Progressive is far and away the better variety of
competition. The idea here is that each player is partnered with every other
player exactly once over the course of the night. Here's the setup: There are
one or more tables playing the game at the same time, depending on the number
of people involved. (To keep things from getting all fouled up, it helps to
have some multiple of four people playing, so that there are not extra people
hanging around, not doing anything.) After eight hands are played, everybody
writes down the number of points that their team scored, then switches
partners. Lather, rinse, and repeat, until all of the players have been paired
with each of the others once. Everybody adds up the number of points they
scored throughout the night, and the person with the most points wins. When we have two tables the second position
is also recognized, and when three tables, acknowledgements are given to the
top three players that evening.
With eight people of varying euchre backgrounds, you can
expect to spend about three hours at the tables. Any number of tables can be
used for the tournament, but time becomes a serious thing after you get above
twelve or maybe sixteen people. A better solution at that point might be to
break the group up into smaller contests of eight or so people each.
Progressive Tally sheets are available from many card
shops. The tally sheets we use for one, two,
three, or four
tables are also available as Excel spreadsheets.