Euchre, in its simplest form, a very easy card game to learn. To start, euchre is a four person game with partners that is played to ten points. Euchre only uses 24 cards, 9 through ace of every suit are the cards used. The most important aspect to learning euchre is to know that euchre is a trump game. Once a suit is declared to be trump, that suit would be considered the main suit. Once a suit is named trump the rank of cards change. For example, the trump suit runs jack, ace, king, queen, ten, 9.
The other suits still have their normal ranking order ace through 9. The jacks of the game are the key to learning the game. Both color jacks play a key role. Lets say spades is called as trump, the jack of spades is the highest rank card followed by the jack of clubs. The jacks are called the bowers. Following the above example, the jack of spades become the “right bower” and the jack of clubs becomes the “left bower”. This is the same for every suit that is called as the trump suit.
This is the part of the game that most people get the most confused on, the rank of cards. Most don’t catch on that the jack of the trump suit is the highest. Most people cant understand why the jacks would be the highest ranking cards and thus making learning the game hard. But after one understands the trump suit and the role the jacks play, the rest of the game is pretty simple. Once the dealer has been decided, the dealer then deals out the cards clockwise, going twice around, until all four players has five cards in their hands. The rest of the cards, there should be four left, are out into a pile, also known as the kitty.
The top card is always turned up for all to see and is called the up card. Then play starts on the dealer’s left and each player decides to either call the up card or pass. If a player calls the up card then the dealers picks the up card up and discards one card. If no one calls the up card, it is then turned down. Play now goes around each player again so each is given a chance to call a trump suit or pass. If someone calls a trump suit, play starts. If no one calls a trump suit, the dealer either can pass their deal or can be made to call a suit, which is called stick the dealer. Once a trump suit is named, play starts with the player on the dealer’s left with what’s called the lead. Everyone has to follow suit, meaning that every player must play what was led.
If a diamond is led then every player must play a diamond. If a player doesn’t have the led suit, then they can play a trump. Whoever takes what is called the trick (what is being played), then its their turn to lead. Scoring is also pretty basic. If the team who called trump takes three tricks then they get a point. If they take all five tricks then they get two points. If the team fails to take three tricks then they are what’s called a euchre, meaning the other team took the three tricks. So then the other team gets two points.
Also, in the scoring and play, if one player thinks they can take all five tricks on their own without their partner’s help, then that player can state they are playing alone. If the player takes all five tricks then that team gets four points. If the player fails to get all five tricks but gets at least three tricks, then that team gets one point. If that player fails to get at least three tricks then that player is euchred and the opposing team gets two points. Once a team reaches ten points then they win the game.
These are just the basics but once someone learns the basics, they can then move on to more strategies to enhance their play.
