Some people say that Badugi is only about making the best hand and there’s not much strategic finesse involved in it. When it comes to short handed Badugi though, I beg to differ.
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The number of players at the table is a huge factor in Badugi, one that directly impacts strategy. When there are more than 4 players at your table, the chances of someone making a 4-card Badugi are pretty high. With less than 4 players in the game, bluffing becomes much more important because the odds of a 4 Card Badugi plummet. What that means is that bluffing and aggression will be more important in heads-up Badugi than in any other stage of the game.
Heads-up poker in general is about aggression. Assuming that it’s a tournament we’re talking about and that the blinds are high, you don’t have time to bring your A+ TAG game to the table. You need to turn on the heat and you need to keep your opponent under pressure. The only thing is, you need to do it in a calculated manner. There will be people out there who will tell you to try to stick to TAG play heads-up and to slow-play your good starting hands, but I can tell you for a fact, that if you pair up two similarly skilled players in a heads-up match, the more aggressive of the two will win in the long-run.
Starting hand selection (or at least understanding the value of your Badugi starting hand) is almost as important as mastering aggression. Starting hand strength suffers some changes when one goes to heads-up play. Something that you would not consider playing at a full table can be a reasonable hand now. Loosen up your starting hand requirements quite a bit (increasing your aggression will call for this move anyway).
Dealing with your opponent’s aggression is the other essential aspect of heads-up Badugi strategy. Just as you tune your aggression to the circumstances, your opponent will loosen up too and he will try to place you under as much pressure as possible in order to force you to make a mistake. What do you do when your opponent takes control of the match-up by being more aggressive? You have two choices under these conditions: you can either pick up the gauntlet and try to out-aggro him, or you can turn into a calling station.
In order to out-pressure your opponent through aggression, you need to find out if he’s the type of player who’s willing to back down when confronted by someone even more aggressive. Just pushing against him on every hand while knowing that he will never back down takes the strategy out of the game, but sometimes it can be a reasonable solution.
Being a calling station is never good in poker. It’s always the fish who take on the role of the calling station at full tables and it never ends well for them. At a heads-up Badugi table though, becoming a calling station is actually an advanced way of dealing with aggression. I’ll have to put it forth though that it’s not a genuine calling station I’m taking about here, but rather a perceived one. A genuine calling station has no idea what his opponent is holding. You on the other hand, will have to make pretty good reads on your opponent and you’ll have to sell him the calling station image in order for this strategy to work.
If you’re playing heads-up Badugi, don’t forget that the number of hands played per hour will lead to an increased poker rake. Take the poker rake into account to when you try to estimate your profits.