Pedro

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Basic terms
3. Trumps and scoring cards
4. Setup
5. Bidding
6. Discarding and filling up
7. Playing the tricks
8. Scoring
9. Winning the game
10. Tips for beginners
11. Variants

Overview

Pedro is a trick-taking game for four players in two teams. After a round of bidding, the highest bidder chooses the trump suit. Everyone then throws away their non-trumps and gets fresh cards, so almost all the fighting is about trumps – above all the two pedros, the fives, which are worth 5 points each. The first team to reach 62 points wins.

This page describes the standard American game, strictly called Double Pedro, Cinch or High Five.

• Players: exactly 4, in two teams of two. Partners sit opposite each other.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck without jokers, and paper and pencil for scoring.

Basic terms

• Trick: each player in turn plays one card face up to the middle. The four cards form a trick; whoever played the best card wins it and puts it face down in their team's pile.
• Lead: play the first card of a trick. The winner of a trick leads to the next one.
• Follow suit: play a card of the same suit as the card that was led.
• Trumps: the cards of the suit chosen by the bidder. Any trump beats any card of another suit.

Trumps and scoring cards

The trump suit has 14 cards: its own 13 plus the other five of the same colour. If hearts are trumps, the 5♦ is a trump too; if spades are trumps, the 5♣ is a trump. This extra five is called the low pedro (or left pedro). The trump five itself is the pedro. Order of the trumps, from high to low:

A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 (pedro) · other 5 (low pedro) · 4 3 2

In the other suits cards rank normally, A high down to 2 (the suit that lost its five simply has no five).

Six trumps score points:

That makes 14 points per deal. Ace, Jack, 10 and both pedros count for the team that wins them in a trick. The two is different: it always counts for the team of the player who was dealt it.

Setup

1. Pick a first dealer, for example by drawing cards. Deal and play go clockwise; after each deal the next player to the left deals.
2. The dealer shuffles and deals 9 cards to each player, 3 at a time.
3. The remaining 16 cards stay face down as the stock.

Bidding

Starting to the dealer's left, each player gets exactly one chance to bid or pass. A bid is a number from 7 to 14: the number of points your team promises to win if you may choose trumps. Each bid must be higher than the previous one. If the first three players pass, the dealer must bid 7.

The highest bidder names the trump suit.

Discarding and filling up

1. Every player discards all their non-trumps face down.
2. The dealer then gives each of the other three players enough cards from the stock to bring their hand up to 6 cards. A player who already has 6 or more cards (all trumps) gets none.
3. Finally the dealer takes the rest of the stock, picks out all the trumps in it and adds other cards to make 6. The dealer must take every trump, even if that gives them more than 6 cards.

Example: Hearts are trumps. After discarding, Anna has 4 hearts and the 5♦, so she keeps 5 cards and gets 1 more from the stock.

Playing the tricks

The highest bidder leads to the first trick. Any card may be led, it does not have to be a trump. Then:

• If a trump is led, everyone must play a trump if they can. If you can't, play anything.
• If a non-trump is led, you must either follow suit or trump – you may trump even if you could follow. If you have neither, play anything.
• The highest trump wins the trick. If no trump was played, the highest card of the suit led wins.

Remember that the low pedro is a trump in every way: it belongs to the trump suit, not to its printed suit.

More than six cards: a player who starts with more than 6 cards (all trumps) must play the extra cards to the first trick, in one face-up stack, so that everyone has 5 cards after it. Only the top card counts; the others are "buried". You may not bury a scoring trump.

There are six tricks in all.

Scoring

After the last trick each team counts the scoring trumps it won (plus the two, if one of its players was dealt it).

• The opponents of the bidder always add the points they won.
• The bidding team adds its points if it won at least as many as it bid. If it won fewer, it is set: it subtracts the bid from its score. Scores can go below zero.

Example: Anna and Carla (partners) bid 8 in hearts against Ben and Dan. Anna and Carla win the pedro (5), the A♥ (1) and the J♥ (1), and Carla was dealt the 2♥ (1): 8 points – bid made, they add 8. Ben and Dan won the 10♥ (1) and the 5♦ (5) and add 6. Had Anna and Carla bid 9, they would have lost 9 points.

Winning the game

The first team to reach 62 points wins.

• Bidder goes out: if both teams have 55 or more at the start of a deal, the bidding team wins as soon as it makes its bid. If it fails, the deal is scored normally.
• If both teams pass 62 in the same deal otherwise, play another "bidder goes out" deal to decide.

Tips for beginners

• Count your pedros. A hand with a pedro and high trumps to protect it is worth a bid.
• Cinching: when a non-trump is led and a pedro could still come from the last player, trump with a card higher than the five so the opponents can't sneak a pedro home.
• Save your pedros for a trick your partner is winning. Throwing a pedro under an opposing Ace hands them 5 points.
• Remember the two scores for whoever was dealt it – it can't be lost.

Variants

All optional – agree before you play.

• Minimum bid 6: at some tables the minimum bid is 6; the dealer is then forced to bid 6 (or, in some groups, 7).
• Shooting the moon: a bid of 14 scores 28 if made and loses only 14 if it fails.
• Trump lead: the bidder must lead a trump to the first trick, as in Setback.
• Always follow suit: you must follow suit whenever you can, even when a non-trump is led.
• Difference scoring: only the team with more points scores – the difference between the teams. If the bidders fail, the opponents score the bid plus their own points.
• Other targets: 51, 52, 56 or 61 points; if both teams reach it in the same deal, the bidders win.
• Pidro (Finland): minimum bid 6; players with more than 6 trumps must discard (not scoring ones). Only trumps are played – if you run out, lay down your cards and sit out the rest of the deal.
• Pitch with Fives / Catch Five: only the trump five is a pedro (9 points per deal), 6 cards each, minimum bid 2, dealer may take the bid by equalling it, you must follow suit. Game to 31.