Bourré rules

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.

Players

Two to eight can play, and seven is often called the best number.

Getting ready

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.

That card is the dealer's fifth card. It belongs to the dealer's hand and is played like any other.

In or out

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.

The decision goes round the table starting to the dealer's left. If everyone else folds, the one player left in takes the pot without a card being played.

The exchange

Players still in may discard and be dealt replacements, up to five.

If the deck runs out, the discards are shuffled and dealing continues from them.

Playing

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. If the trick has already been trumped, you must overtrump if you can.

There is no discretion. A player who fails to do any of this has reneged and pays the pot.

Settling

Whoever takes the most tricks wins the pot. Three tricks always win; two are enough when every other player took one or none. 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 two players take two tricks each, nobody wins: the pot carries over to the next hand, and every player who took none still pays in.

Many tables put a cap on how much a bourré costs, because two in a row can make the pot far larger than anyone meant to play for.

Playing well

Fold more often than feels natural. A hand with no trumps and no ace can rarely win a trick under these rules, and staying in with it risks the whole pot to save one ante. High trumps are what win pots: the forced overtake means your low trumps are often spent for nothing.