Euchre ONLINE

Euchre can seem very confusing at first thanks to its shifting trump suits, strange deck, and unusual ranking of cards. (The Jack of trump is the strongest card? Followed by the Jack of the same color? Who’s idea was that?).

Quickly, though, players find the rhythm that makes Euchre such a popular game. Once you’ve completed a few hands, the rules will be second nature to you, and a lifetime of Euchre games awaits!

The deck used in Euchre is unlike any used in other card games. Euchre uses only the Aces, Kings, Queens, Jacks, Tens, and Nines of each suit.

Players receive five cards per hand, usually dealt three-at-a-time then two-at-a-time (house rules sometimes differ on this). The remaining cards are set aside and the top card turned face-up. This is the “Up Card” and is the first possible trump suit.

If the team that called the hand’s trump suit wins three or four of the five available tricks in the hand, the team receives a point. In most scoring schemes, a calling team that wins all five tricks of a hand receives two points. If a player opts to call trump and “Go Alone,” meaning playing without the benefit of their partner, they receive one point for winning three or four tricks, but four points if they win all five.

If the defending, non-declaring team wins three or more tricks in a hand, they have “Euchred” their opponents and receive four points.

Most games are played up to a total of ten points.

Once the cards are dealt and the Up Card shown, the player to the left of the dealer can tell the dealer to “Pick it up.” The Up Card’s suit is trump for that hand, and the dealer places the Up Card in their hand and returns another card face down to replace the Up Card.

If the player to the left of the dealer doesn’t want to declare trump, they can “pass.” The next player to the left can then tell the dealer to pick it up or they can pass. If all four players prefer to pass, the dealer turns the Up Card face down. The player to their left can then declare a different suit as trump or once again choose to pass.

If all the players decide to pass, the final decision falls on the dealer. Depending on your house rules, the dealer can pass, killing the hand and passing the cards to the player on their left for the next deal. Or, in some cases, the dealer is compelled to declare trump, placing their team in jeopardy of being Euchred.

The player seated to the left of the dealer lays the first card. Play proceeds clockwise.

Players are compelled to follow the suit of the first card played. If they can’t, they can lay a trump card or “throw off” by playing a card from the other two suits.

The trick is won by the highest ranked card of the first-played suit, or the highest ranked card from the trump suit. One of Euchre’s idiosyncrasies, however, is that the Jack of trump (called the right bower) is the highest card, and the Jack of the same color as trump (called the left bower) is the second-highest card.

The best way to learn Euchre is to play. That helps you get the feel of the unusual card-ranking system Euchre uses.

With experience, players will grow to learn when it’s best to pass or declare trump. It’s also important that players learn to anticipate how their partner will—or won’t—contribute to the hand.

One of the best aspects of Euchre is that the hands and the games move quickly, so it doesn’t take a lot of time to get several games under your belt.