Euchre Rules: How to Play Euchre

These euchre rules cover the classic four-player partnership game played at kitchen tables across the Midwest and beyond. Euchre is fast, social and full of small decisions: you only hold five cards, but choosing trump, reading your partner and knowing when to go alone make every hand exciting. Once you learn the two bowers, the rest falls into place.

Quick rules

• Four players in two partnerships, seated across from each other.
• Use a 24-card deck: 9, 10, J, Q, K, A in each suit. Deal 5 cards each.
• One card is turned up; players may order it up as trump or later name a different suit.
• The jack of trump (right bower) is highest, then the other jack of the same color (left bower).
• The team that chose trump (the makers) must win at least 3 of 5 tricks or get euchred.
• First team to 10 points wins.

What you need

• A standard deck with the 2s through 8s removed, leaving 24 cards. Many players keep the 4s and 6s aside for scoring.
• Four players at a square or round table, partners facing each other.
• Pen and paper, or our scoreboard.

Setup

1. Pick partners and a first dealer (for example, the first player dealt a black jack deals).
2. The dealer shuffles, the player to the right cuts, and the dealer gives each player 5 cards, in batches of 3 then 2 (or 2 then 3) clockwise.
3. The remaining 4 cards are the kitty. Turn the top kitty card face up.
4. The deal passes clockwise after every hand.

How to play

Card ranking

In the trump suit, cards rank: right bower (jack of trump), left bower (jack of the same color), A, K, Q, 10, 9. If hearts are trump, the jack of diamonds is the left bower and counts as a heart for the whole hand. In the other suits, cards rank A, K, Q, J, 10, 9 (the same-color suit has only five cards that hand).

Round one of bidding

1. Starting left of the dealer, each player may pass or tell the dealer to pick it up (order up), making the turned card's suit trump.
2. The dealer, last to speak, may pick it up or turn it down.
3. When the card is ordered up, the dealer adds it to their hand and discards one card face down.

Round two of bidding

1. If everyone passes, the dealer turns the card face down.
2. Starting left of the dealer again, each player may name any other suit as trump, or pass.
3. If all four pass again, the hand is thrown in and the next player deals.

Going alone

The player who makes trump may announce alone. Their partner lays their cards face down and sits out the hand, and the loner plays against both opponents for extra points.

Playing the tricks

1. The player to the dealer's left leads the first trick (if that player is sitting out, the next player leads).
2. Everyone must follow the suit led if they can. Remember the left bower belongs to the trump suit.
3. If you cannot follow suit, play any card, including trump.
4. The highest trump wins the trick; if no trump is played, the highest card of the suit led wins.
5. The trick winner leads the next trick. Play all 5 tricks.

Scoring

Many players track points with two spare cards, a 4 and a 6, sliding one over the other to reveal pips. Some groups play to 11 or 15 instead of 10.

How to win

The first partnership to reach 10 points wins the game. Win tricks when you name trump, and euchre your opponents when they overreach.

Variations

• Stick the dealer: if everyone passes in round two, the dealer must name trump. This is very common and speeds up play.
• Joker euchre: a joker is added as the highest trump of all, above the right bower.
• Defending alone: some groups let a defender also play alone against a loner, scoring 4 for a euchre.
• Two-handed euchre: in one popular version each player gets 5 cards in hand plus a row of 4 face-down cards topped by 4 face-up cards; face-up cards are played as if in hand, revealing the card below.
• Three-handed (cutthroat): the maker plays alone against the other two each hand.
• Bid euchre: players bid how many tricks they will take, usually with more cards per player. Sources differ on its exact rules.
• Farmer's hand: a player dealt only 9s and 10s may swap them for the kitty.

Tips and strategy

• Count trump. There are only 7 trumps per hand, so after a few rounds you will know who holds what.
• Ordering up the dealer gives them an extra trump, so do it only with a strong hand of your own.
• As dealer, pick it up if you hold two trumps and an off-suit ace.
• Lead trump when your team made it and you hold the right bower; it pulls the opponents' trump.
• Do not trump your partner's winning ace; play low and save your trump.
• Go alone when you hold both bowers and the ace, or three top trumps and a strong off-suit ace.

Common mistakes

• Treating the left bower as part of its printed suit. It is a trump for the whole hand.
• Forgetting that the turned-down suit cannot be named in round two.
• Reneging (failing to follow suit when able). Most groups award 2 points to the other team.

Love trick-taking games? Try spades, hearts, 500, which grew out of euchre, or pinochle. More options for small groups are in card games for adults.