Pedro

The Other Cajun Card Game

One of the stereotypes associated with Cajuns is our love of card games. It’s not entirely undeserved, as it’s undeniably a popular pastime. We play alls the same games that we find everywhere in the United States, but the game that we identify most with the Cajuns is Bourrée. When CBS television came down to Bayou Lafourche in the 1980s to learn more about Cajun culture, they found nothing better than to show a game of Bourrée with old French-speaking gentlemen in cowboy hats, chomping on large cigars and a bottle of whiskey within reach. It’s a stereotype that rings true because it’s a scene that can easily be found anywhere in Acadiana, with or without cigars. However, many Cajuns who play Bourrée do not know that in the Lafourche-Terrebonne region, there is another Cajun card game, Pedro, whose origins date back to the end of the 19th century in Colorado. Pronounced “pee-dro”, it’s so popular around those parts that people joke that you have to pass a Pedro exam before you can graduate from Nicholls State in Thibodaux. Elsewhere, it is almost unknown. Yet, according to filmmaker Glen Pitre, Pedro was so widespread in the 1920s and 1930s that sociologists wrote studies on the phenomenon. Jack London mentions it in his short story, “The Unexpected”.

Surprisingly for a game with supposedly American origins, the rules of Pedro are for the most part the same as a French game, Tarot, even if they are not played with the same deck of cards. In both cases, it involves playing a game of four players with two partners facing each other, the cards are dealt three at a time, and the players must take turns bidding how many points they think they can win based on the fixed value of each card. The one who wins the bid to win the most points by taking tricks with his partner has the right to declare which suit – diamonds, spades, hearts, or clubs – will be trump. The way points are counted and the rules regarding which cards can and cannot be played are surprisingly similar. For example, if a trump card is played first, the other players must follow suit by playing a trump card if they have one. However, in some places, they play “cut-throat”, which means that we are not obliged to play a trump, which makes the strategies more complicated. Even the variations are mirrored.

Pedro is still played regularly today down the bayou. Mrs. Laura Thériot, who often played with my late mother, is today part of a group of a dozen women who play every second Tuesday. Popie’s Palace at the Cut Off often sponsors Pedro tournaments to raise funds for charity. Whether it’s Pedro, Bourrée or other games, we’re always ready to shuffle the deck.