Card symbols on a dark purple field marked with faint X's
Rules

Euchre

👤 Players:
4
⏱ Time to play:
30 minutes
♟ Equipment:
Standard cards
🧠 Designer(s):
Public domain
QR Code

Euchre isn't nearly as difficult as it's made out to be, in fact, it's one of the faster playing trick-taking partnership games.

Object #

Be the first team to make it to 10 points. You earn points by winning at least 3 tricks, with the possibility for more.

Setup #

A normal deck of cards is stripped of everything except A-K-Q-J-10-9 for each suit, making 24 cards.

Two teams are formed and the reduced deck is shuffled.

Cards are dealt in an alternating 3 / 2 pattern until each player has 5 cards.

The remaining 4 cards are dealt face-down in front of the dealer to form the 'Book'. The top card is flipped over to determine the trump suit, and bidding starts.

Set aside the 4 and 6 of both hearts and spades as scoring aids for each team.

Bidding #

Starting with the left of the dealer, each player decides to either:

  1. Order it up, where the trump is accepted and the dealer takes the revealed card and discards a card of their choice to the bottom of the Book.
  2. Pass, meaning they don't want the displayed trump and bidding passes to the next player.

If all players including the dealer pass, the revealed card of the Book is flipped face-down and another round of bidding occurs where players can either:

  1. Declare a trump, which remains for the rest of the round.
  2. Pass, and bidding passes to the next player.

The first player to make a bid ends the bidding round. If no players declare a trump, the next player becomes the dealer and all cards are shuffled and dealt with bidding starting over.

Going Alone #

The player that wins the bid has the choice to either:

  1. Play alone, where they will play without the assistance of their partner for the chance of extra points.
  2. Play together, play with the assistance of your partner.

Card Order #

The jack in the trump suit, and the jack of the same colored suit become the highest cards in that round.

For leading purposes, the Left Bower counts as a trump suit.

For example, if diamonds are trumps, the right bower is J♦ and left bower is J♥. If a player leads with J♥, other players must play diamonds (trump suit) if they have them.

The other cards retain normal ordering, with Aces-high.

Play #

The player to the left of the dealer leads any card to the first trick.

Players must follow suit if possible. A player who has no card of the suit led ("short-suited") may play any card.

The player of the highest card of the suit that was led wins the trick and leads any card to the next trick.

Scoring #

First team to 10 points wins the game.

As a scoring aid, use the 4 and 6 of hearts or spades. Turn the 4 face up and use the face down 6 to cover all pips on the card. As you score points, reveal that number of pips. When the score becomes greater than 4, flip the 6 face up and use the face up 4 to gradually reveal pips as you score points. This way the amount visible pips on both cards is the teams total score.

Nathan's Notes: I learned this at Viget25 from Brian DiChiara and was surprised at how fast it played. It's less precise than Spades (since the bid is always at least 3) and it's a bit easier to remember what's been played with the lower card count. This makes for a lighter and breezier game. Playing to 10 also doesn't last too long, so it's easy to reset and try again.

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