Euchre

Objective

With your partner, win at least three of the five tricks in a hand after one of you has named trump. Name it and fail, and the other side scores instead.

The deck and the deal

Euchre uses a 24-card deck: only the 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King and Ace of each suit. Strip everything from the 2 to the 8 out of a standard pack and set it aside.

1. Four players in two partnerships, partners sitting opposite each other.
2. Deal five cards to each player, in packets of two and three, going clockwise.
3. Place the four remaining cards face down in the middle and turn the top one face up. That card is the up-card, and it proposes a trump suit.

A common way to pick the first dealer is to deal cards around face up until a black Jack appears; whoever gets it deals. After that the deal passes to the left.

The bowers

The one rule that makes Euchre Euchre. Get this wrong and nothing else works.

Once a suit is trump, the two Jacks of that colour become the two highest cards in the game — and the off-suit one changes suit for the whole hand.

• Right bower — the Jack of the trump suit. The highest card in the deck.
• Left bower — the other Jack of the same colour. It becomes a trump card, second only to the right bower, and stops being a member of its printed suit entirely.

Trump therefore ranks: right bower, left bower, A, K, Q, 10, 9. Every other suit ranks normally — A, K, Q, J, 10, 9 — except the suit that lost its Jack to the bowers, which is one card short.

Naming trump

Two rounds, and the second one is stricter than the first.

Round one — the up-card. Starting to the dealer's left, each player may order it up (accept the up-card's suit as trump) or pass.

• If someone orders it up, that suit is trump. The dealer picks the up-card into their hand and discards any card face down.
• The dealer's partner ordering it up is called assisting; the dealer accepting it themselves is taking it up.

Round two — anything but that suit. If all four pass, the up-card is turned face down. Going round again from the dealer's left, each player may now name any suit except the up-card's suit, or pass.

If all four pass a second time the hand is dead — throw it in and the next player deals. Many tables instead play stick the dealer, where the dealer is forced to name a suit rather than pass. Agree which before you start.

Going alone

After trump is settled but before the first card is led, the maker may declare they are going alone. Their partner lays their hand face down and sits the hand out entirely.

One player against two, for all five tricks. It is worth doing because the payoff is double — and it is why holding both bowers plus an Ace is worth announcing rather than quietly playing.

Playing the tricks

1. The player to the dealer's left leads first, with any card.
2. Follow suit if you can. Remember the left bower counts as trump, not as its printed suit.
3. If you cannot follow, play anything — including a trump.
4. The highest trump wins the trick; if no trump was played, the highest card of the suit led wins. The winner leads the next trick.

Five tricks, and the hand is over. There is no drawing and no discarding after the deal — everything is decided by what you were given and what you name as trump.

Scoring

First side to 10 points wins. Being euchred is the thing to avoid: it hands the opposition two points, the same as a march, for the crime of over-estimating your hand.

Card library

Trump ranking, once a suit is named. The bowers are the whole game — everything else behaves normally.

Short drills on the rules people get wrong. Nothing is saved anywhere but this browser.

House rules & variations

Every table plays a little differently. These are the common variants — agree on them before you deal.

Strategy hints

1. Count trumps, not cards. There are only seven trumps in a 24-card deck once the bowers join, so if four have gone, three remain and you can usually work out who has them.

2. Do not order up a suit just because you hold the right bower. One bower and nothing else is a two-trick hand, and three tricks is the bar.

3. If your partner has ordered it up, lead trump. They have told you they hold strength in it, and drawing the opponents' trumps protects their Aces.

4. Holding the left bower and nothing else in trump is worth less than it feels. It wins one trick and then you are void.

5. As a defender, leading a suit the makers are likely void in is how you force them to burn a trump early.

6. The dealer sees one extra card and discards one. If you are the dealer, discarding down to a void suit is usually stronger than keeping a lone Ace in it.

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