Euchre › Rules

Euchre rules

Euchre is played a little differently from one table to the next. These are the rules used on this site, for four players in two teams of two. Where a common rule differs, we say so. Play euchre online as you read.

The goal

With your partner, take at least three of the five tricks in a hand when your team makes trump, and be the first team to 10 points.

1. The cards and the deal

Euchre uses 24 cards: the nine, ten, jack, queen, king and ace of each suit. Each player gets 5 cards. The next card is turned face up on the rest, which stay face down and aren’t used. The deal moves one seat to the left each hand.

2. Making trump: the first round

Starting with the player to the dealer’s left, each player can pass or tell the dealer to pick up the face-up card (“order it up”). If someone orders it up, its suit is trump, and the dealer takes the card into their hand and puts one card face down to get back to five. The dealer can also pick it up themselves.

3. Making trump: the second round

If all four pass, the face-up card is turned down. Starting again with the player to the dealer’s left, each player can name any other suit as trump, or pass. If all four pass again, the hand is thrown in and the next player deals.

Some tables play “stick the dealer”, where the dealer must name a suit in the second round. We don’t, so a hand nobody wants is simply dealt again.

4. The bowers and the order of the cards

The jack of trump is the right bower, the highest card. The jack of the other suit of the same colour is the left bower, the second highest, and it counts as a trump, not as its own suit. Then come the ace, king, queen, ten and nine of trump. With hearts as trump, the trumps from highest to lowest are:

In the other suits the order is ace, king, queen, jack, ten, nine (one suit loses its jack to trump).

5. Playing the tricks

The player to the dealer’s left leads any card. Everyone must follow the suit led if they can; remember the left bower belongs to trump. If you can’t follow, you can play a trump or any other card. The highest trump takes the trick; if no trump was played, the highest card of the suit led does. Whoever takes a trick leads the next.

6. Going alone

The player who makes trump can choose to go alone. Their partner puts their cards down and sits out the hand. If the dealer’s partner orders up the face-up card and goes alone, the dealer sits out and the card stays out of play.

7. Scoring

The team that made trump (the makers) is aiming for three tricks. Each hand scores one of these ways:

The makers take 3 tricks: 1 point.

The makers take all five tricks (a march): 2 points.

Going alone, the maker takes all five tricks: 4 points.

The makers take only 2 tricks, so they are euchred and the defenders score: 2 points.

Going alone and taking three or four tricks still scores 1. The defenders can’t go alone on this site.

8. Winning

Keep dealing until one team reaches 10 points at the end of a hand. They win the game.