dwenius

Back from vacation at the finger lakes, many updates and pictures to follow. But first, I want to help preserve a card game.

My family has played a game called Pedro for as long as I can remember, but only when we were all at the lake house with my grandmother. There are a couple of references to the game on the net, but the rules therein are WRONG WRONG WRONG.

Dealing

Pedro is a game for 4 players in two teams, no more, no less.

Cards are dealt clockwise, three at a time, until all players have 9 cards. These cards are picked up and used for the bidding process below.

The remaining cards are dealt, four at a time, in a "book" face down in front of each player. No fair peeking until the bid is won.

The Bidding Process and Scoring

The "Pedros" are the five of trump and the five of the suit the same color of trump; so if trump is spades, then the 5 of spades is Pedro #1 and the 5 of clubs is the other Pedro.

The Pedros are worth 5 points each, and that is what makes the game interesting. They represent the lion's share of the points, but are unlikely to ever take a trick on their own.

The Ace, Jack, Ten, and Two of trump are worth one point each.

The Ace, Jack, and Ten of trump are kept by whichever team wins the trick in which they are played; the Two, however, is kept by whichever team plays it. So if you are dealt the 2 of trump, that's automatically 1 point.

With the two Pedros, there are 14 total points per hand, and this point total, NOT the number of tricks or the number of trumps, is what you are bidding on.

The Player left of the dealer has the first bid, or may choose to pass.

A bid of 6 is generally considered to mean "I have nothing to take tricks with, but I have points in my hand to give to you, partner." Despite the apparent usefulness of this message, the 6 bid is rarely used.

Bids in 7-8-9 range are indicative of at least one strong suit.

In my family, a bid of 10 or higher is considered insanity unless you happen to be holding AKQ in one suit. A bid of 10 means you know you can take both Pedros, and before you look at your book, you almost never have that confidence.

The maximum bid is 14 (duh).

The bids proceed clockwise until every player has either bid or passed; high bid gets to call trump, however, all players pick up their books before trump is called.

Gambling that the ace you need is in your book is ill advised but happens all the time anyway.

The winning bidder calls the trump suit.

Wailing and gnashing of teeth ensues.

A note is made of the winning bid and which team made it.

After the hand is complete, each team totals up the point cards they collected.

If you make your bid, you keep your points. If you miss your bid, you subtract your bid from your team's score.

Note that the team that loses the bid can still collect points, although without the benefit of calling trump this can be difficult.

Game play

After picking up your book and discovering what trump is, players keep all trump suit cards (and the same-color Pedro) in their hand, PLUS enough cards to make a six card hand. So if you have 4 cards, you keep two random cards of other suits. All other cards are discarded. This is the key difference between our version and the online rules; they suggest ONLY keeping the trumps and throwing away everything else. Where's the strategy in that? If you already know how many trumps people have before you start play, that takes half the fun out of the game!

If, perchance, you have more then 6 trumps, you still keep ALL trump cards, and play "the extras" (the low cards you kept) on the first hand. A player holding 7 or 8 cards is a bad sign, unless it is your partner.

Winning bidder leads with the first card of the first trick.

Whoever wins the previous trick leads thereafter.

When you run out of trump, you are effectively done playing; in our family, saying "I'm out" and discarding your remaining non-trump cards is common.

If trump is led, and you have trump, you must play trump, but you do not HAVE to play a higher trump. Remember, the goal is collecting point cards, not tricks, so playing a low card on a trick that has no points in it is not a bad strategy at all.

If a non-trump suit is led, you do NOT have to follow suit, NOR do you have to trump! This can be confusing for players of any normal card game. Say you kept four trumps, and two high clubs, and someone leads clubs. You may choose to play your high club; if no one trumps, you could win the trick and play the lead card for the next trick. On the other hand, you could play a trump card, which would beat any club played, and hope that no one out-trumped you (playing a pedro as the last hand in a trick in this circumstance is a fine, fine strategy indeed). Another example: you kept 4 trump, a club, and a spade, and someone leads clubs. You DO NOT have to play your club! You can play your spade, or trump, or play your club...whatever strikes your fancy. I'm not positive that there are situations where not-following-suit and not-trumping is the right move but it's expressly allowed.

In the off chance that both Pedros are played in the same hand, with no higher trump card played, the native trump Pedro beats the off-suit Pedro.

First team to 52 points wins, however, you can't win the game on a hand you didn't win the bid on, no matter how many points you have. This leads to the amusing strategy of bidding 11-14 on every hand, just to keep the other team from going out.

It's a fun little game, kinda like Pinochle but without the "you must try to win every trick" playing rules. Enjoy!