Rules of Euchre

Euchre is a fast-paced card game for two to six players, in which players score points by taking tricks. The game is played with a deck of 32 cards (formed by removing the two through the six of each suit from a standard deck of 52). Players score points by winning three or more tricks in a hand, and win a game by scoring five points (or seven or ten).

Before play, players agree on whether a game is won by five, seven, or ten points. Players also agree on whether they are playing a fast game or for rubber points (see Scoring).

The Deck

Euchre uses a deck of 32 cards (the Long German deck). The ranking of the cards in the trump suit is right bauer, left bauer, A, K, Q, 10, 9, 8, 7. The ranking in non-trump suits is A, K, Q, (J), 10, 9, 8, 7 (if the trump suit is black, the J is only present in the red suits; if the trump suit is red the J is only present in the black suits).

The Right Bauer and Left Bauer

The right bauer and the left bauer are jacks, and are the two highest cards in the trump suit. The right bauer is the jack of the suit called as trump; the left bauer is the jack of the other suit whose color matches the trump suit. Thus, the right and left bauers will be one of the following four pairs:

• J diamond, J heart
• J heart, J diamond,
• J spade, J club
• J club, J spade

The Deal

The dealer is chosen at random for the first hand; thereafter the deal rotates around the table. At the beginning of each hand, each player is dealt five cards. The player next in rotation after the dealer is the eldest hand.

Declaring Trump

After all players are dealt their hands, the next card in the deck is turned face-up. The suit of the turn-up is the proposed trump suit. Beginning with the eldest hand, each player has the option to accept the suit proposed as trump (by clicking on ACCEPT) or to reject the suit proposed as trump (by clicking on PASS). If the suit of the turn-up is accepted as the trump suit, the dealer may exchange a card in-hand for the turn-up (by clicking on the card in-hand to be traded) or may decline the turn-up (by clicking on DECLINE).

If all players have rejected the suit of the turn-up as the trump suit, then each player is offerred the opportunity to name a different suit as trump by clicking on the image for that suit, again beginning with the eldest hand. If all players reject the opportunity to name an alternate trump suit, then a new hand is dealt and the eldest hand becomes the dealer for the new hand.

The player who accepts the suit of the turn-up as the trump suit (or who names an alternate suit as the trump suit) is the maker, and as maker has set a contract to take at least three tricks in the course of play.

In partnership play, the maker may play alone, in which case the partner does not play to any tricks. Any opponent of the maker may defend alone. Playing alone and defending alone can increse the score awarded for a hand.

The Play

After the trump suit has been named, five tricks are played. The eldest hand leads one card to the first trick. Each player in turn plays one card to the trick. Players must follow suit if able but may play a trump or discard to the trick if they cannot follow suit. The highest card that follows suit wins the trick unless a trump card was played to the trick, in which case the highest trump played to the trick wins. The winner of a trick leads to the next trick.

The maker (or the maker and partner if playing with partners) must take at least three tricks to score for the hand. Opponents must prevent the maker from taking three tricks to score for the hand.

Scoring After Play

After all five tricks have been played, each player (or partnership) receives points based on the number of tricks taken by the making side. Taking all five tricks is called a march; if the making side fails to take at least three tricks it is euchred.

The making side scores 1 point for the hand for taking three or four tricks, or 2 points for march. In a partnership game, a maker playing alone scores 1 point for taking three or four tricks, and 4 points for march.

Opponents of the maker score 2 points for euchre. When there is a lone defender, opponents score 2 points if the defender takes three or four tricks, and 4 points for march. All opponents of the maker score if the maker is euchred.

Game point is five, seven, or ten, as agreed before the start of the game. If multiple players all reach or exceed the game point simultaneously, subtract points from every player's score to bring the highest player's score down to one point below the game point and continue play until one player wins (exception: if a player's score would be reduced below zero, it is simply set to zero). If the score has been reduced this way, all players are still eligible to win.

The winner is the first player to reach game point in the Fast Game, or the player with the highest score when playing for Rubber Points.

Fast Game

In the Fast Game, the first player or partnership to reach the game point is the winner. The fast Game is recommended for new players.

Rubber Points

When playing for Rubber Points, players or partnerships play multiple games and accumulate Rubber Points by winning rubbers. A player or partnership wins a rubber by winning a series of two games. A rubber continues until one player or partnership has won two games (thus with three players, a rubber will consist of at least two games and no more than four games; with six players a rubber will consist of at least two games and might include as many as seven games). Players agree beforehand how many rubbers will be played, and the winner is the player or partnership with the highest rubber score after all rubbers have been played.

Each game a player wins earns the player rubber points, but the rubber points are only added to the player's score if the player wins the rubber. The winner of a game receives 1 rubber point if any opponent scored 3 or 4 game points, 2 rubber points if the highest opponent score was 1 or 2 game points, and 3 rubber points if no opponent scored any game points. These rubber points are only added to the player's score if the player wins the rubber.

The winner of a rubber (the player who wins two games in the rubber) receives bonus rubber points equal to the number of players or partnerships in the game (so the winner of a rubber in a six player game receives rubber points earned by winning the two games for the rubber, plus six bonus rubber points). These rubber points are added to the winning player's or partnership's score. Only the winner of a rubber adds their rubber points to their score; rubber points earned by all other players or partnerships are lost (they do not carry over to the next rubber).

When playing for rubber points, the winner is the player or partnership with the highest score after playing the agreed-upon number of rubbers.

Variations For At-Home Play

In at-home play, players may agree to use any or all of the following scoring and play variations.

Joker - A single joker is added to the deck. The joker becomes the highest trump card. When the turn-up is a joker, it is treated as a heart for purposes of determining the proposed trump suit.

Calling for Best - This is a rule variation for partnership Euchre. A lone player may discard one card and call for partner's best card. Partner must choose the best card without consultation and pass it to player. If partner is the dealer, partner may take the turn-up (if the turn-up suit was accepted as trump) and pass that to the player.

Laps - A player (or partnership) that wins a game by making more than 5 (or 7, or 10) points may carry forward the excess to the next game.

Slam - A game counts double if the losing players or partnerships scored no points.

Call-Ace - This is a variation for four, five, or six players. The maker calls any suit (trump or non-trump). The player holding the highest dealt card in the called suit becomes partner to the maker for the hand (the maker may be playing alone if the maker turns out to hold the highest card of the suit called; a player will not know for certain that they are partner unless they hold the right bauer if the trump suit is called or the highest ace in a called non-trump suit). If maker has a partner, both maker and partner receive points for making the contract or for march. Opponents score 2 points if maker or maker and partner are euchred. Partners may change from hand to hand so each player maintains their own score. The first player to make game point wins the game.