How to Play Euchre
To play euchre, deal five cards each from a 24-card deck and turn up the top card of the four left over. In two rounds, players may make trump — first the turned card's suit, then any other — or pass. The side that makes trump needs three of the five tricks. Follow suit if you can. The jack of trump and the other jack of its colour rank highest. Score 1 for three tricks, 2 for all five, and play to 10.
The rules, step by step
- 1Deal five cards eachUse the 24 cards from nine to ace. Deal five to each player in packets of two and three, leave the last four face down as the kitty and turn the top one face up.
- 2Make trump in two roundsStarting left of the dealer, each player may order the dealer to pick up the turned card, making its suit trump, or pass. If all four pass, each may name any other suit, or pass again.
- 3Rank the two bowers highestThe jack of trump is the highest card and the other jack of the same colour the second highest — and it counts as a trump. Below them trump runs ace, king, queen, ten, nine.
- 4Follow suit and win tricksThe player left of the dealer leads. Follow the suit led if you can; otherwise play anything. The highest trump wins the trick, or the highest card of the suit led if nobody trumped.
- 5Go alone if you can take all fiveWhoever makes trump may play without their partner, whose cards stay face down for the hand. Taking all five tricks alone scores four points instead of two.
- 6Score the hand and play to 10The makers score 1 for three or four tricks and 2 for all five. Fewer than three and they are euchred: the other side scores 2. The deal passes left, and the first side to 10 wins.
Try it — the rules above, running
Bid first: order the dealer up to make the turned card’s suit trump, or pass; if everyone passes, name another suit or pass again. Switch on Go alone before you bid to play without North. Then tap a raised card, or choose one with the Left and Right arrow keys and press Enter — only legal cards are raised, so you can never fail to follow suit. Stick the dealer, today’s game and the scoring are in the three-dot menu.
Your statistics
- Played
- 0
- Won
- 0
- Win rate
- 0%
- Streak
- 0
- Best streak
- 0
- Best time
- —
One result per game to 10: a win when you and North get there first. A game abandoned part-way counts as a loss. Kept in this browser only.
Today’s game
Every deal is shuffled from the game number, so today’s game gives everyone the same cards in the same order — what happens to them is down to your bidding and your play.
Keyboard
- Left / Right
- Choose a card in your hand
- Enter
- Play (or discard) the chosen card; deal the next hand
- Tab
- Reach the bidding buttons
- O
- Order it up (pick it up, as dealer)
- P
- Pass
- A
- Go alone on or off, while bidding
- H
- Hint — what the computer would do
- N
- New game
- F
- Full screen
What order does a hand of euchre happen in?
- 1DealFive cards each, clockwise from the dealer's left, in a round of two-three-two-three and then three-two-three-two. The four left over are the kitty, and its top card is turned up.
- 2Round oneFrom the dealer's left, each player says "order it up" or "pass". The dealer's own choice is to pick it up or turn it down. The first order makes the turned card's suit trump.
- 3The dealer's discardWhenever the card is ordered up, the dealer adds it to their hand and discards any one card face down, so every hand is five again.
- 4Round twoIf everyone passed, the card is turned face down. From the dealer's left again, each player may name any other suit as trump, or pass.
- 5Play five tricksThe player left of the dealer leads. Follow suit if you can, remembering that the left bower is a trump. The winner of each trick leads the next.
- 6ScoreThree or four tricks to the makers is 1 point, all five is 2, all five alone is 4. Fewer than three is a euchre and 2 points to the defenders.
How does the left bower change suit?
The left bower is the jack of the suit with the same colour as trump, and the moment trump is made it belongs to the trump suit. Everything about following suit follows from that, and it is the rule new players get wrong most often.
- With hearts trump, the jack of diamonds is the second-highest heart. If a heart is led and it is your only heart, you must play it.
- If diamonds are led and you hold the jack of diamonds and another diamond, you must play the other diamond — the jack is not a diamond any more.
- If diamonds are led and the jack is your only card with a diamond on it, you are void in diamonds and may play anything, including the jack as a trump.
- Leading the jack of diamonds is leading trump: everyone must follow with a heart if they have one.
What do euchre tables disagree about?
Stick the dealer is the big one. Played straight, eight passes throw the hand in and the deal moves on; with stick the dealer, the dealer must name a suit in round two. This board lets you choose in its menu and remembers your choice.
Two smaller questions come up when somebody goes alone. If the dealer's partner orders the card up alone, the dealer is the one sitting out, so here nobody picks the card up — it stays in the kitty and only its suit counts. And if the player left of the dealer is the one sitting out, the opening lead simply passes to the next player. Some tables also let a defender go alone against a lone maker for extra points; that is not played here.
How do you win more often?
- Ask who gets the turned card before you order it upOrdering up your partner puts that card in your side's hand; ordering up an opponent gives it to them. The same hand can be an order from one seat and a pass from another, and a turned jack is the clearest case.
- Lead trump when your side made itDrawing the opponents' trumps protects every ace you hold. Lead the right bower if you have it, and if your partner made trump, lead one back to them — they chose the suit, so they are the one holding it.
- Cash off-suit aces earlyWith only five cards each, somebody runs out of a side suit within a round or two, and an ace that gets trumped is a trick thrown away. The shorter your holding in that suit, the safer the ace is to lead.
- Never trump your partner's winning trickIf your partner is already winning, the trick is yours either way. Throw your least useful card and keep your trumps for the tricks the opponents are winning.
- Go alone on control, not on acesA lone hand needs the right bower and at least two more trumps, so that nobody can stop the march. A handful of off-suit aces without the top trumps is how a four-point march turns into a two-point euchre.
Common questions about euchre
- How many cards do you deal in euchre?
- Five to each of the four players, twenty in all, from a 24-card deck. The four that are left are the kitty: one is turned up for the first round of bidding and the other three are never seen.
- Can you name the turned-down suit in the second round?
- No. Once everyone has passed the turned card, its suit is out for that hand, and round two is a choice between the other three suits — even for a dealer who is stuck.
- Does the dealer have to pick up the card if their partner orders it?
- Yes: an order from any seat, partner included, makes the dealer take the card and discard. The one exception is a partner who orders it up and goes alone, because then the dealer sits the hand out.
Ready to stop reading? Play euchre on the full board, with controls and statistics tailored to that game.