Euchre Basics
Euchre is a fast-paced, partnership, trick-taking game played with the Nine through Ace of each suit. Bidding determines trump. In the trump suit, the Jack and off-Jack are the two highest ranked cards. The rank of cards in non-trump suits is standard Ace-high. Each hand consists of five tricks and a team must take at least three tricks to earn points. The team that gets to 10 points first wins the game.
The Deal
Using a 24-card deck, the dealer deals five cards to each player. The dealer places the four undealt cards face down on the table in front of him/her and turns the top card face-up.
Bidding
Starting with the player to the dealer’s left, a player may choose to pass or make trump the suit of the “up card,” optionally declaring to play the hand “alone,” that is, without his or her partner participating in the hand. The value of going “alone” is the higher score awarded if the bidder takes all five tricks (see Scoring, below). If playing “Alone must take 5,” the alone player must take all five tricks to get points (see Euchre House Rules Options, below). If the Joker is the up card, trump is spades.
If everyone passes in the first round of bidding, the “up card” is turned face down and another round of bidding ensues in which players may pass or make trump one of the suits other than the previously turned-up card. The “alone” option remains available.
If everyone passes in the second round, the deal moves to the left and a new hand is dealt. If playing “Stick the dealer,” the dealer cannot pass at the end of the second round (see Euchre House Rules Options, below).
Up Card Pickup and Discard
If trump was made during the first round of bidding, the dealer adds the “up card” to his or her hand and discards one card so they again have five cards. This fact influences whether to make trump during the first round.
Play
After bidding and, if needed, the dealer discarding, the player to the dealer’s left leads. Any card may be led. Play continues clockwise by following the led suit, if possible, or playing any other card if not. When all four players have played, the trick is taken by the player who played the highest trump card, if any, or the player who played the highest card of the led suit otherwise.
Remember that in trump, the two highest ranked cards are the Jack of the trump suit and the Jack of the other suit of the same color (the off-Jack). For instance, if Spades is trump, ♠J is the highest ranked card, ♣J second-highest, and ♠A third-highest. Trickster Euchre automatically sorts the cards in your hand in this way.
Scoring
After the five tricks are played the team who picked trump is awarded points based on the bid and number of tricks taken (without the “Take 4 for 1 pt” and “Alone worth 2 pts” options):
Tricks |
Points |
less than 3 |
0 |
3 or 4 |
1 |
5 (together) |
2 |
5 (alone) |
4 |
If the team who picked trump fails to take at least 3 tricks, this is known as a Euchre and their opponents are awarded 2 points instead. The team that gets to 10 points first wins the game.
See the description of the house rules options “Take 4 for 1 pt” and “Alone worth 2 pts,” below, for modifications to these values.
Euchre House Rules Options
When:
“Now” creates a new game that starts immediately. Other options schedule a game for a time in the next 24 hours. Compete and Join games only.
Winnings:
Four levels of winnings based on the buy-in level—30, 110, 275 or 550 Trickster Chips. Compete games only.
Play:
“To score” plays the game until one team achieves the score set in “Play to score.” When “# of hands” is selected, the game is played only for the number of hands selected in the “Play # of hands” option.
Play to score:
Sets the game over score when the “Play” option is set to “To score.” In Play and Compete, you may set the game over score to 10 or 11. In Practice and Join, you may set the game over score to anything between 5 and 25.
Play # of hands:
Sets the number of hands to be played when the “Play” option is set to “# of hands.” When the number of hands is completed, the highest score wins.
Players:
“2v2” is 4 players in 2 teams of 2 each. “2v2v2” is 6 players in 3 teams of 2 each. “3v3” is 6 players with 2 teams of 3 each. “3” is a 3-player solo game. When 6 players, deck is 7–Ace and Go Under is not available. When playing 3v3, Call for Best is not available.
Deck:
Sets the size and composition of the deck. “9–Ace” is a 24-card deck consisting of nine through Ace in each suit. “8–Ace” is a 28-card deck with eight through Ace in each suit. “7–Ace” is a 32-card deck with seven through Ace. “10–Ace” is a 20-card deck available only in 3-player games.
Joker:
“Yes” adds a Joker (also called the Benny or Bird) which becomes the high card of trump. “No” does not add a Joker. Trickster Euchre designates Jokers with a star (★). If the Joker is the up card, trump is spades unless the option “Joker turned up” is set to “Dealer Bids Blind” (see below).
Bidding
Joker turned up:
“Spades” sets trump to Spades when the Joker is the up card. “Dealer Bids Blind” forces the dealer to call trump without seeing their cards. After bidding the Joker is added to their hand and they have an opportunity to discard. Available only when “Joker” is set to “Yes.”
Defend alone:
“Never” does not offer a choice to defend alone. “Anytime” offers a Defend Along bid to each defender on any bid. “Against Alone” offers a Defend Alone bid to each defender only if an opponent goes alone. When defending alone a Euchre is worth 4 points instead of 2.
No alone bids:
“Yes” means that “alone” bids are not offered and options related to “alone” are disabled.
Dealer bids first:
“Yes” means the dealer is the first to bid. “No” means the player to the left of the dealer bids first. When set to “Yes,” the player to the dealer’s right is the last to bid.
Stick the dealer (last bidder):
“Yes” requires the dealer (or last bidder) to bid at the end of the second round of bidding if everyone else has passed. “No” does not require the dealer (last bidder) to bid; if everyone passes, the deal advances and cards are redealt. This option appears as “Stick the last bidder” when “Dealer bids first” is set to “Yes.”
Go under:
“Yes” allows players holding at least three 9s or 10s to exchange them for three cards from the blind when it is their turn to bid (with 7-Ace, it’s three 7s and 8s; with 8-Ace, three 8s and 9s). “No” requires players to play with the cards they were dealt.
No Trump bid:
“Yes” adds a No Trump (NT) bid to the second round of bidding. “No” does not add such a bid.
Dealer forces alone:
Also known as Canadian. “Yes” forces the partner of the dealer to bid alone or pass during the first round of bidding (while the up card is face up). “No” does not impose this restriction.
Allow misdeal:
Allows offering a misdeal option under certain conditions. “No” never offers misdeal. “Ace, No Face” offers misdeal when a player is holding 1 ace with 4 non-face cards. “No Ace, No Face” offers misdeal when holding 5 non-face cards. “No Face, Maybe Ace” offers misdeal under either ‘Ace, No Face’ or ‘No Ace, No Face’ conditions.
Call trump:
Controls what trump cards you must hold to be able to call trump during the first round of bidding. “Anytime” lets you call trump holding anything. “Any Trump” requires that you have a card of the trump suit, including an off-Jack. “With Natural” requires that you hold a card of the suit of the up-card, not including the off-Jack.
Play
Lead trump:
Controls when trump may be first led. “After broken” means trump may not be led until trump is dumped on a trick or you have no cards except trump. “After first trick” means trump may be led anytime except the first trick. “Anytime” means trump may be led anytime.
Take 4 for 1 pt:
“Yes” requires that the bidding team take 4 tricks to score 1 point. Taking 5 tricks is worth 2 points. “No” means that only 3 tricks need be taken to score 1 point.
Alone must take 5:
“Yes” requires an alone bidder to take all 5 tricks to make their bid; failing to take 5 results in a Euchre for the opponents. “No” rewards 1 point if 3 tricks are taken or 4 points if all 5 tricks are taken.
Alone leads left:
“Yes” means that the opening lead will be from the defender to an alone bidder’s left. “No” means the player to the dealer’s left opens.
Alone worth 2 pts:
“Yes” means that an alone bid that takes 5 tricks scores only 2 points. “No” scores 4 points for an alone bid taking 5 tricks.
Call for best:
“Yes” means one card is passed between an alone bidder and his or her partner. “No” does not add this pass.
Super Euchre:
“Yes” awards 4 points to the defending team if they take all 5 tricks. “No” scores the usual 2 points for all Euchres.
Autoplay forced cards:
“Yes” automatically plays cards when there is only one legal card. This speeds up the game. When “No,” each player’s setting for “Autoplay forced cards” is used for them.
Limits
Must be invited:
“Yes” hides this game from other players until they’ve been explicitly invited using the “Invite Friends” form. “No” allows all friends of players in this game to see it. Join and Compete games only.
Allow suggestions:
“Yes” to allow players to see bid and card play suggestions, depending on their personal setting. “No” prevents all players from seeing suggestions. Always “Yes” in Play games; “No” in Compete games.
Show all hands:
“Yes” shows all players’ hands face up during the game. “No” keeps other players’ hands face down. Join and Practice games only.
Hide player points:
“Yes” hides the points taken during the hand displayed next to each player’s name.
Allow watching:
“No” prevents anyone from watching the game. “Face Down” allows up to 10 additional players to watch the game with all players’ hands face down. “Face Up” allows watching with players’ hands face up. Join games only.
Chat during game:
“None” disables all chat during the game. “Preset” allows only the built-in chat messages to be used. “Text” allows full chat. Full chat is also always available before and after games.
Time to bid:
Specifies an optional time limit for a player to bid. “Off” means there are no time limits on bidding. “7s,” “15s,”, “30s” & “60s” sets a limit to bid of 7, 15, 30 or 60 seconds, respectively. Automatically set in Play games.
Time to play:
Specifies an optional time limit for a player to play a card. “Off” means there are no time limits on card play. “7s,” “15s,”, “30s” & “60s” sets a limit to play a card of 7, 15, 30 or 60 seconds, respectively. Automatically set in Play games.
