How to play Euchre
Euchre is a trick-taking game for four players in two partnerships, played with a short 24-card deck. One suit is named trump for each hand, and the partnership that named it must win at least three of the five tricks or lose points. A game runs to ten points and usually takes about fifteen minutes.
Setup and the deal
Remove everything below the nine, leaving 24 cards: nine, ten, jack, queen, king, and ace in each suit. Partners sit opposite each other. The dealer gives each player five cards and turns the next card face up; the remaining three form the kitty and stay out of play.
Naming trump
Bidding runs in two rounds, starting with the player to the dealer’s left.
Round one. The only suit on offer is the one turned up. Ordering it up makes that suit trump and the dealer picks the card up, then discards one card face down. If all four players pass, the card is turned down.
Round two. Each player in turn may name any suit except the one just turned down, or pass. If all four pass again the hand is dead and the deal moves on — unless stick-the-dealer is in force, in which case the dealer must name something.
Whoever names trump is the maker, and may choose to go alone. Going alone benches their partner for the hand and plays it three against one. It is worth 4 points for all five tricks instead of 2, but three or four tricks still scores only 1, so it is a real gamble rather than a free upgrade.
The bowers
This is the rule that makes Euchre Euchre, and the one that costs new players the most hands. Once trump is named, the two jacks of that colour outrank everything.
- The right bower is the jack of the trump suit. It is the highest card in the game.
- The left bower is the jack of the other suit of the same colour. It is the second-highest card, and for that hand it becomes a trump card — it is no longer a member of its printed suit at all.
The consequence catches people out in both directions. If spades are trump and clubs are led, the jack of clubs does not follow suit, because it is a spade. And if you hold only the jack of clubs in clubs, you are void in clubs.
The full trump ranking, highest first: right bower, left bower, ace, king, queen, ten, nine. Non-trump suits rank normally, ace down to nine, with the jack missing from the suit that lost it to the left bower.
Playing a hand
The player to the dealer’s left leads the first trick. Everyone must follow the suit that was led if they can; a player with no card in that suit may play anything, including trump. The highest trump wins the trick, or if no trump was played, the highest card of the led suit. The winner leads the next trick. Five tricks are played, then the hand is scored.
Scoring
| Outcome | Points |
|---|---|
| Makers take three or four tricks | 1 to the makers |
| Makers take all five — a march | 2 to the makers |
| Maker goes alone and takes all five | 4 to the makers |
| Maker goes alone and takes three or four | 1 to the makers |
| Makers take fewer than three — euchred | 2 to the defenders |
The first partnership to ten points wins. Note that the defenders never score for simply losing narrowly — they score only by euchring the makers, which is why calling trump on a weak hand is punished.
Variants
Stick the dealer. If everyone passes twice, the dealer must name a suit rather than let the hand die. It speeds the game up and puts the dealer under real pressure. This is the default here.
Dead hands. With stick-the-dealer off, four passes in the second round end the hand with no score and the deal passes to the left.
Glossary
- Bower
- Either of the two jacks that count as trump.
- Euchre
- Holding the makers to fewer than three tricks. Worth 2 points.
- Kitty
- The three undealt cards, plus the turn-up once it is turned down.
- Maker
- The player who named trump.
- March
- Taking all five tricks.
- Order up
- Making the turned-up card's suit trump in round one.
- Turn-up
- The card dealt face up after the deal, offered as trump in round one.
- Void
- Holding no cards in a suit, which frees you to trump in.