Comments on: How to Play Euchre

on 1/9/2009 Can you play 2- handed Uchre? My husband and I would like to play 2 -handed until we can learn the game. We are the beginners and we do not want to join others until we have a little something to bring public.

on 1/9/2009 Can you play 2- handed Uchre? My husband and I would like to play 2 -handed until we can learn the game. We are the beginners and we do not want to join others until we have a little something to bring public.

on 2/16/2007 Has anyone heard of a "DUTCHMAN" EUCHRE? Or, playing it Cross-corner--one player from each team thinks that he/she can make it "alone".

on 8/8/2006 Natural to Call:
In order to call trump, your hand must contain at least one (natural) card of that suit. For example: you cannot call hearts if you have no other hearts and ignoring the left bower.

No Face, No Ace, No Trump:
If after trump has been called your hand contains no face cards (king, queen, jack), and no aces, and no trump then the round is an automatic re-deal.

Farmers/Kiddies:
A variation on No Face, No Ace, No Trump. If your hand contains three nines or three tens you made trade all three of those cards (at once) for the three as yet dealt cards in the kiddie. Note this does not apply to any other variations like two nines and a ten, or two tens and a nine.

Ordering your Partner:
If you order trump on your partners deal you must play alone, without any help (cards) from your partner. If you sweep (make all five tricks) you receive four points instead of the typical two.

Defend Alone:
After your opponents call trump and before play has commenced you may choose to defend alone. This means you are trying for the euchre without the help of your partner. If you succeed in making euchre (three tricks when your opponents call trump) you receive four points instead of the typical two.

Stick the Dealer:
If no trump is called the Dealer is Stuck, meaning they are forced to call trump regardless of how bad their hand is. This insures that rounds don't get re-dealt frequently.

on 6/30/2006 A common (but incorrect) defense against loners is to play your lone ace if you are the first to lead. The thought is, if they have four trump and an off card, if the suit of their off card matches the suit of your ace, you just stopped them from getting 4 points.

However, if they do have an off card in your suit, that ace will be good at any time during the five tricks played. The reason it is a bad strategy is because your partner may have two aces. Now you are forcing them to decide which ace to keep and which to toss at the fourth trick.

It is a better strategy to keep you ace and play a card in one of the two remaining suits (the remaining being not the same suit as your ace and not the same suit as trump). If your partner has two Aces, he can play one now (trick 1) and still save his other ace for trick 5 (if needed).

On the flip side, if it is your lead and you have the two aces, play one immediately and save the other one for the last trick.

on 6/25/2007 If you have any 4 trump, you should go alone. Euchre is a game for aggressive players. Even if you have the worst possible 4 trump hand (9, 10, Q, K trump, off-9) you only have a 10% chance of being euchred. Ordering alone is the way to go.

on 2/10/2006 Be observant for opposing team table talk. This is a silent form of hand gestures, voice expressions, or other covert signals to tell a teammate what you have in your hand. This signaling can give a team an edge in knowing when to call trump or not, and also when to go solo. It's a form of cheating.

on 2/10/2006 Customarily some players use the unused 5 cards to score with. Just expose the suit symbols to reflect your teams score as you go and leave them on the table for viewing.

on 2/8/2006 Some play that if it goes around twice and gets back to the dealer, they are forced to call something. Others play that the deal just passes to the left if the dealer doesn't want to call anything.

on 2/8/2006 Typically in Euchre, the person who is dealer rotates clockwise by turn. Statistically, the dealer's team has an advantage to winning the hand, so if you choose, you can take the cards and start dealing out of turn, or "steal the deal". If no one on the other team notices, you're golden, if you're caught, you have to give the cards to the rightful dealer. Some places don't like to use this rule, but it's fun.

on 2/7/2006 If you have high enough cards in the trump, and you think you can take all the tricks by yourself, then when you call trump, you simply say "alone" and you take on the other two players by yourself. If you get 3 or 4 out of 5 then you only receive 1 point, but if you get all 5 tricks then you get 4 points. But if you don't get at least 3, then you have been set and the other team gets 2 points.

on 2/7/2006 When you are finished dealing, and it is the person on your left who is supposed to deal and they don't notice, you can "steal the deal."
If there is a misdeal when the trump is flipped over, you can call it (but only when the trump is flipped over) and then you will get the deal.

on 2/7/2006 You can only call a loaner hand if you have the trump ace, both bars, and no 9's in your hand. Even with the one trump nine, you cannot call a loaner, it is too risky.

on 2/7/2006 A real slick way to keep score is to take out the four 5's give a member of each team 2 of them. That person will lay the two cards face to face and reveal the dots on the cards as they score points.
After 5 points are scored, the top card is flipped over to reveal its 5 dots and the process starts over again through the 6-10 scores.

on 2/7/2006 The typical method for dealing a hand does not always have to be used. The rule is that you have to deal the hand in two parts, at least one card must be given to each player in each part, and you cannot give the same amount of cards to each player in either part. This means that you can deal one, four, one, four then four, one, four, one; or one, two, three, four then four, three, two, one; etc.

Also the discarded 5's are often used to the score the game. Give one pair of 5's to each team. The team's scorer places one of the 5's face up and covers it with the other 5, face down. As the game progresses, score is kept by uncovering a pip for each point earned. When five points are reached, the face-down 5 is turned over and placed underneath the other 5, face up.