How To Play Euchre

Euchre is a card game every Michigander knows or has heard of. If you haven’t learned how to play, now is your opportunity! After reading this tutorial, you’ll be able to understand the rules and throw down trump cards with the best of them.

Picking Teams

You need four people to play Euchre. 2 people on each team. The person across from you is your teammate.

Preparing The Deck & Points

Take a deck of regular playing cards and separate the 5s, 9s, 10s, jacks, queens, kings and aces into a separate pile.

Each team can stack one five on top of another and use them for counting points in the game. The goal of the game is for your team to attain 10 points. 

Dealing The Cards & Setting Up The Round

Pick someone at random to start as the dealer. Have them pass out 5 cards any way they wish to each player including themselves. Then put the remaining 4 cards in the middle and flip the card on top facing up so everyone can see it.

Deciding On What’s Trump

The card in the middle that was flipped helps decide what card suit (hearts, clubs, spades, or diamonds) is “trump”  for that round. Starting with the person to the left of the dealer, this player can either tell the dealer to “pick it up” or “pass”. Players want the “trump” for that round to match more of the cards in their own hand. If the dealer picks up that upward facing card, and it’s a king of hearts for example, then hearts is “trump” for that round of the game (only) and the dealer must discard one of their own cards.

If the player passes, then the option goes to the next player in order around the table. Including the dealer, if everyone passes then you flip the card over, go around again and the person to the left of the dealer can choose any suit to be “trump” outside of the one that was face up first.

In a case where every player outside of the dealer passes again, the dealer MUST pick a suit to be “trump” that round.

Cards & Getting Points

In Euchre, jacks can either be worth the regular amount as they would in poker, less than a queen and more than a 10, or the most powerful cards depending on what’s “trump”. If hearts is “trump” for example, then the Jack of hearts (right bower for that round) is the most powerful card followed by the jack of diamonds (left bower for that round).

if hearts is “trump” for a round, this is each card’s worth from most (top) to least (bottom)…

Jack of hearts
Jack of diamonds
Ace of hearts
King of hearts
Queen of hearts
Ten of hearts
Nine of hearts

***A jack of clubs during this round, for example, would be worth less than a queen and more than a ten.

***if hearts is trump, a queen of spades, a queen of diamonds and a queen of clubs are all worth the same. Only the jacks change value.

this is the case when any suit is “trump”. So if spades is “trump”…

Jack of spades (worth most)
Jack of clubs (worth 2nd most)
Ace of spades (3rd most…)
King of spades
Queen of spades
Jack of spades
Ten of spades
Nine of spades

Playing Rounds

In the first round, the dealer starts by placing any card they wish in the middle face up (more on what card to choose in “Strategies To Win”). With each round, the goal is to have the highest card between you or your partner. The winner of the round is the one with the highest card.

Whatever suit is played by the first person must be followed by everyone else in the round UNLESS a player does not have a card in that suit. If a player does not have a card in the suit played by the first player, they are allowed to play any card in any suit that they wish (which becomes another part of the strategy)

For the next round and those after, the person who won the previous round starts. You then keep playing rounds until your all out of cards (so 5 rounds).

Getting Points

If the team that chose “trump” wins 3 or 4 rounds, they get one point.

If the team that chose “trump” wins all 5 rounds, they get two points.

But, if the team that didn’t chose “trump” wins 3+ rounds, they get two points.

If a player picks “trump” and “goes alone” (more on that in “Strategies To Win”) and wins 3 or 4 rounds, they get 1 point.

If a player picks “trump” and “goes alone” and wins all 5 rounds, they get 4 points.

But, if the team against the player “going alone” wins 3 or more rounds, they get 2 points.

Strategies To Win & Additional Euchre Rules

Picking what’s trump:  You’ll want to select a suit that matches more cards in your hand and are higher. For example, if spades is face-up and you have a jack of spades, a king of spades and a ten of spades. you’ll probably want to tell the dealer to “pick it up” (if you’re not the dealer) and make spades “trump”.

Going alone: If you think your hand is AMAZING for a particular suit and you get the chance to make that suit “trump”, you can choose to “go alone” after selecting “trump” where you play alone and your partner folds their cards and cannot win any rounds. It’s you against the world!

Playing the first card: There are different approaches to what card is best to play first, second and so forth. Maybe you play the jack of spades while spades is “trump” (the most powerful card in that round). This could make other players play a spade in their hand (if they have one).

Or, you might just play an ace of diamonds even though diamonds is not “trump” to see if you can win a round by having the highest diamond. Because remember, if your first and play a diamond, all subsequent players MUST play a diamond if they have one in their hand.

One of the best case scenarios would be that the first player plays a diamond when spades is “trump” and you don’t have a diamond. Because then you can play any card you want which could be a 9 of spades. Maybe follow it with a jack of spades, that you also have, to score a quick two points.

Not Playing Suit: If an opposing team catches your team NOT playing a particular card when you should have, based on what suit was thrown down first, they can call out it out and they will receive 2 points.

Side Note:

If you’ve ever been traumatized by being a newer player going against veteran Euchre players (like even I have in the past), then you’ll enjoy this little video I made:

@ryanredoute

There is always one player that doesn’t know how to play Euchre like the others. 😆 #michigancheck #michiganders #michigan

♬ original sound – That Michigan Guy