Doogie Rules

Doogie was contributed to pagat.com by Bob and Robin Procter in July 2000. Pagat notes that its four-suit low hand anticipates Badugi, which became popular some years later.

The game is played with a standard 52-card deck and no wild cards. The pot is split between the best high hand and the best low hand.

The high hand is an ordinary five-card poker hand, ranked by the standard hand rankings.

The low hand is a doogie: exactly four cards, one of each suit, with no two of the same rank. Aces are low. A hand that cannot form a doogie cannot win low.

Doogies are compared by their highest card, the lower winning, then by the next highest card, and so on, as in Badugi. A doogie is named by its highest card: a 7 doogie has no card above a seven.

The perfect doogie is A-2-3-4 in four different suits. A player holding it wins both high and low.

The source does not restrict which cards may be combined. Unless the dealer announces otherwise before the deal, a player may use any of their own six cards together with the four community cards.

The source does not specify forced bets. An ante from each player is the usual practice in home games.

Each player is dealt six cards face down. Four community cards are dealt face down to the centre of the table.

The community cards are turned face up one at a time, with a betting round before the first card is turned, between each turn, and after the fourth card:

After the fifth betting round, the players still in the hand declare simultaneously with chips held in a closed hand: no chip for low, one chip for high, two chips for both ways. A final betting round follows the declaration.

To win high, a hand shall be a full house or better. To win low, a hand shall be a 7 doogie or better.

Among players who declared high, the best qualifying high hand wins the high half. Among players who declared low, the best qualifying doogie wins the low half.

A player who declares both ways shall normally win both halves to take the pot. Under the contributors' house rule, a tie does not cost a two-way player the pot if the hand they tie with is the best possible hand.

The source does not say what happens to a half of the pot that no hand qualifies for. The dealer shall announce this before the deal; the usual practice is for the qualifying side to take the whole pot.