Hey everyone,
As stated in my previous post I am currently on a quest to clear our different first deposit b
onuses in order to add to the hopefully growing archive of experience reports in our First Deposit Guide. My first stop was PokerStars.
The PokerStars bonus is without doubt one of, if not the easiest bonus to clear. This is mainly because its only a 100% up to $50 bonus, meaning it can pretty much be cleared in a single day - depending on the limit you are playing on. I decided to clear it by playing NL25 SH since this is a typical limit many players might be clearing it on. Just like described in the the bonus guide I was collecting ~10 VPP per 100 hands and had cleared half the bonus by the time I reached 2,500 hands.
Running well with 28,4 bb/100 while playing standard 18,5% / 14,3% TAG style I decided that I had explored the regular limits enough to say: NL25 SH at PokerStars has a wide table selection, with moderately tight games (compared to other platforms I later switched to) but more than enough fish in the ocean. As such I moved on to explore some of the site's more 'unique' offerings.
High Traffic & Lots of Formats: Badugi
One of the most interesting perks of PokerStars is that it is beyond doubt the room with the highest amount of traffic. While this means there are lots of regulars & sharks around, it also means you have the ability to do some serious table selection. On top of this you can explore formats which are either not at all available on other platforms, or don't have high traffic. One of these which I chose to play is Badugi.
Badugi is a type of draw poker played with 4 cards and is simply teeming with fish and bad players. This is mostly due to many players wanting to try a 'new format' and not having the slightest idea of how to play it. Suffice to say I've yet to have a losing Badugi session.
The Rules:
The
rules are quite simple. Everybody starts with 4 cards and the goal is
to make the lowest possible (4 card) Badugi. A (4 card) Badugi is a
hand in which all cards are of different suits and there are no pairs.
Just like in regular lo games, the ace counts as a low card. The lowest
possible Badugi is therefore A
2
3
4
while TJQK would be the worst Badugi. For more information on hand rankings go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badugi
On PokerStars, the betting structure is a lot like Fixed Limit Hold'em. Not only because its offered in FL format but also because there is a button and the blinds move around the table in a clockwise direction. Just like in Hold'em there are also 4 betting rounds - seperated by three drawing phases. In the drawing phases each player has the ability to discard up to 4 cards. Position therefore plays an elemental role in Badugi - not only because you are the last to decide wether to bet or raise, but you also always know how many cards your opponents have decided to discard/draw before having to act yourself. This informational advantage allows you to expertly include bluffs in your repertoi.
General Strategy:
Essentially you can easily
beat the lower limits (0,25/0,50 & 0,50/1,0) by simply playing ABC
tight poker preflop poker and value betting till the river. If your
starting hand doesn't have two different suited cards under 5 (e.g. A2), three different suited cards under 7 (e.g. 236)
or a Badugi you don't want to be playing it. Even Badugis which are
higher than 9 high are often best broken up or not played at all. With
a TJQK
Badugi for example you will seldom be holding the best hand by the last
betting round when up against multiple opponents. So if you are looking
at a multiway pot (which is quite usual - you might as well throw it
away pre-flop). With a Badugi such as A23K on the other hand you can simply decide on re-drawing your king.
If you haven't improved to a decent 3 card hand by the 2nd betting round you should seriously stop investing money into the hand. Its going to get expensive from here on out and you are most likely not getting the correct odds to draw.
Generally when holding a 3 card hand you
have a 21% chance of hitting a Badugi per drawing
round (thus 51% to hit it after 3 draws). This does not mean however you will have hit the winning Badugi. If you can assume that your opponents will be holding lower than King high Badugis you need to count with having somewhere between 4-7 outs meaning your chance of hitting per round is more like 8-15%. It also means however- that when holding a good starting hand like A23
you are not only next to always (in more than 3 player action) getting
the correct odds to draw - but are also nearly always holding the
currently best hand! If the hand goes to showdown and no one has
improved to a Badugi you will always win. As such you want to
play such strong draws extremely aggressively by raising and re-raising
- since you are essentially value betting against worse draws. Against
players which you are sure are currently holding you can nearly always
draw according to odds & outs - especially if they are liable to
give you value in case you hit. If other players are also drawing 1 or more cards - you should bet, bet, bet.
Bluffing:
Bluffing or 'snowing' as its apparently called in Badugi is another great way of picking up pots. Generally there seem to be 2 types of players at the Badugi tables. Those who play way too loose and those who play way too tight. If you know what type of player you are up against (write notes!) you can quickly use this to your advantage. Lets say you are in a HU pot against a tight player who will always fold a non-made hand in the last betting round. If you yourself are drawing and know that he will only hit his 1 card draw every 21% of the time you can easily (while in position) stand pat (so not draw) after he has drawn on the last street and then bet the last betting round. If you are raised you have an easy fold - yet most of the time you will pick up the pot with a comparatively small bet into a large pot.
The other types of opponents are much too loose. Usually they play way too many starting hands (and be often seen discarding 3 cards in the first betting round or 2+ cards in later rounds - only to fold unimproved in the last round) and you have easy value bets against them. Sometimes they will even go crazy in the last betting round after hitting a Jack high Badugi and will CAP against your 'flopped' 6-7 high Badugi. Such gold mines are invaluable :)
The other type of loose players will often be seen trying to bully the table by constantly 'snowing the fish'. Be sure to take notes on notorious bluffers so that you don't fold too tightly on the last betting rounds with good 3 card hands. You might be ahead more often than you think.
). I did however manage to put in some good volume, average 12ish tables - up to 16 at times, but that's a bit hardcore with no betpot script (it doesn't work anymore.), for a total of almost 20k hands. I should try making clear, structured sentences.
