There are three things everyone here has to face: death, taxes, and learning how to play Euchre! Euchre is a trick-taking card game played extensively in the US and Canada, and to a lesser extent in Great Britain and New Zealand. Euchre is a highly social game, traditionally played at family reunions and get-togethers, in college dorms, high-school cafeterias, and even at the local VFW, not to mention the thousands of Euchre nights and league games happening every week. Whether you’ve just learned to play or have been playing for decades, by taking the time to read this guide you are clearly intent on becoming an even better Euchre player. Welcome!

How to Play: The Rules of Euchre

Euchre is played with four players divided into two teams sitting across from each other. The deck uses only the cards from nine through Ace of each suit, making twenty-four cards in total.

Each round begins with the deal, five cards to each player. The top card of the remaining four is turned face up. That card’s suit is offered as trump, which is the most powerful suit in the hand.

Starting with the player to the dealer’s left, each player can either order it up, meaning that suit becomes trump, or pass. If everyone passes, there is a second round of bidding where players can choose a different suit as trump. If everyone passes again, the deal moves on, unless your group plays Stick the Dealer, where the dealer must choose a trump suit no matter what.

When trump is chosen, play begins. The player to the dealer’s left leads the first card, and everyone must follow suit if possible. If you cannot follow suit, you may play any card, including trump, which beats all non-trump suits.

Within trump, the Jack of trump (called the Right Bower) is the highest card in the game, followed by the Jack of the same color (the Left Bower). After those come the Ace, King, Queen, ten, and nine in normal order.

The team that wins three or more tricks wins the hand.

• If they called trump and made it, they earn one point

• If they win all five tricks, that is a march worth two points

• If they fail and the opponents take three or more, they are euchred, and the defenders earn two points

• A player who goes alone without their partner can earn four points for a clean sweep.

Play continues until a team reaches the agreed target score, usually ten points.

Common Variants

Euchre is full of local twists, and part of the fun is learning a new group’s rules before you get caught off guard.

• Stick the Dealer: if everyone passes twice, the dealer is forced to call trump.

• Farmer’s Hand or (Misdeal) Rule: if you are dealt a hand of mostly low cards such as three or more nines and tens, some tables allow you to throw it in and request a redeal.

• Canadian Loner: if the dealer’s partner orders the turned up card in the first round, that partner must play alone.

• Ace No Face: some casual games let you discard and draw if you have an Ace but no face cards. It is more of a local tradition than a standard rule, but it appears often.

• Dirty Clubs, Screw the Dealer, and many others exist. Always confirm house rules before the first hand!

Variance is a Bitch

I would like to start by addressing a common misconception about the game of Euchre. How many times have you heard players say, “it’s all just luck”? Indeed, luck is a healthy component. We’ve all had games where we never got to call trump because the bidding never reached us, and others where we were unstoppable. The former is bad luck; the latter, an example of our extensive skill, naturally!

In all seriousness, the degree of variance in Euchre is high, so the opportunity a player has to gain an edge through skill or strategy remains small. Euchre strategy is also not as simple as it may seem; you can play and study for a lifetime and still find new ways to improve.

The best way to fight variance is to take more control: call trump more often. It really is that simple. I’m sure your immediate reaction is, “I would if I had the cards more often!” Well, you do—you just need to lower your calling threshold. This is done by following three simple steps.

Step 1: The Name of the Game

Get over your fear of being set (aka euchred). There is a social stigma to declaring your intentions and not following through, and because of the social nature of the game, the most important goal for most casual players becomes never getting set. We need to get out of that mindset. When given the opportunity to call, we should call our best hand—if we don’t, our opponents will. The most likely outcome of any hand is one point for the calling team. By passing, you’re effectively giving your opponents one point, and when they call and score, your team suffers a two-point swing. Viewed this way, is calling not the better alternative? The worst outcome here—you guessed it—is also a two-point swing.

One strategy I like to use is to get on my favorite Euchre app and play single-player mode. When playing against bots, I employ the rule that I must call in the second round, no matter my hand. Was I dealt a weak hand at a score of 8-8? I’m calling. Am I in Seat 3 (S3) with all four jacks and the potential to stick the dealer? Too bad, I’m calling. The advantage of this strategy has been two-fold. First, I have started to see patterns—for instance, how surprisingly thin (weak) a hand can be and still manage to score points. Second, I’ve gotten used to getting set. It has lessened the sting such that when I play live or ranked games, I’m no longer passing biddable hands for fear of being euchred. As Grandma Jan says, “The name of the game is Euchre—let’s give it a try!”

Step 2: Count on Your Partner for Three

Yes, that’s a bit tongue-in-cheek… at least sometimes. We’ve all heard “count on your partner for one!” at the table, haven’t we? I certainly have. If you can get two tricks, you should be calling trump. If you can likely only take two tricks, you should probably still be calling trump. And when you call trump, you should always remember you are playing with a partner! That means your team has 10 cards, so use all of them to your advantage. If you need help from your partner, you must give them the opportunity to help. This is where seat position comes into play: imagine you are in Seat 2 (S2), and your partner is the dealer in the first round of bidding (R1). You don’t need a super strong hand here. Recall, you are giving your partner trump and the ability to void themselves in a suit. Common calls here (in S2R1) are made when holding the right bower (R) and any other trump (Rx), or even just the R with a non-trump (off) ace (A). Remember, Rx could mean having just the R and the 9 of trump. It’s important to remember that the 9 of trump is only one step above an off A.

It’s also important to consider the strength of your hand in other suits. For example, if you have the R, do you also have cards in Next? Because if you have cards in Next with that bower, this means you’re covering Next. Are you not only covering Next, but also actually stronger in the opposite color? Holding Rx doesn’t always mean you should make that call; however, I do believe Rx is a call you should almost always make, even if you have everything else covered. There are one or two exceptions to this rule, and we will be discussing those later.

Step 3: The Power of Next

The Next suit is the opposite suit in the same color as the suit in question. For instance, if spades is the suit in question, clubs is the Next suit; similarly, if diamonds is in question, hearts is considered Next. The Reverse Next suits are the two suits of the opposite colour. Thus, in the case of spades, diamonds and hearts are Reverse Next.

These concepts were described by Hoyle in Fox’s Revised Edition of Hoyle's Games, and they are based on observations he made regarding card distribution. They are guidelines that are helpful in many aspects of the game. For example, if spades are turned up and everyone at the table passes, it is likely that S2 and S4 (the dealer) do not have the black jacks. This means that S1 can likely call Next (clubs) with a thinner hand, as their partner may have one or both bowers. The same is true for these seats and Reverse Next: if the dealer turned down a diamond, S2 can call Reverse Next with a thinner hand, as their dealer partner may have one or both or the red bowers. But how thin should they call? Well, that depends on the score, their comfort level, and their knowledge of the playstyles of everyone at the table.

As an example, let’s say you are in S1 and the dealer just turned down the king of spades (Ks). Your hand is: Q9cAQdAs (the queen and the 9 of clubs; the ace and the queen of diamonds; and the ace of spades). This is an example of an easy Next call because, based on Hoyle’s observations, it’s likely that the black jacks are in your partner’s hand or buried in the kitty. It is also possible that your opponents are strong in clubs, but if so, without the black bowers. Here, an important and advanced strategy is to lead the 9c to either allow your partner to take the trick with a bower, or to draw out clubs from your opponents’ hands to improve your chances of taking tricks with your aces.

Luck vs. Skill

Where the Real Edges Are

Meditations on Ranked Play