ShareThe game of Badugi has been played at the WSOP before, but never as a separate event with a bracelet on the line. Portugal’s Michael Rodrigues stepped up to put his name in the record books!
For those who have never encountered the game before, Badugi is a triple draw, lowball poker variant in which the object is to end up with the lowest four-card hand. The best (lowest) hand you can possibly have is A-2-3-4 of four different suits, known as ‘Badugi’.
As with the majority of events so far at this year’s WSOP, the numbers entering were nothing short of astonishing, with 516 entries and a $688,860 prizepool for the game previously only included in thee Dealer’s Choice events at the WSOP.
Jeff Madsen, Shaun Deeb, Allen Kessler and 2021 Main Event winner Koray Aldemir all gave it a whirl, with the bubble boy being another big name, Brian Hastings...
Hastings: 4♥ 4♠3♦ A♥
Toh: 9♠8♥ 2♠A♣
Vonk: Q♥ 10♠7♣ 4♦
Hastings triple draw was unable to catch Vonk’s dealt rainbow hand and he exited without a cash.
By the time day three came around, only 13 players were left with a shout at the bracelet, and it took a while to get down to the final table, England’s Lee Horton running into Ahmed’s perfect low Badugi 4♥ 3♠2♣ A♦.
Ahmed would fall next though, and he was followed to the rail by Danny Tang after he lost most of his stack to Popovych’s 4♦ 3♣ 2♠A♥.
Popovych also disposed of Matt Vengrin, and the remaining three had to come back for an unscheduled 4th day to determine the winner.
China’s Yingui Li guaranteed a heads-up spot when he got rid of Popovych, but he bluffed away the lead and was finally in need of a low heart from his third and final one-card draw...
Rodrigues: 7♦ 4♠3♣ A♥
Li: 6♠5♣ A♦
but the K♣ wasn’t it, handing the bracelet and $144,678 top prize to Rodrigues.
Final results
| 1 | Michael Rodrigues | $144,678 |
| 2 | Yingui Li | $89,415 |
| 3 | Serhii Popovych | $59,879 |
| 4 | Matt Vengrin | $40,996 |
| 5 | Danny Tang | $28,270 |
| 6 | Owais Ahmed | $20,557 |
The win is the biggest of the Portuguese player’s life, almost double his previous best at this year’s EPT in Monaco where he came 2nd in the €5k 6-handed NLH for a €71,500 ($75,410) cash.
