An Interesting Old Card Game You Can Play with Family: Euchre

Euchre

There is an ocean of card games that you could choose to play with your family when you have a beanfeast. However, not every card game is fun and engaging throughout gameplay. Euchre is a fast-paced game that needs little effort to learn and is fun to play through and through, making it an excellent card game to play with family.

In this post, we break down how to play the perfect card game Euchre with your family.

The Deck in Euchre

You can use a regular deck of cards to play the game; however, you need to get rid of some cards before dealing. Euchre decks comprise cards from Ace to Nine in every suit, and all the other cards are removed and put aside. In other words, you’ll essentially play Euchre with a regular Poker deck but without cards 2 through 8 in every suit.

Understanding the Trump

In Euchre, the trump suit is the suit with the highest-ranking cards. The players can pick any one suit as the trump at the beginning of the game during bidding. If the players choose the Diamonds suit as trump, the nine of diamonds will have a higher value than any other card (except the left bower) in any suit.

Dealing the Cards

After the deck is shuffled, the dealer distributes twenty of the twenty-four cards in the deck to the four players at the table. The cards are traditionally dealt two and three at a time until all players have five cards. The remaining four cards remain in a pile called the “kitty.” The dealer must then turn the top card of the kitty face-up, and the suit of this card is the proposed trump suit.

With this, the bidding process may begin. Starting with the player to the dealer’s left, the players may decide to finalize the proposed suit as trump or pass the decision to the next player by declaring “pass.”

If the upcard is declared trump in the first round of bidding, the dealer must pick the card up and replace it with another card in their deck. The card they remove from their deck goes into the kitty facing downwards and must never be seen by other players.

Euchre 1

If all four players pass on declaring the suit of the upcard as trump, the second round of bidding may begin. In this round, starting from the player to the dealer’s left, players may declare any suit than the previously proposed trump suit as trump.

If a player does not want to be the one to decide trump, the player may declare “pass” and ask the next player to choose trump.

If no players declare the trump, the player to the dealer’s left becomes the new dealer, shuffles the deck, and begins the bidding process over again.

When the suit is declared, the game can begin. The team that declares the trump suit will need to win at least three tricks of five to score points. This team is called the “makers.” If the makers fail to win three tricks, they are said to be “Euchred,” and the other team scores points instead of them.

Card Ranking in Euchre

The ranking of non-trump suits is as normal: Ace, King, Queen, Jack, Ten, and Nine. However, the trump suit has a different ranking: the Jack or “right bower” ranks at the top. The second-highest ranking card is the Jack of the other suit with the same color as the trump suit. This Jack card is referred to as the “left bower.”

Scoring in Euchre

The makers must win three tricks to score a point, and if the team wins five tricks (a “march”), they score two points. If the other team wins three tricks first, the makers are said to be “Euchred,” and the other team (the “defenders”) scores two points.

After bidding ends, if a player feels that their hand has cards good enough to win all the tricks, the player can declare “alone.” This way, they can play the hand without their partner. If the lone player manages to win five tricks, their team scores four points. If the player wins three or four tricks, the team scores one point. If the lone player fails to take at least three tricks, their team gets Euchred, and the other team gets two points.

The first team to ten points wins.

Euchre Gameplay

The player to the dealer’s left begins the game by placing a card in the center of the table. Play continues clockwise, and the other players must play cards in the same suit as the leading card. Cards from another suit may only be played when a player doesn’t have a card from the leading card’s suit.

After all players lay down their cards, the player with the highest card wins the trick. The winner of the trick leads the next trick.

Conclusion

Learning to play Euchre may seem difficult for someone that hasn’t played before. However, observing how the game works for a few tricks is typically all that’s needed for someone to catch on to the working of the game.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Lost Password

Please enter your username or email address. You will receive a link to create a new password via email.