Burro

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Setup
3. Playing a trick
4. Running out of cards
5. Winning the game
6. Tips for beginners
7. Variants

Overview

Burro ("donkey") is a family game from Spain, Portugal and Latin America. You play cards in tricks and must follow suit – and if you can't, you have to draw from the stock until you find a card that fits. Everyone tries to get rid of their cards; whoever is left holding cards at the end is the burro, the donkey.

• Players: 2–8, each for themselves. Best with 4–6.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck without jokers; take out the 8s, 9s and 10s, leaving 40 cards. Paper and pencil for the penalty points.

Setup

1. Card order: in each suit, from high to low: K Q J 7 6 5 4 3 2 A. The Ace is the lowest card. There are no trumps.
2. Dealer: choose anyone. As in Spain, the deal and the play go anticlockwise (to the right); after each hand the player on the dealer's right deals.
3. Deal: the dealer shuffles, the player on their left cuts, and the dealer deals 4 cards to each player, one at a time.
4. Stock: the rest of the pack goes face down in the middle as the stock (draw pile).

Playing a trick

A trick is one round in which every player adds a card to the middle.

1. The player on the dealer's right leads: plays any card face up in the middle.
2. Going anticlockwise, each player must follow suit – play a card of the same suit (♠ ♥ ♦ ♣) as the card that was led. If you have one, you must play one; which one is up to you.
3. Can't follow suit? Draw cards from the stock one at a time until you get a card of the suit that was led, and play it. All the other cards you drew stay in your hand.
4. When everyone has played, the highest card of the suit led wins the trick. The trick is put aside face down, out of the game, and its winner leads the next trick with any card.

Example: Anna leads the 5♥. Ben plays the J♥. Carla has no heart: she draws the 3♣, then the K♠, then the 2♥ – she plays the 2♥ and keeps the other two cards. Dan plays the 7♥. Ben's J♥ is the highest heart and wins; Ben leads the next trick. Carla now has two cards more than before.

Empty stock: once the stock is used up, a player who can't follow suit simply passes – they play no card to that trick and don't pick anything up. If the stock runs out while you are still searching, you keep what you drew and pass.

Running out of cards

When you play your last card, you are out and safe – drop out of the play. The others carry on. If the winner of a trick has just played their last card, the next player still in the game (to their right) leads.

The hand goes on until only one player still has cards. That player is the burro and gets a penalty point.

Winning the game

Agree in advance on a number of penalty points, e.g. 5. The game ends as soon as someone reaches it – that player has lost, and the player with the fewest penalty points is the winner (a tie is shared).

Tips for beginners

• Get rid of your long suit. If you hold three spades, lead spades: the others may have to dig in the stock while you shed cards.
• Try to keep a card in every suit. Once you have none of a suit left, you must dig in the stock every time someone leads it.
• High cards win tricks, and winning means leading. The leader decides the suit, so a King is handy when you want to take control.
• Count the suits. With only ten cards per suit, you can soon tell when a suit is nearly exhausted – leading it forces others to draw.

Variants

All of these are optional – agree on them before the game.

• 48 cards: with 6 or more players, take out only the 10s (48 cards, K Q J 9 8 … 2 A). This is the pack of the Spanish description.
• Portuguese Burro: deal 5 cards each. You may draw from the stock (or keep drawing) even if you have or find a playable card. The hand ends as soon as the first player runs out of cards – that player wins.
• Burro em Pé ("standing donkey", Portugal): split the stock into two halves and lean them against each other like a tent (Λ). Whoever knocks it over while drawing must take the whole remaining stock into their hand.
• Cangkul (Indonesia): use all 52 cards, Ace high, and deal 7 cards each. When the stock is empty and you can't follow suit, you play no card, but at the end of the trick you take its cards into your hand (if several players passed, they take them one at a time in turn). The first player to run out of cards wins. This is close to Rolling Stone.