Pass Out

Euchre bidding has two rounds, and it can reach a point where nobody wants trump at all. What happens then is one of the oldest disagreements in the game, and this setting is where you settle it.

The two rounds, briefly

The dealer deals five cards each and turns the top card of the remaining four face up. That is the up-card, and it proposes its own suit as trump.

• Round one. Starting left of the dealer, each player either orders it up — making the up-card’s suit trump, with the dealer picking the card up and discarding — or passes. If all four pass, the up-card is turned down.
• Round two. Going round again, each player either names a suit as trump, or passes. The turned-down suit may not be named; if the up-card was a heart, hearts are off the table for the rest of the hand.

Which leaves the question this page is about: what if everybody passes in round two as well?

The two answers

Stick the Dealer is the default at this site’s tables. If bidding comes back to the dealer in round two with the other three having passed, the dealer may not pass. They must name a suit, however bad their hand is. A hand is therefore never thrown away, and the dealer is regularly forced into a contract they expect to lose.

Pass Out is this variant, and it turns that off. The dealer passes like anybody else. If all four players pass in both rounds, the hand is passed out: thrown in with no score change, and the deal moves to the next player, who deals fresh.

A worked round

Four players, and the up-card is the 9.

Round	Left of dealer	Partner	Third seat	Dealer
One	pass	pass	pass	pass — the 9 is turned down
Two	pass	pass	pass	Stick the Dealer: must name a suit
Two	pass	pass	pass	Pass Out: may pass — hand thrown in

Under Stick the Dealer, the dealer picks whichever of spades, diamonds or clubs is least bad and plays a hand they will often be euchred on. Under Pass Out, the cards go back in the deck and the next player deals.

How it plays

Passing out is not common. All four players have to decline twice, and by round two any suit is available except one, so a player with three reasonable cards in a side suit will usually take it. Expect to pass a hand out occasionally rather than routinely.

What changes is less the frequency than the texture of the bidding:

• Round-two passes get cheaper. Under Stick the Dealer, the third seat knows that passing hands the problem to the dealer — who, if the dealer is their partner, is about to be euchred. That pressure to make a marginal call disappears here.
• The dealer’s seat is worth less. A big part of the dealer’s advantage under Stick the Dealer is that everyone else bids nervously to avoid sticking them. Take away the forced call and the bidding relaxes.
• Fewer cheap euchres. A forced dealer call is often a gift of two points to the other side. Under Pass Out, those points simply do not happen, so scores climb more slowly and games run a little longer.
• It is the more cautious game. Nobody plays a hand they did not choose. The cost is that you will sometimes shuffle and deal instead of playing.

If you like the pressure and the swing that comes from forcing a bad contract, leave Stick the Dealer on. If you would rather never be made to call a suit you cannot win with, this is your setting.

With other variants

• Ace-No-Face — no interaction. That redeal is offered before bidding starts, so it resolves long before this question comes up.
• Farmer’s Hand — also resolved before bidding. Note that a player who swaps for the kitty gives up their say in the trump call, which makes an all-pass round slightly more likely.

Pass Out is a built-in variant, so games using it are still rated.