Euchre Rules

Euchre is a trick-taking card game for four players in two fixed partnerships. Partners sit across from each other, so play alternates between the two teams around the table.

The goal each hand is for the team that names trump (the "makers") to win at least three of the five tricks. The first team to reach 10 points wins the game.

Euchre uses a stripped 24-card deck: only the 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace of each of the four suits. Everything lower than the nine is removed.

The dealer gives five cards to each player, dealt clockwise in packets of two and three (or three and two). The four remaining cards form the kitty (also called the blind). The top card of the kitty is flipped face-up as the turn-up card, which proposes a candidate trump suit for the first round of bidding.

Bowers are the rule that trips up every new player, so learn them first. When a suit is trump, the two jacks of that color become the two most powerful cards in the game.

The right bower is the jack of the trump suit and is the single highest card. The left bower is the jack of the OTHER suit of the same color — and for the rest of the hand it stops being its printed suit and counts as trump. For example, if spades are trump, the J♠ is the right bower and the J♣ is the left bower and plays as a spade.

Below the two bowers, the trump suit continues A, K, Q, 10, 9. Every non-trump (off) suit ranks normally A, K, Q, J, 10, 9 — but remember the jack that is currently a bower has left its suit.

Trump is decided in up to two rounds of bidding, starting with the player to the dealer's left and proceeding clockwise.

Round 1 — Order it up: each player in turn may accept the turn-up card's suit as trump ("order it up") or pass. If a non-dealer orders it up, the dealer picks up the turn-up card into their hand and then discards one card face-down, keeping five. If all four players pass, the turn-up card is flipped face-down and bidding moves to round 2.

Round 2 — Name a suit: each player in turn may either name any suit OTHER than the turned-down suit as trump, or pass. Whoever names a suit becomes a maker for their team.

When a player makes trump, they may declare that they are "going alone." Their partner sets their cards face-down and sits out the entire hand, so the loner plays one-against-two.

A loner risks having no help, but the reward is large: taking all five tricks alone is worth 4 points instead of the usual 2 for a march. It is the single biggest swing in the game.

The player to the dealer's left (or, on a loner, the player to the loner's left) leads to the first trick. Each other player, in clockwise order, plays one card.

You must follow the suit that was led if you are able to. If you cannot follow suit, you may play any card, including a trump. Remember the left bower counts as trump, not as its printed suit — so if trump is led you must play it, and you may not play it to follow its off-color suit.

The highest trump in the trick wins it; if no trump was played, the highest card of the suit led wins. The winner of each trick leads to the next. After all five tricks, the hand is scored.

Only the outcome relative to the makers matters. The makers set out to win at least three of the five tricks; the defenders try to stop them.

If the makers win three or four tricks, they score 1 point. If they sweep all five tricks (a "march"), they score 2 points. A lone maker (loner) who takes all five scores 4 points, while a loner who takes three or four scores 1 point.

If the makers fail to win at least three tricks, they are "euchred," and the defending team scores 2 points. The first team to 10 points wins the game.