Euchre

i wrote this out, trying to explain euchre to some Californians.

i'm still interested in playing, but noone really seems to want to hang out with a curmudgeon like me.

i actually played a single player game of euchre the other day, losing to myself, 9 to 11...

or my understanding of it. i typed this out for my boardgamer friends and i figured since i put so much effort into it, and i want people to know how to play euchre, so they will play with me, i may as well re-post here:

let’s start simple, with the hoyle rules for people…

http://www.hoylegaming.com/c-16-rules.aspx#euchre

basically, it’s a deck of cards from 9 to Ace, Ace is high, there is a trump that is called, and if trump is hearts, the jack of hearts is the right bower (the highest suited card), and the jack of diamonds is the left bower (the second-highest suited card)…

once you get the gist of it, the games go real fast, don’t take a lot of thought, and you can enjoy casual conversation while playing…

the dealer deals out 2, 3, 2, 3, 3, 2, 3, 2 or 3, 2, 3, 2, 2, 3, 2, 3 to give each player 5 cards; you then put the remaining cards face down; flip over the top; that is the ‘offered’ suit, and the player to left of the dealer gets first chance to call it up as the suit, and the dealer takes the card into their hand and puts face-down one of the other 5 cards (they have to take the card ordered up)

if noone orders it up, the dealer puts the card face down, and the bidding continues, the first person to name a suit (other than the one shown) gets the bid, and needs to get at least 3 of the 5 tricks.

once the suit has been established, the dealer leads the first trick by playing a card from their hand. all other players, including your partner, must play suit, if they have it.

if you do not play suit when you had the opportunity to, and you are caught, this is called ‘reneging’ and will gain your opponents 2 points, and lose you the hand.

tricks are won by the most powerful card played on the trick. if the dealer leads with jack of diamonds, the next person plays 9 of hearts, and your partner plays the jack of hearts, and the next player plays the 10 of hearts, and hearts is trump, your partner will take the trick with the right bower.

if hearts is not trump, and everyone is void of diamonds, you just won the trick with your jack. or people weren’t following suit properly…

if they do not get 3 tricks, they are ‘euched’ and the opponent team gets 2 points.

if you get 3-4 tricks, you get a point, if you get all 5 you get 2 points.

there are other rules, too… but those are the basics.

Trump: the highest powered suit of a hand; named during the bidding by ordering up the face-up card or by naming a different suit after turning over the face-up card.

Right Bower: most powerful card; the Jack of the named suit

Left Bower: second most powerful card; the Jack of the same-colored other suit; diamonds are to hearts as spades are to clubs.

a jack of diamonds will take an ace of hearts if hearts is trump.

Trick: the 4 cards played by the players; the most powerful card wins the trick, winning the trick gives you the lead for the next trick.

Going Alone:

if you declare going alone when you win the bid, your partner puts their hand down, and doesn’t participate. there is a pansy rule called ‘partner’s best’ which allows your partner to trade a card with you, but as i said, you’re a pansy if you use that.

when doing no trump, no matter who the dealer was, the person left of the person calling ‘going alone’ gets to lead; this is meant to provide an opportunity to lead first with a suit the loner doesn’t have, and to give the opponents a fighting chance.

No Trump:

another ‘rule’ is ‘no trump’ meaning you can call ‘no trump’ instead of a suit, meaning Aces high, no trump… this is also a pansy rule.

Farmers:

another pansy rule is ‘farmers’ where you take 3 9s or 3 10s (or 3 9s and 10s, depending on what you want to allow) and reveal them to the players, and then put them under the face-up card and take the 3 under it. again, pansy rule, and goes to the first caller, typically.