Euchre
Euchre is the Midwest's favourite twenty-minute argument. A stripped 24-card deck, five cards each, and one turned-up card that starts the fight over what trump will be — order it up, pass, or get stuck with the call as dealer. The Jacks are the strange part: the right bower is the Jack of trump, and the left bower is the Jack of the matching colour, which quietly changes suit for the hand and catches out everyone who learned on Whist. Games run to ten points, which usually means several hands and at least one loud disagreement about going alone.
- Players
- 4
- Playing time
- 25 min
- Ages
- 10 to adult
- Partners
- Sit across
How it's played
Four players, partners sitting across. Five cards each, five tricks a hand, and before a card is played somebody has to say what trump is going to be.
More than half the pack is not in the game. Euchre keeps nine through Ace and throws the rest away, so every card you are dealt is a big card and a nine is the bottom of the world.
twenty-eight cards never enter — seven ranks in four suits. What is left is six ranks in four suits: twenty-four cards.
cards to each of the four players — twenty in hands
turned face up: the suit on offer in the first round
left buried, never turned over, never in play
points wins the game, so a night is several hands
The call is two rounds long, and somebody has to make it
Order it up, or pass
Starting left of the dealer. Accept the turned-up suit as trump and the dealer picks that card up and discards one — so the dealer gets it whichever team called.
Name a different suit
If all four pass, the card is turned down and its suit is out of the running. Round two offers the other three.
The dealer cannot pass twice
If it comes back round with nobody having called, the dealer must name one. There is no Pass button on that screen — the game simply does not offer it.
Which is why there is no such thing as a passed-out hand. Every deal produces a trump suit and a team that asked for it.
One Jack changes suit
Name a suit and two Jacks jump to the top of it. The Jack of trump is the highest card in the game. The Jack of the other suit of the same colour is the second highest — and it stops being that suit for the rest of the hand.
Hearts are trump
- 1JRight bower — highest card in the game
- 2JLeft bower — a diamond that is now a heart
- 3AOrdinary trump
- 4KOrdinary trump
- 5QOrdinary trump
- 610Ordinary trump
- 79Ordinary trump
Seven cards long. Every other suit is a plain run of Ace down to nine.
What that does to the deck
Trump does not just outrank the other suits. It takes a card from one of them, and always from the suit of its own colour.
Before and after, twenty-four cards. Six, six, six, six becomes seven, five, six, six.
This is the rule that catches people. With hearts trump, the Jack of diamonds must be played to a heart lead if it is your only heart — and it is not a legal play on a diamond lead while you hold a real diamond. The game checks the suit it has become, not the suit printed on it.
Calling trump
is a bet.
Whoever names trump has promised three of the five tricks. Deliver and it is worth a point. Fall short and the other team takes two — which is the whole game in one word: they have euchred you.
You made it
Three or four of the five tricks. The bid is honoured and the hand is over.
A march
All five tricks. Twice the points for one extra trick — the jump is steep on purpose.
Alone, and all five
Sit your partner out, play three-handed, and sweep. The biggest number on the sheet.
Euchred
You called and took two or fewer. The points go to the other team. This is the one the game is named for.
You stake 2 to win 1.
The commonest good result on a hand you called is a single point; the commonest bad one costs double. That asymmetry is the reason ordering up on a thin hand is an argument, and the reason going alone — where a clean sweep is worth four — is the one bet in the game that pays properly.
On the suit it has become
You must follow the led suit if you can — but the left bower counts as trump for that too, so a lead of trump pulls it out of your hand.
A trick of three cards
Your partner puts their hand down and takes no part. Fewer cards on the table, fewer places for your losers to hide.
First team to ten
Points accumulate across hands, and a single euchre swings the gap by three — the point you did not get plus the two they did.