How to Play Euchre

The Short Version

Euchre is a partnership trick-taking game for four players using a short 24-card pack. One side names trump each hand and must then win at least three of the five tricks; fail, and the defenders score. The two Jacks of the trump colour — the bowers — outrank every other card, which is the twist the whole game turns on.

What You Need

Four players in two fixed partnerships, sitting across from each other, and a 24-card pack: the 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace of each suit, stripped from an ordinary deck. You’ll also want a simple way to keep score to 10 — two spare cards, one showing pips, is the traditional scoreboard.

Set Up

Partners sit opposite. The dealer shuffles and deals five cards to each player, traditionally in batches of two and three (or three and two). The remaining four cards form the kitty; the top one is turned face up. That turned-up card’s suit is the candidate for trump.

Trump is then chosen in two rounds:

1. Starting left of the dealer, each player may order up the turned card — the dealer picks it up, that suit is trump, and the dealer discards one card face down — or pass.
2. If everyone passes, the dealer may pick the card up themselves or turn it face down. In a second round, each player in turn may name a different suit as trump (never the suit just turned down) or pass.
3. If all four pass again, the hand is thrown in and the deal passes — unless your table plays stick the dealer (see Variations).

The player who makes trump is the maker. Only the maker’s side is committed to winning three tricks. The maker may also declare they are playing alone, in which case their partner sits out and the maker plays the hand solo.

Card ranks in trump: right bower (Jack of trump) highest, then left bower (Jack of the other suit of the same colour), then Ace, King, Queen, 10, 9. In plain suits, cards rank Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9 — except the suit that gave up its Jack to be left bower, which has no Jack.

How to Play

• The player left of the dealer leads the first trick. In a lone hand, if that player is the partner sitting out, the lead simply passes to the next active player clockwise.
• Play proceeds clockwise. You must follow suit if you can. Remember that the left bower follows trump, not the suit printed on it.
• Playing off-suit while holding a card of the suit led is called reneging, and it matters: in friendly games the hand is usually just replayed or forgiven once, but in scored play the standard penalty is 2 points to the offended partnership (4 if it happens against a lone hand). House tables differ on the exact price — like everything else in euchre, it’s cheapest to agree it before the first deal.
• A trick is won by the highest trump played, or, if no trump was played, the highest card of the suit led. The winner of each trick leads the next.
• Five tricks make a hand. Count tricks won by each side, then score.

Scoring

Only one side scores on each hand:

• Makers win 3 or 4 tricks: 1 point for the makers.
• Makers win all 5 tricks (a march): 2 points.
• A maker playing alone wins all 5 tricks: 4 points. (A lone maker winning only 3 or 4 scores 1, as usual.)
• Makers win 2 or fewer tricks — they are euchred: 2 points for the defenders.

Winning

The first partnership to reach 10 points wins the game. Many tables play a short series or a set score for an evening; the race to 10 is the standard game.

Variations Worth Knowing

• Stick the dealer (house rule): as above — it speeds the game up and forces adventurous calls.
• Farmer’s hand (house rule): a miserable hand of low cards may be traded in, on agreed terms.
• Six-player and three-player euchre exist with adjusted packs and partnerships; they change scoring, so treat them as separate games to agree in advance.
• Best bower: some packs and tables add a joker as the highest trump of all. House rule, and it changes lone-hand math considerably.