How to Play Euchre

Euchre is a fast trick-taking card game for four players in two teams, played with just 24 cards. Each player gets five cards, one suit becomes trump, and the team that chose it has to win at least three of the five tricks. Its twist is the two bowers: the jack of the trump suit is the highest card in the game, and the other jack of the same colour is the second highest. Euchre is most popular in the American Midwest, especially Michigan, and in upstate New York and Ontario, and it is also played in Cornwall and Devon, Australia and New Zealand.

Euchre Rules at a Glance

The Cards and How They Rank

Use a standard deck with the 2s to 8s and the jokers taken out, which leaves 24 cards. Outside the trump suit, cards rank in the normal order: A, K, Q, J, 10, 9. Inside it, the order changes:

1. Right bower: the jack of the trump suit.
2. Left bower: the jack of the other suit of the same colour. If hearts are trump, it is the jack of diamonds; if spades are trump, the jack of clubs.
3. The ace, king, queen, 10 and 9 of trumps.

So the trump suit has seven cards, and the same-colour suit is left with five. The left bower counts as a trump for everything, including following suit: if hearts are trump and someone leads a heart, the jack of diamonds must be played to it if it is your only heart.

How to Set Up and Deal

1. Pick teams and the first dealer. Draw cards: the two lowest play together and the lowest deals first. A common shortcut is to deal cards face up until someone gets a black jack.
2. Shuffle and cut. The dealer shuffles and the player on the dealer’s right cuts.
3. Deal five cards each, clockwise from the dealer’s left, in two rounds: two then three, or three then two. Stick with whichever pattern you start with.
4. Turn up the kitty card. Put the last four cards in the middle and turn the top one face up. This up-card proposes the trump suit.

The deal passes one seat to the left after every hand.

How to Make Trump

Round one. Starting on the dealer’s left, each player either passes or accepts the up-card’s suit as trump:

• An opponent of the dealer says “I order it up” (or “pick it up”).
• The dealer’s partner says “I assist”.
• The dealer, last to speak, can take it up.

Whoever accepts, the dealer adds the up-card to their hand and discards one card face down. If all four pass, the dealer turns the up-card face down.

Round two. Starting on the dealer’s left again, each player can pass or name any other suit as trump. The turned-down suit can’t be named. Naming the suit of the same colour is called making it next; naming one of the other colour is crossing it. If everyone passes again, the cards are thrown in and the next player deals.

The player who chooses trump and their partner are the makers; the other team are the defenders.

Stick the dealer (also called “screw the dealer”) is a popular house rule: if the first three players pass in round two, the dealer must name a suit, so no hand is thrown in.

Going Alone

The player who makes trump can announce “alone”. Their partner puts their cards face down and sits the hand out, and the lone player plays against both opponents. It pays double for a sweep: winning all five tricks alone scores 4 points instead of 2. In some groups a defender may also go alone, and in British and Canadian rules a dealer’s partner who wants the up-card’s suit must go alone.

How to Play a Hand

1. The player on the dealer’s left leads the first trick. If someone is going alone, the player on the lone player’s left leads.
2. Everyone must follow suit if they can. If you can’t, play any card, including a trump.
3. The highest trump wins the trick. If no trump was played, the highest card of the suit led wins.
4. The winner of each trick leads to the next, until all five tricks are played.

Not following suit when you could is a renege. When it is caught, the other team usually scores 2 points.

How to Score in Euchre

The first team to 10 points wins. Players traditionally keep score with two spare low cards, such as a 4 and a 6 or two 5s: one card lies face down across the other and slides along to show the number of suit symbols that equals the score. A team on 9 points is in the barn, one point from winning.

Euchre Rules Questions

Euchre Variations

• British Euchre: a 25-card pack with a joker, the Benny or best bower, as the top trump (the 2 of spades can stand in for it). If the Benny is turned up, the dealer’s team automatically make trump. Games usually go to 11.
• Three-handed (cutthroat) Euchre: everyone plays for themselves. In one common version each player gets seven cards and three go to the kitty; the maker needs four tricks for 1 point, six for 2 and all seven for 4. If the maker falls short, the defender with the most tricks scores 2, or each defender scores 1 if they are tied.
• Buck Euchre: three or four players on their own, each starting on 25 points and taking off one point per trick won. The first to zero wins.
• Bid Euchre: players bid the number of tricks they expect to win before trump is set, usually with a no-trump option.
• Six-player Euchre: two teams of three, sitting alternately, with the 7s and 8s added to the deck.
• 32-card Euchre: 7s and 8s added for four players, which makes it less certain where the top cards are. It is the usual game in New Zealand.
• Super euchre: if the makers take no tricks at all, the defenders score 4.
• Farmer’s hand: in some groups a player dealt only 9s and 10s can show the hand and either call a redeal or swap three cards for the three face-down kitty cards.

Euchre Terms

Euchre Strategy

• Count your trumps before calling. Three trumps, especially with a bower, plus an off-suit ace is a solid hand to make. One or two low trumps usually is not.
• Remember who gets the up-card. Ordering it up puts that card in the dealer’s hand. Ordering up a jack gives the dealer’s team the right bower.
• Use “next” in round two. When the dealer turns a card down, the same-colour suit is a popular call for the player on the dealer’s left: the dealer showed no interest in that colour, and one card of it is now buried.
• Lead trumps when your side made it. Drawing out the defenders’ trumps protects your aces. On defence, lead an off-suit ace instead.
• Don’t trump your partner’s winning trick. Throw a low card and keep your trumps for later tricks.
• Go alone with the top cards and the lead. Right bower, left bower and ace of trumps, with another trump or an off-suit ace, is the classic loner.
• Watch the score. At 9 points a 1-point make wins the game, so a safe call beats a risky loner. Against a team on 8 or 9, defending well matters more than making.

Euchre Odds

With 24 cards and five-card hands, the chances are exact:

Where Euchre Comes From

Euchre most likely comes from Jucker, an 18th-century card game from Alsace, which also explains the word bower: Bauer is German for farmer and for the jack. The game is mentioned in the United States as early as 1810, and the earliest surviving rules date from 1844. Euchre also gave the deck its joker: in the 1850s an extra card was added to Euchre packs to act as the highest trump, and it later found its way into poker. By the late 19th century Euchre was seen as the national card game of the United States. Bridge and Spades later overtook it, but it is still a staple in the Midwest and Ontario.

More Games to Try

For more partnership trick-taking games, see Spades, Whist and Pinochle. Sheepshead is another Midwest favourite with jacks and queens as top trumps, and Oh Hell and Hearts are good games for a crowd.

Euchre: frequently asked questions