Euchre

Euchre is a 4 player game and one of the biggest games on the team; however, it has a very specific set of rules to follow. You play using a deck of 24 cards (Ace-9 of all suits).

The goal of Euchre is for you and your teammate to win at least three tricks per hand. In order to win tricks, you have to have the “highest” card of the round.

The highest trump is the jack of the trump suit, called the “right bower.” The second-highest trump is the jack of the other suit of the same color, called the “left bower.” The remaining trumps, and also the plain suits, rank as follows: A (high), K, Q, J, 10, and 9 (shown below). A low trump card wins even against a high non-trump card.

 

 

 

 

The deal: 

After shuffling, the dealer deals in sets of twos and threes until every player has 5 cards: example: 2,3,2,3, then back to player one 3,2,3,2 until its 5 in the hand and 4 left of the dealing stack. The top card of the dealing stack is flipped over, and that becomes the potential trump suit. If there is a combination of AT LEAST 3 9s or 10s (ex: 9,9,9 or 9,10, 9, etc.) then someone can call “going under” where they take the 3 cards in the “blind” (or the 3 that were not dealt).

 

Calling:

Starting with the player to the left of the dealer, they will tell the dealer to “pick it up” or “pass”. If the dealer picks up the card, then that is the trump suit. If it goes all the way around and the dealer does not want it, they flip it over and start the next calling round. Then people get to call the trump suit they want, they can pass or call, if it gets back to the dealer, the dealer is forced to call.

 

Gameplay:

Once the trump suit is called, the game starts, starting with the person to the left of the dealer. All 5 cards of the round are played, whichever team gets 3+ tricks within that hand gets the points.

 

Scoring:

Whichever team gets 3-4 tricks, they get the points. If the team of the player who called trump suit wins, they get 1 point; if the team that called does NOT win the tricks, that’s called getting “bumped” and the other team gets 2 points. If any team wins all 5 tricks, they get 2 points. Lastly, if someone calls “going alone” (where one person wins all 5 tricks without their partner playing), they get 5 points; if going alone fails, then the other team gets 3 points (though this scoring is contested).