Bourre (pronounced “boo-ray”) is a trick-taking card game similar to Spades. It is widely played in Louisiana, particularly within the Cajun culture and on the off-shore oil platforms near the Louisiana Gulf Coast.
Bourre uses a standard 52-card deck. Players ante up and are dealt a five card hand. They may then “fold” or continue, swapping out up to all five cards (in some variants they will re-ante to play a hand). The rules are fairly straightforward: (from Wikipedia entry):
- You must play to win. This goes beyond simply “playing a higher card”; if you know that no one else has any trumps, and it is your turn to lead, you must play trumps if you have them.
- You must play on-suit if possible, even if your highest on-suit card will not beat the highest card in play. Even if a trump has been played on a non-trump lead, if you have a card of the suit led, you must play on that suit.
- You must play a trump if you have no on-suit cards. You still must play to win; if the only trump played is a 3, you hold the 2 and the Ace of trumps but no cards of the lead suit, you must play the Ace of trumps.
- If you have neither any cards of the lead suit nor any trumps, you may play any card. This is an off card, and is effectively lower than the 2 of the lead suit.
At the end of the round, the person with the most tricks, takes the pot. If there is a tie, the pot stays in for the next round. If one of the players who played a hand did not take any tricks at all, he is said to have “bourreed” and must match the pot as his ante for the next round. Needless to say, the pot can get quite large, especially with larger groups playing.