Learn Euchre in ten interactive lessons
The interactive lessons are still being finished. Everything they teach is outlined below, and the complete rules are ready to read.
What the ten lessons cover
About 44 minutes end to end. The interactive version is still being finished, but the outline below and the full rules are ready to read.
1. The deck and the dealabout 3 min
Euchre uses a short deck: only the nine, ten, jack, queen, king and ace of each suit.
That is 24 cards, and it is why a hand moves so quickly.
Everyone gets five. The four left over go face down in the middle as the kitty.
The top card of the kitty is turned face up, and the whole first round of bidding is about that one card.
2. Teams and seatsabout 2 min
Four players, two fixed teams. Your partner sits directly opposite you.
In this tutorial you are always South, so North is your partner and East and West are your opponents.
A trick won by your partner is won by you — the team takes the trick, not the player.
The deal moves one seat clockwise after every hand.
3. Trump beats everythingabout 4 min
One suit is chosen as trump at the start of each hand.
Any trump card beats any card of any other suit, no matter how high that card is.
The ace of a plain suit is a strong card right up until somebody plays a trump on it.
Within a single suit the ranking is the ordinary one: ace high, nine low.
4. The right and left bowerabout 6 min
A bower is a jack that has been promoted by trump, and it is the rule that separates Euchre from every other trick-taking game.
The jack of the trump suit is the right bower: the highest card in the game.
The other jack of the same colour leaves its printed suit, joins trump, and becomes the second highest card: the left bower.
With hearts trump, the jack of diamonds is a heart for the whole hand. It is not a diamond any more.
5. The full rankingabout 4 min
With trump chosen, the trump suit ranks: right bower, left bower, ace, king, queen, ten, nine.
That is seven trump cards, because trump borrowed a jack from the other suit of its colour.
Every other suit ranks normally, ace down to nine — except the suit that lost its jack, which has only five cards.
So the ace of trump is only the third-best trump, and beginners routinely overvalue it.
6. Following suitabout 6 min
You must play the suit that was led if you hold it. Only when you are void may you play anything else.
The catch is the left bower, because it counts as trump and not as its printed suit.
If trump is led, the left bower must be played like any other trump.
If its printed suit is led, the left bower cannot be used to follow — it is the wrong suit now.
7. Bidding, round oneabout 4 min
The turned-up card offers its suit as trump. Starting left of the dealer, each player either orders it up or passes.
Ordering it up makes that suit trump — and gives the turned-up card to the dealer, who discards one.
So the card goes to the dealer whether the dealer is your partner or your opponent.
The team that chooses trump is called the makers, and they take on the job of winning at least three tricks.
8. Round two and stick-the-dealerabout 4 min
If all four players pass, the turned-up card is turned down and its suit is out of the running for this hand.
A second round goes round again, and this time each player may name any other suit as trump.
This table plays stick-the-dealer: if everyone passes again, the dealer must name a suit.
That rule exists so no hand is ever thrown away, and it is why dealing can be a liability.
9. Scoring, euchres and going aloneabout 5 min
The makers must win at least three of the five tricks. Three or four scores one point.
All five — a march — scores two. Failing to reach three is a euchre, and the other team scores two.
Before play begins, a maker may go alone: the partner sits out and the hand is played three-handed.
Going alone and taking all five scores four. It is the only way to score four, and it is the fastest way to lose a lead.
10. A coached handabout 6 min
Everything you need is now on the table, so play a hand with the rules doing the checking for you.
Only legal cards can be selected, and the reason a card is locked is written on the card itself.
The opponents are the beginner bots, so they will overbid and you will see hands get euchred.
When you are ready for a real game, the practice table plays the same way without the coaching.
Prefer to read it all in one place? The complete Euchre rules cover the same ground as a reference rather than a course.