How to Play Euchre
Euchre is a trick-taking game for four players in two fixed partnerships: the seats across from each other are partners. It’s played with a short 24-card deck, and the first team to 10 points wins.
The deck and deal
Section titled “The deck and deal”Euchre uses 24 cards: 9, 10, jack, queen, king, ace in each of the four suits, no 2 through 8.
The deal is uneven on purpose: each player gets 5 cards, dealt in batches of 3-then-2 or 2-then-3 depending on seat. After everyone has 5 cards, the next card is turned face up. This is the up-card, and its suit is the candidate trump. The 3 remaining cards stay face down as the kitty.
Bidding for trump
Section titled “Bidding for trump”Bidding happens in up to two rounds, starting with the player to the dealer’s left.
Round 1, order it up. Each player in turn may either pass, or “order up” the up-card’s suit as trump. If a player orders it up, the dealer picks up the up-card into their hand (now holding 6 cards) and must immediately discard one card back into the kitty, face down, to get back to 5. A player ordering up may also declare going alone (see below).
Round 2, call it. If all four players pass in round 1, the up-card is turned back down and a second round begins, again starting left of the dealer. Now each player may name any suit except the one that was just turned down as trump, or pass. Going alone is available here too. The dealer does not pick up anything in this round; the kitty stays untouched.
Stick the dealer. By default, the dealer isn’t allowed to pass in round 2 if it comes all the way back around to them with everyone else having passed; they’re stuck calling a trump suit. This is on by default on standard tables. (See Pass Out for the variant that turns it off, letting the dealer pass too.)
Trump and the bowers
Section titled “Trump and the bowers”Once trump is set, two jacks become special:
- The jack of the trump suit is the highest card in the game, the “right bower.”
- The jack of the other suit of the same color becomes trump too, and ranks just below the right bower, the “left bower.” (For example, if trump is hearts, the jack of diamonds is the left bower and counts as a trump card, not a diamond, for the rest of the hand.)
Trump ranks, high to low: right bower, left bower, ace, king, queen, 10, 9. Non-trump suits rank normally (ace high) and can never beat a trump card, no matter how high.
Playing a trick
Section titled “Playing a trick”The player to the dealer’s left leads the first trick; after that, the trick winner leads next. You must follow the suit led if you can; remember the left bower counts as trump for this, not its printed suit. If you can’t follow suit, you may play anything, including trump. Highest trump played wins the trick; if no trump was played, the highest card of the suit led wins. Five tricks are played per hand.
Example trick: trump is hearts
Section titled “Example trick: trump is hearts”| Seat | Plays | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Lead | 9♥ | leads trump |
| Next | J♦ | the left bower, counts as trump, beats the 9♥ |
| Next | K♠ | can’t follow trump, off-suit, can’t win |
| Next | J♥ | the right bower, highest card in the deck, wins the trick |
The right bower wins even though it was played last and is “just” a jack; bowers outrank everything else in trump.
Going alone
Section titled “Going alone”A player who calls trump (in either round) may declare they’re going alone. Their partner sits out the entire hand, no cards, no play, and the hand is played 3-handed instead of 4. This is a bigger risk for a bigger reward (see scoring below).
Scoring
Section titled “Scoring”After all 5 tricks are played, the team that called trump (“the makers”) is scored based on how many tricks they took:
| Result | Points |
|---|---|
| Makers take 3 or 4 tricks | Makers +1 |
| Makers take all 5 (a “march”), not alone | Makers +2 |
| Makers go alone and take all 5 | Makers +4 |
| Makers go alone but take only 3 or 4 | Makers +1 (no bonus for going alone unless you march) |
| Makers take 2 or fewer (“euchred”) | Defenders +2, makers 0 |
First team to reach 10 points wins the game.
Worked example
Section titled “Worked example”Team A calls hearts as trump (not alone) and takes 4 of the 5 tricks. Team A scores +1; a bare majority doesn’t get the march bonus.
If Team A had gone alone and still only taken 4 tricks, it’s still just +1; the alone bonus only pays off on a clean sweep. But if Team A goes alone and wins all 5, that’s +4 in a single hand, the fastest way to close out a game.
If Team A calls trump and only takes 2 tricks, they’re euchred: Team B gets +2 even though they didn’t call anything.