The object of Bourré is to take a majority of the tricks in each hand and thereby claim the money in the pot. If a player cannot take a majority of tricks, the secondary goal is to keep from bourréing, or taking no tricks at all. A bourré usually comes at a high penalty, including matching the amount of money in the pot.
Rules
The game is played with a standard 52-card deck, aces high and two to seven players. With seven players, only three cards may be discarded. After every player antes, the dealer passes out five cards to each player, one at a time. In a traditional game, the dealer flips their own fifth card – the last dealt – and that card's suit is considered trumps. As in Spades, the chosen suit beats all others; a two of trumps is "higher" in rank than an ace of any other suit. After the deal, each player states an intent to play. Many variants require an additional ante at this point. Those who are not playing in the hand fold; those cards are collected by the dealer. Once every player has stated intent, the dealer asks those still in the game how many new cards they desire. They can take any number from zero to five, discarding an equal amount from their original set; their discards go in a separate pile and the dealer hands them as many new cards as they discarded. If the main stock is depleted before all players have been serviced, the dealer shuffles the "folded" hands and deals those; if that stock is depleted as well, the discards are shuffled and used. Once everyone, including the dealer, has either folded or completed their redraw, the trick-taking phase begins. The first player to the dealer's left who is still in the game starts by playing any card ; rules of play are as follows into the pot for the next round. Deal then passes to the left. There are complex rules about forced plays; a simple example is when someone who has just taken their second trick holds the ace of trumps. Since the ace of trumps is unbeatable, they must play it as their next card. Similar occurrences are when a player has taken one trick and has both ace and king or ace, queen and jack. This is sometimes called the "cinch win" rule. If it is a "cinch" that you will win, you must win immediately by laying down the winning cards all at once. While the rules themselves are simple in theory, details about forced plays can make Bourré challenging for even a skilled player. The "must play to win" rule can have contentious results if a player is playing "nice", trying to keep others from bourréing. Most games disallow such "nice" plays; players must attempt to bourré as many other players as possible. As Bourré is a game with imperfect information and gamesmanship is expected to trump rules-lawyering, care should be applied to any analysis of rounds when looking for such "nice" plays.
Variations
Variations in rules of Bourré abound, possibly due to its nature as a regional game. Perhaps most common is the introduction of a pot limit, which caps the total amount a single bourré or renege can cost a given player. In some games, it is common for the dealer to ante for all of the players; this simplifies trying to determine whether individuals have anteed. In a sense, the dealer is paying for his face-up trump. In this variation, for a five-person, one-dollar-ante game, the dealer of each hand would ante five dollars. A common point of dissent is whether a player who holds trumps but not the lead suit should be forced to play a trump if he cannot beat a higher trump already on the table; while consensus seems to be that the "play to win" rule applies, groups of players are known to require a player to play trump even though the player cannot possibly win the trick. Punishments for misplay range from simple retraction, retraction-and-renege, or just a renege, which can lead to the misplaying individual attempting to bourré one or more other players. The default ante amount is understandably variable and the second ante is fairly common.
In the news
A game of Bourré apparently sparked the dispute which led to NBA star Gilbert Arenas's suspension. During an overnight flight from Phoenix to Washington, DC, on December 19, 2009, Arenas needled teammate Javaris Crittenton for losing over $1,000 in a game of Bourré. The two exchanged words, with Arenas joking that he would blow up Crittenton's car and Crittenton saying he would shoot Arenas in his surgically repaired knee. Two days later Arenas brought four guns to the Washington Wizards' locker room and left them, with a sign saying "Pick One," at Crittenton's locker. The incident, combined with Arenas's trivialization of it in the media, led to his suspension from the NBA on January 6, 2010. A game of Bourré also sparked a fight on the Memphis Grizzlies' team plane between NBA teammates OJ Mayo and Tony Allen in January 2011, when Mayo refused to settle a debt from a game.
