Bourré (also commonly known as Bouré and Boo-Ray) is a trick-taking gambling card game primarily played in the Acadiana region of Louisiana in the United States of America. And also in the Greek island of Psara with the name Boureki (Μπουρέκι in Greek). The game's closest relatives are probably Spades and Euchre; like many regional games, Bourré sports a large number of variant rules for both gameplay and betting considerations.
Contents |
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, his/her secondary goal is to keep from bourréing, or taking no tricks at all. A bourré usually comes at a high penalty, such as matching the amount of money in the pot.
The game is played with a standard 52-card deck; aces are high. (2-7 players) When there are 7 players the players may only diss 3 cards (as to not use the dead cards). After every player antes, the dealer passes out five cards to each player, one at a time. The dealer flips their own sixth card—the last dealt—and the suit of that card is considered trumps.In Psara version it calls kozia or atoy. As in Spades, this suit beats all others; a 2 of trumps is "higher" in rank than an Ace of any other suit.
After the deal, each player (starting with the one to the dealer's left and continuing clockwise) states their intent to play. Many variants require an additional ante at this point. Those who are not playing in the hand fold, and those cards are collected by the dealer.
Once every player has stated their intent, the dealer asks those still in the game (in the same order as before) how many new cards they desire. They can take any number from zero to five; 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 the 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 that is still in the game starts by playing any card from their hand (with few exceptions); rules of play are as follows, and a lower-numbered rule overrides any higher-numbered one.
The winner of a given round, or trick, collects the cards and places them face-up in front of them. They then lead with another card. Play proceeds until all five tricks have been completed.
Deal then passes to the left.
There are complex rules about forced plays; a simple example is when someone has just taken their second trick and holds the Ace of trumps in their hand. 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 the Ace and King, or (more complex) the 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, the details about forced plays can make Bourré challenging for even the 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 should (hopefully) trump rules-lawyering, care should be applied to any analysis of rounds when looking for such "nice" plays.
Variations in the rules of Bourré abound, possibly due to its nature as a regional game. Perhaps the 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 they cannot beat a higher trump already on the table; while the 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 (good for new players), 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.
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 was needling 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 indefinite suspension from the NBA on January 6, 2010.[1] He has since been restored as an active NBA player.
A game of Boo Ray also sparked a feud on the Memphis Grizzlies team plane between NBA teammates OJ Mayo and Tony Allen in January, 2011. "Mayo owed Allen money from a card game, ‘Boo-Ray,' and sources said Mayo became increasingly belligerent and antagonistic toward Allen when asked to settle the debt," Yahoo Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski reports. Allen walked away from Mayo, the sources told Wojnarowski, only to return later and find Mayo still berating him. Then Mayo "inched close to Allen" and "Allen hit Mayo." Other players separated the two, according to Wojnarowski's sources, and the pair was called in to talk to coach Lionel Hollins about it. Mayo missed the following game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, on January 5. The team says it was due to bronchitis, but Wojnarowski's sources say it was "connected to the fight."[2]