, one draw, a turn, a river, and a pot split in two. The Omaha half is the same as always: Omaha high, exactly two of your cards plus exactly three from the board.

The difference is the other half. Instead of a five-card poker hand, you play a badugi: the best set of up to four of your own cards where every card has a different suit and a different rank. Four cards beat three, three beat two, and within the same count lower is better. Aces are low. Straights and flushes mean nothing.

It’s sometimes called Dramadugi or Drawmaha Low-Dugi.

30-second cheat sheet

• Five hole cards, betting, three-card flop, betting.
• One draw (1 to 3 cards at the WSOP, or stand pat), then turn, betting, river, betting.
• Half the pot: best Omaha high hand, exactly 2 hole cards + exactly 3 board cards.
• Half the pot: best badugi from your own five final cards, board ignored.
• Badugi: four cards, four different suits, four different ranks. Ace is low. Best hand is A-2-3-4 in four suits.
• Four-card badugi beats any three-card hand. Three-card beats two-card. Within a count, compare from the highest card down and lowest wins.
• No qualifier: even a three-card badugi can win the half if nobody has four.
• Limit or pot-limit. Seven players max at the WSOP.

Full rules

The deal and first round

Button and blinds. Everybody gets five cards face down. Betting begins left of the big blind.

The flop

The dealer burns a card and deals three face-up cards. Betting round, starting left of the button.

The draw

Starting left of the button, each player announces how many cards to replace and can’t change it afterward. The WSOP says 1 to 3, or stand pat. The dealer burns, puts the turn on the board, deals the replacements and there’s a betting round.

Only your final five cards matter. If you discard a card to chase a badugi, it’s gone from your Omaha hand too.

The turn, river, and showdown

Turn, betting, river, final betting round. In limit, BARGE’s rules use the small bet for the first two rounds and the big bet for the last two.

Omaha half. Exactly two hole cards plus exactly three board cards, best high hand.

Badugi half. The board does nothing. With five hole cards you may have more than one possible badugi, so use your best one.

• A badugi needs different suits and different ranks. A pair, or two cards of one suit, forces you to play with fewer cards.
• Ace is low. Straights and flushes don’t matter.
• The best hand is A-2-3-4 with four suits. 4-3-2-A beats 5-3-2-A: compare from the highest card down, and the 4 beats the 5.
• If nobody has four, the best three-card hand wins the half. The WSOP’s own example: A♦ 2♣ 3♥ 6♥ plays as three-card A-2-3, which beats A♣ 3♦ 4♥ 5♥ playing as A-3-4.

One player can scoop. Ties split their half. The WSOP gives the odd chip to the first tied player clockwise from the button.

Rooms disagree

• Draw cap. This page uses the WSOP’s 1 to 3 or stand pat. BARGE says 0 to 3, which is the same in effect. Other rooms differ for plain Drawmaha, so ask.
• Turn before the draw cards or after. The WSOP deals the turn first. Some rooms deal the draw cards first.
• Name. WSOP: “Badugi”. BARGE and Phenom: “Dramadugi”. The Resorts World mixed game: “Drawmaha Low-Dugi”. Card Player Lifestyle: “Drawmaha-Dugi”.
• Don’t confuse it with LOB. The home game that started this family, written up on Red Chip Poker as LOB (Limit Omaha Badugi), is a different structure: four hole cards and three draws. If someone says “Badugi Drawmaha,” confirm they mean the five-card one-draw game.

Worked examples

Nobody makes a badugi

Nobody has a badugi, so three cards decide

Board

Alice

• Draw hand (Badugi):3-card 3-2-A✓ wins
• Omaha hand (high):Two pair, Sixes and Fives

Bob

• Draw hand (Badugi):3-card 4-3-A
• Omaha hand (high):Four Fives✓ wins

Alice takes half · Bob takes half

There’s no spade among either player’s cards, so nobody has a four-card badugi. Alice plays A♦ 2♣ 3♥ (a three-card A-2-3) and Bob plays A♣ 3♦ 4♥ (A-3-4). A-2-3 is lower, so Alice wins the badugi half. Bob has 5♥ 5♦ in his hand and the board has two more fives, so he has four fives for the Omaha half.

A king-high badugi beats a beautiful three-card hand

A king-high badugi beats a three-card A-2-3

Board

Erin

• Draw hand (Badugi):K-4-3-2 badugi✓ wins
• Omaha hand (high):Two pair, Kings and Sixes

Frank

• Draw hand (Badugi):3-card 3-2-A
• Omaha hand (high):Two pair, Aces and Nines✓ wins

Erin takes half · Frank takes half

Erin has a pair of kings, but she can still play K♠ 4♦ 3♣ 2♥ as a four-card badugi: four suits, four ranks. It’s king-high and ugly, and it still beats Frank’s three-card A-2-3, because four cards beat three. Frank wins the Omaha half with aces and nines, which beats Erin’s kings and sixes.

The scoop

A four-card badugi that is also a straight

Board

Carol

• Draw hand (Badugi):4-3-2-A badugi✓ wins
• Omaha hand (high):Seven-high straight✓ wins

Dave

• Draw hand (Badugi):2-card Q-J
• Omaha hand (high):Three Kings

Carol scoops the whole pot.

Carol’s A♦ 2♣ 3♥ 4♠ is the best possible badugi. The fifth card, 9♦, doesn’t hurt because it’s just left out. On a board of 5-6-7-K-Q, her 3♥ 4♠ makes a seven-high straight for the Omaha half. Dave’s five cards only have two suits, so he can only make a two-card badugi. Carol scoops.

How you’ll embarrass yourself

• Playing it like 2-7 or A-5. Suits matter in the badugi half. A pair, or two cards of one suit, shrinks your hand.
• Keeping a fifth card that wrecks the badugi. In the other direction, Steve Badger’s example: on a K-8-8 flop, keeping an 8 to make trips rather than a lower card of the same suit can be right even though it weakens the badugi.
• Falling for three small unsuited cards. 7-3-2 looks great for badugi and is a weak Omaha holding.
• Breaking a made badugi to chase Omaha. Everything you discard is gone from both halves.
• Overvaluing a rough pat hand. Badger says a pat king-high badugi is garbage once someone else has entered the pot.

Lore and reputation

Kevin Haney rates Dramadugi 8 out of 10 in Card Player (“easy to explain, decent action, most players approve of having it in the mix”). His one complaint: it’s hard to make a strong Omaha hand while also holding four low unsuited cards. He puts the chance of being dealt a pat badugi at roughly one in five.

Steve Badger lists Dramaha High, 2-7 Dramaha and Dramadugi as the three most common variants and says Dramadugi frustrates tilt-prone players more than the others. It has shown up in the $8-$16 mixed game at Resorts World (as “Drawmaha Low-Dugi”, Card Player 2023), in Phenom Poker’s “Super Circus” mix, and in a pot-limit BARGE 2024 tournament.

As for where it came from, that’s a claim: Red Chip Poker traces the family to the home-game LOB mentioned above, credits it to Todd Flannagan, and notes in a 2016 update that Nevada Gaming approved the game for the WSOP and that it was renamed Drawmaha. LOB itself was a different, four-card, three-draw game.