How to play Euchre
4 players · 2 teams · 5 cards each
Euchre is a partnership trick-taking game played with a stripped 24-card pack, and a hand is over in five tricks. It is quick enough to play a dozen hands in an evening, and it has one rule that nothing else in this app has: naming a trump suit moves a card out of its own suit and into trump. Miss that and you will lose tricks you thought you had won.
Objective
Take three of the five tricks with your partner and your side scores. Partners sit opposite each other, so players 1 & 3 are Team A and players 2 & 4 are Team B. The first team to 10 points wins the match.
The short pack
Everything below the nine comes out, leaving 24 cards: 9, 10, J, Q, K and A in each suit. Everyone is dealt five, one card is turned face up, and the three cards under it are never used. Almost the whole pack is in play, so counting what has gone is realistic in a way it is not with 52 cards.
That is the order in the three plain suits. Trump is ordered differently — see below.
The two bowers
Naming a trump suit promotes two Jacks above the Ace.
The right bower
The Jack of the trump suit. The highest card in the game — nothing beats it.
The left bower
The other Jack of the same colour. It joins the trump suit for the hand: with spades trump, the J♣ is a spade. It beats every spade except the J♠, and if spades are led you are obliged to play it.
Spades trump, top to bottom. Clubs are then a suit of five cards, not six — their Jack has left. We sort the left bower in with the trump suit in your hand for exactly this reason: seen among the clubs, it is the card people forget they hold.
Naming trump
Nobody plays a card until a trump suit exists, and deciding it is half the game.
One card is turned up
Five cards each, then the top of the four left over goes face up on the table. Its suit is the first proposal.
Order it up, or pass
Starting to the dealer's left, each player in turn takes that suit as trump or passes. Order it up and the dealer takes the card into hand and puts one back face down.
If all four pass, go round again
The card is turned down, and now anyone may name any suit except that one.
Stick the dealer
If everyone passes a second time, the dealer must name a suit whether they like it or not. No hand is ever thrown in and redealt.
Whoever names trump leads their side into the hand as the makers. The first trick is always led by the player to the dealer's left, whoever that turned out to be.
Playing a trick
Everyone plays one card. Follow the suit that was led if you hold it — remembering that the left bower is trump, so it does not answer a lead of its printed suit and it must be played on a lead of trump. If you are void you may play anything, trump included.
The highest trump wins the trick. If no trump was played, the highest card of the suit led wins it. Whoever wins leads the next one, and all five tricks are played every hand — taking three settles the hand, but the makers can still turn 1 point into 2 by taking all five.
Going alone
Whoever names trump may declare they are going alone. Their partner puts their cards down and sits the hand out, and the lone player plays all five tricks against two opponents. It pays nothing extra for three or four tricks — the reward is only for taking all five, which is worth 4 points instead of 2. Everything else about the hand is unchanged.
Scoring
| Result for the side that named trump | Points |
|---|---|
| Take 3 or 4 tricks | 1 |
| Take all 5 — a march | 2 |
| Take all 5 going alone | 4 |
| Take fewer than 3 — euchred | 2 to the other side |
Naming trump is a promise to take three. Break it and the opposition scores double what you were playing for — which is why passing a mediocre hand is a real decision and not cowardice.
Strategy tips
- 💡Count the bowers before anything else. A hand with both of them and one more trump is usually worth ordering up on its own.
- 💡Your trump suit is seven cards deep, not six, and one plain suit is five. Work out which suit lost its Jack before you count your winners.
- 💡Ordering it up gives the dealer a card. If the dealer is an opponent, you have handed their team the turned-up card and taken away a card you cannot see.
- 💡Passing is not free at a stuck-the-dealer table. If you are the dealer, a second round of passes lands the whole decision on you with whatever you happen to hold.
- 💡Go alone only for the march. Three tricks alone scores exactly what three tricks with a partner scores, and you gave up a partner to get them.
- 💡Against a lone player, lead through them rather than up to them, and keep the Ace of a plain suit for the trick they must follow.
About Euchre
Euchre was regarded as the national card game of the United States in the late 19th century. It has since settled into particular places rather than fading: the American Midwest, Michigan and Upstate New York, the Canadian province of Ontario, Australia, New Zealand, and Great Britain — Cornwall especially.
Where it came from is not settled. The most commonly accepted account, argued by the card-game historian David Parlett, traces it to an eighteenth-century Alsatian game called Jucker or Juckerspiel, pronounced "yooker". Other theories point at the Spanish Trionfo, the French Écarté or Triomphe, or German settlers in Pennsylvania.
The word bower is a straight borrowing of the German Bauer, which means farmer and is also what German players call the Jack. Before the Joker existed, the right bower went by another name: the best bower.
That is not a coincidence. The Joker got into the modern deck of cards through this game — it first appeared in Euchre packs in the 1850s. Every deck sold since carries a card that exists because of a five-trick partnership game. PlayTash deals Euchre without it, as most tables do today.
PlayTash runs Euchre online for players who cannot get four people around one table.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a bower?
A bower is a Jack that has been promoted by the trump suit. The Jack of trump is the right bower and is the highest card in the game; the other Jack of the same colour is the left bower and is the second highest. The word is the German Bauer, which means farmer and is also what Germans call the Jack. Before the Joker existed, the right bower was also known as the best bower.
Why is the Jack of clubs a spade?
Because spades are trump. The left bower is not merely as good as a trump, it becomes one for the hand: if spades are led you must play it as a spade, and it outranks every spade except the Jack of spades. It stops being a club entirely until the hand ends. This catches every new player once, which is why we sort it in with the trump suit rather than beside its printed colour.
What does ordering it up mean?
After the deal one card is turned face up. Going round from the dealer's left, each player may accept that card's suit as trump — ordering it up — or pass. If you order it up, the dealer picks the card up into their hand and puts a different one back face down, so the dealer's team gains a known card and loses an unknown one.
What happens if everybody passes?
The up-card is turned down and you go round a second time, and now anyone may name any suit except the one that was turned down. If all four pass again, the dealer has to name something — the rule is called sticking the dealer. It means no hand is ever thrown in and redealt, which matters most at a table with bots in it, where a dead deal reads as the game having frozen.
What does euchred mean?
Naming trump is a promise to take three of the five tricks. Fail, and you have been euchred: the other side scores 2 points instead of your 1. It is the whole tension of the bidding. Ordering up a suit you are not sure of hands the opposition double what you were playing for.
Should I go alone?
Only with a hand that can take all five tricks, because going alone pays nothing extra for three or four. A march is worth 2 with your partner and 4 without them, so the 2 extra points are the entire prize — and you are giving up a partner's help for them. Both bowers and the Ace of trump is the classic shape.
Why only 24 cards?
Everything below the 9 is taken out, which leaves 9, 10, J, Q, K and A in each suit. With 24 cards, four hands of five and one card turned up, only three cards are never seen at all. Every card left is one somebody might want, and a hand is over in five tricks.
How long is a match?
First team to 10 points. Most hands are worth 1, so a match usually runs ten to fifteen hands, though a euchre or a lone march moves the score two or four at a time.