Euchre rules
What it is
Euchre is a four-player partnership trick-taking game played with a short deck — just 24 cards in the classic form — where each hand is only five tricks long and your team needs to win three of them. Two things make it Euchre rather than any other trick game: the Jack of the trump suit becomes the highest card in the deck (the right bower), and the other Jack of the same colour joins the trump suit outright as the second-highest (the left bower). Partners sit opposite each other. It is the national card game of the American Midwest and is played hard in Ontario, Cornwall, and New Zealand. This page describes the game as it is played at jpgames.app, including the regional presets in the table settings.
The deck
Twenty-four cards: 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King, Ace in each of the four suits. Everything from 2 to 8 is left in the box. Two larger decks are offered in the table settings — a 28-card deck adding the 8s, and a 32-card deck adding the 7s and 8s — which make for longer odds on any particular card and a slightly slower game.
Cards rank normally, Ace high, except in the trump suit, which is reordered the moment trump is named:
| Trump suit rank | Card | Name |
|---|---|---|
| Highest | Jack of trump | the right bower |
| then | other Jack of the same colour | the left bower |
| then | Ace, King, Queen, 10, 9 of trump |
The left bower changes suit. If clubs are trump, the Jack of spades stops being a spade for the rest of the hand — it is a club, it counts as a club when you are following suit, and calling it a spade is the classic beginner's mistake. The two red suits pair with each other and the two black suits pair with each other, so the left bower is always the Jack you would not expect.
The remaining three suits rank plainly: Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9 — except the suit that lost its Jack to the trump suit, which is one card short.
The Benny is an optional extra card, switched on by the British and Australian presets: a single joker that is always the highest trump, above the right bower, whatever suit is named. A player who leads it may name the suit it counts as.
The deal
Five cards to each of the four players, dealt in twos and threes. The next card is turned face up on the remaining stack — the turn-up — and it is the proposal that starts the bidding. The deal rotates clockwise.
Making trump
Trump is not fixed; each hand somebody chooses it, and choosing it makes them the maker with an obligation to win.
First round — the turn-up. Starting to the dealer's left, each player either passes or orders it up, which makes the turn-up's suit trump. The dealer's partner ordering it up is called assisting; the dealer ordering it up themselves is taking it up. Either way the dealer picks the turn-up into their hand and discards a card face down, so the dealer is always one card better informed than everyone else about the trump suit.
Second round — naming a suit. If all four pass, the turn-up is turned down and a second round begins, again from the dealer's left. Now a player may name any suit except the one that was just turned down. The first to name one becomes the maker.
If everybody passes twice the hand is thrown in and redealt — unless stick the dealer is switched on in the table settings, in which case the dealer is not allowed to pass in the second round and must name something. It makes for shorter games and more desperate hands.
Going alone. Whoever makes trump may declare they are going alone, at which point their partner puts their cards down and sits the hand out. It is three players against one for five tricks, and it is worth doing only for the extra scoring it unlocks.
Play
The player to the dealer's left leads the first trick. After that the winner of each trick leads the next.
You must follow the suit that was led if you can. Remember that the left bower counts as trump, not as its printed suit, both when following and when leading. If you cannot follow, play anything — there is no obligation to trump in.
The highest trump wins the trick. If no trump is played, the highest card of the suit led wins it. Five tricks and the hand is over.
Scoring
Only the maker's team can be rewarded, and only the defenders can profit from stopping them.
| Outcome | Points | To |
|---|---|---|
| Makers take 3 or 4 tricks | 1 | the makers |
| Makers take all 5 — a march | 2 | the makers |
| Makers go alone and take all 5 | 4 | the makers |
| Makers take fewer than 3 — euchred | 2 | the defenders |
Going alone and taking three or four tricks scores the ordinary 1 point. The alone bonus is for the march only, which is what makes it a real decision rather than a free upgrade.
Being euchred — making trump and then failing to win three tricks — hands two points to the other side. It is the reason the bidding is cautious.
Ending the game
First team to the target score wins. The default is 10, and the settings offer 5, 7, 10 and 11. Scores are cumulative across hands, and a game usually takes between four and ten hands.
Variants we implement
- Regional presets — four one-tap settings that pick the deck, the target and the Benny together, so nobody has to know which combination is which:
| Preset | Target | Deck | Benny | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | US / Canada | 10 | 24 | no | | British | 11 | 24 | yes | | Australia | 10 | 24 | yes | | New Zealand | 10 | 32 | no |
Anything you set by hand that does not match one of these simply reads as Custom.
- Deck size — 24, 28 or 32 cards.
- The Benny — on or off independently of the presets.
- Stick the dealer — on or off. Off by default, so an all-pass hand is thrown in and redealt.
- Target score — 5, 7, 10 or 11.
Where we differ from the common rules
- Four players only. Three-handed cutthroat and six-handed Euchre are not implemented. Bots fill any empty seat, so a four-handed game starts with one person present.
- No defending alone. A defender cannot go alone against a lone maker.
- No farmer's hand, no bidding out of turn conventions, and no "screw the dealer" beyond the stick-the-dealer setting above.
- Partnerships are fixed by seat — you and the player opposite. There is no cutting for partners.
Ready to play? Start a Euchre table — bots fill the empty seats, so a four-handed game starts whenever you do.
For the wider game, including the regional variants above that we do not implement, see Euchre on Wikipedia.
Common questions
How many cards are in a Euchre deck?
Twenty-four in the classic game — 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King and Ace in each suit. The table settings also offer a 28-card deck, which adds the 8s, and a 32-card deck, which adds the 7s and 8s.
What is a bower in Euchre?
The two most powerful cards in the hand. The right bower is the Jack of the trump suit and is the highest card in the deck. The left bower is the other Jack of the same colour, and it becomes a trump card for the hand — if clubs are trump, the Jack of spades is a club.
What does it mean to be euchred?
It means you named trump and then failed to win at least three of the five tricks. The other team scores two points for it, which is why the bidding is cautious.
How do you win a hand of Euchre?
The team that named trump needs three of the five tricks. Three or four scores one point, all five scores two, and all five while going alone scores four. Fall short and the other team takes two.
What is going alone in Euchre?
The player who named trump can send their partner out of the hand and play the five tricks alone against the other three. It scores four points instead of two if they take every trick, and the ordinary one point if they take three or four.