What should I do here after the 1st draw? I was tempted to check and throw the QJ away. Instead I bet, stayed pat, and ended up in 3rd place. Is a QJ badugi any good in this spot? I definitely should have let Monstre play sheriff on the river. Bad call.

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Played $10-$20 badugi on stars last night w/ markgritter, whipartist, and ejwu. Small world. I have been running really good at Badugi the last few days, making tons of draws and picking up a lot of pat hands, including plenty in the 6-9 range. Got to limp and then cap 3-ways a pat 6 just now before the first draw, against a pat 10 and someone who eventually made an 8.

I'm just playing straightforwardly, trying to draw smooth (drawing 1 to 8 or better in early position, shifting to rougher in later position, drawing 2 to about 4 or better). If someone has opened, I RR w/ about a 1-card 6 or better, call w/ a 7/8, fold otherwise. Not sure about calling w/ smooth 2-card hands, I do it sometimes but don't have much feel for when it is correct. Drawing 2 in Badugi is much better than drawing 2 in TD, because you have double the suits to catch, so it is much easier to improve.

I don't have much feel for how to make advanced plays like snowing, raising to get someone to break, that sort of thing. Mostly just trying to win by playing tighter in the early rounds than my opponents. I know when I started playing Badugi years ago, I would draw to a lot of rough 1-card hands, which I now think was a big mistake. (Although not as big as it would be nowadays, b/c we were playing the rule that if no one has a Badugi, it's the best 4-card lowball hand, so for example Ac2d3hKc *loses* to 9cTdJhQs, because the latter is a non-Badugi Queen and the former is a non-Badugi King. This makes drawing rougher correct, since there is much more luck in who wins if everyone misses).