This game combines A-5 Triple Draw with Badugi to a split pot game where the best A-5 hand chops with the best Badugi hand – and yes, you can of course scoop!

The betting and drawing works just like in 2-7 Triple Draw, you get dealt five cards, and can draw as many cards as you like, up to three times. The betting starts with a small and a big blind, action starts to the left of the big blind pre draw, and to the left of the button after the draws. There is a betting round before/after every draw round, for a total of 4 betting rounds. Before the first and second draw there will be small bets (equal to one big blind) and after the second and third draw there are the big bet streets (two big blinds). A total of one bet and four raises is allowed on each street.

Your hand strength for the A-5 part is defined by the highest of your five cards. as long as the hand is unpaired. Therefore a 7-6-5-3-2 beats 8-4-3-2-A. If both players have a pair, the lowest pair wins, 8-7-4-A-A beats 5-4-3-3-A. For the best Badugi hand, normal Badugi rules apply, if you have 4 different suited unpaired cards in your hand, you have a badugi – the fifth card will be ignored. The lowest badugi hand wins, if no players got a badugi, then the best 3-card badugi wins, with the two last cards being ignored.

• Take your time before discarding – it’s very easy to misread your hand, and/or which cards to discard.
• In case of a chop pot, if there is an odd chip left in the pot, the extra chip goes to the 2-7 hand (“the five card hand”)
• In heads-up pots the dealers might leave the bets in front of you, do not stress out, you will get your change at the end of the hand if needed!

• Snowing in this game is usually not recommended, pots will go to showdown way more often with players hoping to get half the pot with their badugi hand.
• Be aware to not play mediocre hands without potential to scoop. 7c6c4h3h does look like a decent starting hand in A-5, but it’s a terrible starting hand in badugi. A hand like As2cXXX will be so far ahead for the badugi half, not only because A2 beats 63, but also because drawing 3 cards gives you way more chances to improve, than drawing 1 card.