Take tricks or pay the pot — everyone chases the same money.
A Louisiana trick-taking game played for a pot, where losing costs far more than winning gains. Everything you fail to take, you pay for.
A 52-card deck, aces high. Everyone antes into the pot. Five cards each are dealt, and the last card of the deal is turned face up to fix the trump suit.
Looking at your hand, you decide whether to play or fold. Folding costs you the ante and nothing more. This decision matters more than any card you will play.
Players still in may discard and be dealt replacements, up to five.
Five tricks. The rules are strict and unusually demanding:
You must follow suit. If you can beat the highest card played so far in that suit, you must. If you cannot follow suit, you must trump if you hold a trump.
There is no discretion. A player who fails to do any of this has reneged and pays the pot.
Whoever takes three or more of the five tricks wins the pot. Anyone who played and took no tricks at all is bourréd and must match the pot for the next hand — which is how the pot grows enormous.
If nobody takes three tricks the pot carries over, and every player who took none pays in.