The periodic orbits of the strongly chaotic cardioid billiard are studied by introducing a binary symbolic dynamics. The corresponding partition is mapped to a topologically well ordered symbol plane. In the symbol plane the pruning front is obtained from orbits running either into or through the cusp. We show that all periodic orbits correspond to maxima of the Lagrangian and give a complete list up to code length 15. The symmetry reduction is done on the level of the symbol sequences and the periodic orbits are classified using symmetry lines. We show that there exists an infinite number of families of periodic orbits accumulating in length and that all other families of geometrically short periodic orbits eventually get pruned. All these orbits are related to finite orbits starting and ending in the cusp. We obtain an analytical estimate of the Kolmogorov - Sinai entropy and find a good agreement with the numerically calculated value and the one obtained by averaging periodic orbits. Furthermore, the statistical properties of periodic orbits are investigated.