The Sandy Eggo EUCHRE Group

 

Scouting the net I bring you The Semi-Official EUCHRE Home Page. These fine folks from Case University in Cleveland know Euchre! It would be a grievous disservice if I do not give them full credit for much of this work. My plagiarisms are obvious, in an attempt to produce content for our specific group and interest.

House Rules

The Equipment

Euchre equipment is pretty basic. The Euchre deck is a twenty-four card deck consisting of a 9, 10, J, Q, K, and A of each of the four suits.  Scoring is done using the 7 and 8.  A single spot is uncovered for each point scored, the 7 and 8 allow for 15 points to be displayed,

The Set-Up

Euchre was designed for four players. Players sit around a common area (tabletops serve this purpose admirably), so that there are two pairs of players facing each other- these pairs are the partnerships.

The Deal

The dealer is usually chosen by way of a person shuffling the cards and dealing them one at a time face up to each individual until a JACK is turned up. The player who receives the JACK is the leading dealer. After each hand is played, the deal passes clockwise around the table.   After 8 deals each partnership records its own score on the space provided on each individual tally sheet, and moves on to the next round.

The player who deals must, according to etiquette, offer a cut to the opponent to his right. As for actually dealing the cards, the dealer should always deal to the opponent to his left first, and then proceed clockwise around the table (pretty basic card stuff, right?). The usual manner is to deal three cards to one's opponent, two to one's partner, three to one's other opponent, and two to oneself. Then, the dealer deals another round to bring each player up to a total of five cards. THERE WILL BE FOUR CARDS LEFT OVER. This is normal- you didn't screw up somewhere (unless you don't have four cards left over...). These four cards are called the 'kitty'.

When everyone has the right number of cards (by the way, you are allowed to look at your hand), the dealer places the kitty facedown on the table. The dealer then flips over the top card.

Calling Trump

The suit of the face-up card in the kitty is the first suit proposed as trump. Beginning with the player on the dealer's left, each player gets a chance to accept or decline that suit as trump. To accept the proposed suit, a player tells the dealer to pick up the face-up card. The dealer then adds that card to his hand and discards one card face down on top of the kitty. (It's usually a low, non-trump type, but that's a matter of personal taste.) To decline the proposed suit, a player just passes. If the dealer declines the suit, the card is turned over and the kitty becomes basically a moot point.

If every player declines the proposed trump, then each player gets a chance to call any suit except the declined one as trump, beginning with the player to the dealer's left. As soon as any player calls trump, play begins. If everybody passes a second time, the dealer is allowed to deal this hand again – ONCE.  Should everybody decline to order up the proposed trump card again, and again everybody passes a second time – then we stick the dealer.

There is one more trick to going alone. If you think that your hand is pretty buff (or if your partner is absolutely horrible), you may want to consider going alone. Just order up the proposed trump or call a suit, as usual, then tell your partner to sit back ("Stay at home" is the phrase we true euchre aficionados prefer) and enjoy. If the person who would have lead the hand is sitting out, the next player in the rotation leads, otherwise the hand is played as normal, minus one person. Cons to this technique- your partner, who can usually be counted on to take a trick, is now out of the hand, doing nobody any good. Pros- you get to look gutsy, and if you take all five tricks, you get double points! Winning without sweeping and getting euchred dole out the usual number of points to the appropriate team.

If the calling team goes alone, then both DEFENDING players also have the option of going alone, beginning with the player on the attacker's left. When defending alone, the defending team leads regardless of the defender’s position in the rotation.

The Play

The player to the left of the dealer leads; they can play any card from their hand. Play then proceeds clockwise. The next player must play a card of the same suit, if able. If not, they may either "trump" or "throw off". The two remaining players, in turn, play a card, following the leader's suit if they can.

Trumping is accomplished by throwing any card of the trump suit. Since even a nine of trump will beat any card of an off suit, this is sometimes a good idea. Throwing off means playing a card that is (a) not trump and (b) doesn't follow suit. REMEMBER- if you can follow suit, you must follow suit. If you throw off, you personally cannot win the trick, so this is generally only a good idea when it looks like your partner will take the trick.

Once each player has played a card...

The person that played the highest trump card takes the trick. If no trump was played, then the trick goes to the person that played the highest card of the suit led. Remember that in off suits, aces are high.

The player who took the trick leads the next round. The rest of the rounds are played in a similar fashion, with the winner of each round leading the next.

Finishing the Hand

Once all five rounds have been played, each team totals their tricks. The team, which takes the most tricks wins the hand, earning points according to the table below, under Scoring. If the team, which called trump takes the most tricks, they earn one point, plus a bonus point if they take all five. If they fail to take at least three tricks, however... It's not pretty. This is a fun little event known as a Euchre. If this happens, then the calling team gets NO POINTS WHATSOEVER and the defending team gets two points and bragging rights forever.

Scoring

This area probably discourages more people from playing euchre than any other, more even the whole concept of bowers. It's really not that bad. You can only score 1, 2, or 4 points in any given hand, so it doesn't get that complicated. Anyway, here is a quick sum-up (The team that called trump is the Calling Team, the other is the Other Team, cool?): 

                                     Caller's Points      Other's Points
                                     ===============      ==============
Calling Team takes
 
  0 - 2 tricks (EUCHRE!):
       All four players playing:            0                    2 
       Caller going alone:                  0                    2
       Caller & Defender going alone:       0                    4
 
  3 - 4 tricks:
       All four players playing:            1                    0 
       Caller going alone:                  1                    0
       Caller & Defender going alone:       1                    0
 
  5 tricks:                    
       All four players playing:            2                    0
       Caller going alone:                  4                    0
       Caller & Defender going alone:       4                    0
 
Calling Team revokes
       All four players playing:            0                    2
       Caller going alone:                  0                    4
       Caller & Defender going alone:       0                    4
 
Defending Team revokes
       All four players playing:            2                    0
       Caller going alone:                  4                    0
       Caller & Defender going alone:       4                    0

Not too tough, right? Well, there's one more tricky part. As mentioned earlier, the score is usually kept with cards. The traditional way is this: you use a six and a four (any suit you please, but spades seem to be lucky), and you cover the six with the four. Then, as your team scores points, you uncover that many spots on the cards. You go alone and take all five; you can uncover four spots by turning the four over and place back on six leaving the same number of spots on the six uncovered. The first team to uncover all ten spots wins!   For progressive we use the seven and eight rather than the four and six, as any table could go to double digits.

Special Rules

Like every card game ever invented, there are hundreds of variations on the basic game of euchre. We've compiled a list of some of the most common...

Stick the Dealer

In this variation, the dealer is not allowed to pass a second time. If no one else calls trump, the dealer must do so. In other words, every time the cards are dealt, someone's going to score some points. Since it is kind of tough on beginners we do allow for a single re-deal.

Ace-No Face

This is a protective sort of thing. If a player is dealt a hand with (only) one ace and no face cards, then they are allowed to call "Ace-No Face". Everybody's hands are thrown in and the current dealer deals again. This is a really great way to waste time, and probably shouldn't be used when all the players have some experience in the game.

Partner's Best

This is another cheeseball rule. When a player decides to go alone, then before  trump is called, the player's partner chooses a card and passes it to the fellow with the loner hand. This makes getting a loner entirely too easy, and most games end up lasting about five rounds.

Farmer's Hand

This rule is questionable even for fans of Ace-No Face. If someone is dealt three nines or three tens, they have the opportunity to, before they decide on the proposed trump, to exchange their puny cards with the three face-down cards in the kitty. Some folks allow players to call Farmer's Hand if they have any three-card combination of nines and tens- these are probably the same people that wear elbow pads when they speed-walk. Any number of players can invoke this rule during a given round, but bear in mind that after the first farmer's hand, the kitty is guaranteed to consist of ugly cards.

No First Blood

a nutshell, this rule states that the first lead of the round may not lead trump. We're pretty much in favor of this one - stops the leader from fishing out everybody's money cards with a right bower / left bower quickie.

 

Euchre Strategy

All right. In euchre, kind of like every other card game known to man, there are an infinite variety of strategies to choose from. Some just tend to win more often than others. Now, we're not saying that if you follow the strategies on this page, you'll never lose a game of euchre. But you WILL avoid the embarrassment of having a partner that refuses to admit they know you...

Always take the trick

Make your opponents fight for every trick they take.

Trump early, trump hard

If your partner calls trump and you look down and see the ace of trump or left bower sitting in your hand, the chances are good that your partner would dearly love to know where those babies are - specifically, whether they're sitting in your opponents' hands with mischief on their minds. So, show your partner what he's afraid of - play your big dogs in the first round or two, and let your partner get on with whatever strategy is up his sleeve.

NEVER trump your partner's ace

This is a biggie. People have been banned from the dinner table for this particular oops. If your partner has the trick in the bag, do NOT trump in.

Trump your partner's ace

Okay. We lied. There are times when trumping that ace becomes unavoidable. If you've got nothing left but trump, fire away and watch your partner's face light up with joy (of course, if you trump the ace when you should've thrown off, few juries would vote to convict if your partner strangled you on the spot). Also, if you know - or suspect a WHOLE LOT - that your opponent is void in the ace's suit, by all means bring out the heavy artillery.

Lead Trump

If your partner calls trump, and you have the left or right bower, and it's your lead, lead it - your partner will appreciate knowing where it is.

Make it Next

If the person sitting to your right is the dealer and he/she turns down a card that everybody has passed on, then the "rule of thumb" is to make it next, or the same color suit. If Diamonds was the suit turned down, then make it Hearts etc.

Make it for your Partner

If your partner is the dealer and he turns down a suit due to everybody passing and the next player doesn't make it next for his partner, then make it the opposite color suit. If you don't, then chances are that your opponent sitting to your left will call trump for his partner, so that your partner (the dealer) doesn't get the chance to call trump.

Always lead trump

If you called trump and it's your lead, then lead it. Try to draw out the trump from the opposition’s hands. This also gives you the opportunity to see what your partner has. If you lead trump and your partner doesn't throw trump out, then start to pray! Leading trump can also make your Aces good if you have some. NOTE: if you called it "light" or "on a prayer", then leading trump my not be wise. Try leading an ace. Also, if your partner called trump and he/she calls it light, then leading an ace if possible would be great. It may not take a trick, but it will draw out trump, hopefully making the few trump you do have good.