OMG they went with a Ten Game Mix

HORSE was not enough, so they added a limit draw game, 2-7 Triple Draw, Pot Limit Omaha and No Limit Hold'em.  That wasn't enough to satisfy the "All -a-rounders" so they also added No Limit 2-7 Single Draw and Badugi.  Badugi?  Yes, Badugi.  Pronounced buh-DOO-ghee.

Badugi is a triple draw, lowball game where the best possible hand is A-2-3-4 using all four suits.  If a card is paired or a suit matched, the card is not used and player only has a three card hand.  Any four card hand beats any three card hand, so A-2-3-3 loses to an A-2-6-K Badugi (four suits).  I think the math guys just wanted to have a new set of pot odds problems to confound the feel players.  I guarantee you that they have figured out how big the pot needs to be to draw two to a nut Badugi with two draws left.

I still have a problem with adding Badugi to the WSOP while marginalizing 5 Card Draw, the game seen played by Nicki Arnstien in Funny Girl and preferred by Bret Maverick in the classic western television series.  Wasn't it 5 Card Draw being played when Nicolas Cage lost Sarah Jessica Parker to James Caan in Honeymoon in Vegas?

How can they leave 5 Card Draw out of the Series?

A lot of dealers are avoiding the Ten Game.  They haven't dealt the games and they don't want to make mistakes at the table and be berated by the players.  I have learned all of the games.  I just haven't dealt many of them for two or three years.  Actually, it doesn't take long to get into it and most of the oddball games are fairly easy to deal.  There are some specific rules relative to procedure when you run out of cards in the Triple Draw and Stud games but I dealt the mix all day yesterday and Stud 8 for 5 hours the day before and never ran out of cards.  The fact is that in tournament play, conservative play is rewarded, so play is tight and rarely goes past the first betting round more than three handed.

Common dealer mistakes in mixed games:

Putting out a flop in a Stud Game
Forgetting to stack the pot in a High Low game
Keeping track of how many hands of a game have been played

There are some things that help.

To assure that you don't put a flop out in a draw or stud game, collect the antes and place them in the center of the table in the space where you would spread the flop if you were dealing Hold'em.  At the WSOP there is a box drawn in the center of the table for just this purpose.  If it is filled with chips, you just won't have any place to put a flop, so you will automatically deal the next up cards to the players.

The players don't really mind if you don't stack the pot until later in the hand.  It gives them a chance to see players across the table.  There is actually a lot of time to stack the pot in a seven card game and because you allow players to leave the bets in front of them when a betting round becomes heads up, it is usually not an issue.

Keeping track of the number of hands is a matter of routine.  A stack of non-playing chips are used by the dealer to track the number of hands. When playing a game where eight hands of each game are to be dealt, the dealer will have eight counters in the well and at the beginning of each hand one chip is to be moved from one stack to the other.  I find the one I screw up most often is the first deal of a game.  The counters are a new part of the routine but you must incorporate it into the deal process.  In 2008 Mimi Tran insisted that I move the counter chip after I put the cut card out to cut and deal but before I cut the deck.  Ever since, I have it imprinted in my brain that whenever I put out a cut card, before I cut a pause a beat and think, "Is there anything I need to do before I start dealing?"  The only two things I need to check are collecting the antes and moving a counter chip.  Routines are a dealer's friend.