Euchre

Full rules

1. Overview
2. The cards
3. Setup
4. Choosing trumps
5. Going alone
6. Playing the tricks
7. Scoring
8. Winning the game
9. Tips for beginners
10. Variants

Overview

Euchre is a fast partnership game from North America. Four players form two teams of two; partners sit opposite each other. Each player gets only 5 cards, and in every deal one team – the makers – chooses the trump suit and promises to win at least 3 of the 5 tricks. The first team to score 10 points wins.

• Players: exactly 4, in two fixed partnerships.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck, and paper and pencil (or spare cards) to keep score.

The cards

Take out the 9, 10, J, Q, K and A of every suit – 24 cards. The 2s to 8s are not used (keep two of them per team to show the score, see below).

A trick is one round of play in which each player plays one card; the best card wins all four. Trumps are the cards of one suit chosen for the deal – any trump beats any card of another suit.

The special feature of Euchre is the two bowers (the name comes from the German Bauer ("farmer"), the German name for the Jack):

• Right bower: the Jack of the trump suit – the highest card in the game.
• Left bower: the other Jack of the same colour – the second-highest trump. For the whole deal it counts as a card of the trump suit, not of its own suit.

So if hearts are trumps, the trumps rank from high to low: J♥ (right bower), J♦ (left bower), A♥ K♥ Q♥ 10♥ 9♥ – seven trumps in all. Diamonds then have only five cards left: A♦ K♦ Q♦ 10♦ 9♦. The other two suits rank normally: A K Q J 10 9.

Setup

1. Teams and first dealer: agree on teams, or draw cards: the two lowest play together. Choose the first dealer at random; after each deal the next player to the left deals.
2. The dealer shuffles and the player on the right cuts.
3. The dealer deals 5 cards to each player, clockwise, in two rounds: first a packet of 2 or 3 cards to each player, then a packet of 3 or 2, so everyone ends up with 5.
4. The remaining 4 cards (the kitty) are placed face down in the middle, and the top one is turned face up. This upcard proposes a trump suit.

Choosing trumps

Starting with the player to the dealer's left and going clockwise, everyone gets one chance to accept the upcard's suit as trumps:

• A non-dealer says "I order it up" (or "pick it up") to accept, or "Pass".
• The dealer, if everyone else has passed, says "I pick it up" to accept, or passes by turning the upcard face down.

As soon as someone accepts, that suit is trumps, and the dealer takes the upcard into their hand and discards one card face down on the kitty. This happens even when an opponent of the dealer ordered it up – so ordering up always gives the dealer's side an extra trump.

If all four pass, the upcard is turned face down and there is a second round: starting again left of the dealer, each player may name any other suit as trumps or pass. The suit of the turned-down card may not be named. If all four pass again, the cards are thrown in and the next dealer deals.

The player who made trumps and their partner are the makers; the other two are the defenders.

Example: The upcard is the 10♠. Anna (left of the dealer) passes. Ben, the dealer's partner, holds J♠, J♣ and A♠ and says "I order it up". Spades are trumps. Dan, the dealer, adds the 10♠ to his hand and discards his worst card. Ben and Dan are the makers.

Going alone

The player who made trumps may say "Alone" before the first card is played. Their partner lays their cards face down and sits out the deal. The lone player plays against both defenders – winning all 5 tricks this way is worth 4 points.

Playing the tricks

The player to the dealer's left leads (if someone goes alone, the player to the lone player's left leads). Going clockwise, everyone plays one card:

• Follow suit: if you have a card of the suit that was led, you must play one. Remember that the left bower belongs to the trump suit – when trumps are led you must play it if it is your only trump, and you may not play it to follow its printed suit.
• If you can't follow suit, you may play any card – a trump or a discard.

The highest trump wins the trick. If no trump was played, the highest card of the suit led wins. The winner leads to the next trick.

Example: Hearts are trumps. Anna leads A♦. Ben's only "diamond" is the J♦ – but that is the left bower, a heart, so he cannot follow suit. He may play any card and trumps with the J♦. Carla follows with K♦. Dan has no diamonds and plays the J♥, the right bower. Dan wins the trick.

Scoring

After 5 tricks:

Example: Ben ordered up spades. Ben and Dan win 4 tricks: 1 point. Next deal Carla names hearts but her team takes only 2 tricks – they are euchred, and Ben and Dan score 2 points.

A traditional way to show the score: each team uses two spare low cards, for example a 4 and a 6, and covers or uncovers pips to show its points.

Winning the game

The first team to reach 10 points wins.

Tips for beginners

• Count your bowers. A right and a left bower plus one more trump is usually enough to order up.
• Think about the dealer. Ordering up gives the dealer an extra trump – do it only with a strong hand, or when the dealer is your partner.
• Lead trumps as makers to draw them out of the defenders' hands; as a defender, lead your Aces instead.
• The next suit: if the dealer turns down the upcard, the suit of the same colour is often a good choice – both of its bowers may still be out.
• Go alone with the right bower, left bower, trump Ace and some other strong cards.

Variants

Agree on these before you start.

• Stick the dealer: if the first three players pass in the second round, the dealer must name a suit. No hand is thrown in.
• Defending alone: when a maker goes alone, one defender may also say "alone". If that defender euchres the lone player, the defenders score 4 points.
• Dealer's partner plays alone: in Canada, Britain and Australia the dealer's partner who orders up must go alone (the dealer does not play).
• The Benny: British Euchre adds a joker as the highest trump of all (above the right bower). Game is to 11 points.
• Other targets: at some tables the target is 5, 7 or 11 points.
• 32 cards: add the 7s and 8s as the lowest cards of each suit.