How to : How to Play Euchre for Beginners

Split into 2 teams of 2 players. Euchre is only a 4-player game, so choose another player to be on your team. Sit directly across from your partner so the members of the other team are on your left and right.^[2]

Form a Euchre deck by removing the 2s–8s of every suit. Euchre only uses 24 cards: the aces, kings, queens, jacks, 10s, and 9s of each suit. Set the cards you’re not using aside since you won’t need them while you’re playing the game.^[3]

Have each player draw a card to pick the first dealer. Shuffle the cards of your thinned-out Euchre deck and have each player draw one card. Whoever has the highest value (with aces being the highest) gets to start the game as the first dealer.^[4]

Deal out 5 cards to each player. The dealer passes out cards clockwise around the table starting with the player to their left. Hand each player 2 cards from the top of the deck. Once you go around the table once, then give everyone 3 more cards to fill up their hand. Players can look at the cards in their hand, but shouldn’t show them to their teammates or other players.^[5]

Flip the top card of the deck to reveal the potential trump suit. There will only be 4 cards left in the deck after you finish dealing. Take the top card from the deck and reveal it in the center of the table. The suit of the card becomes the potential “trump suit,” which is considered the highest-valued suit for the current round.^[6]

Decide if you want to accept the revealed card’s suit as trump. Starting with the person to the left of the dealer, players one at a time decide if they want the revealed suit as trump. Accept the trump if the majority of the cards in your hand match the same suit. Since the trump suit is the most powerful for the round, that means you’re more likely to win. When any player accepts the trump suit, the dealer adds the revealed card to their hand and then discards a card face-down. ^[7]

Let a player choose the trump suit if everyone passes on the top card. If everyone passes on the trump suit, flip the revealed card face-down again. Starting on the dealer’s left, a player can name the suit they want as trump as long as it’s not the same suit as the card that was revealed. The first person who chooses a trump suit sets it for the rest of the round.^[8]

Choose to “go alone” if you have a hand with a lot of the trump suit. When a player accepts or picks a trump suit, they can choose to “go alone” without their partner’s help if they feel confident in their hand. When a player declares they want to go alone, their partner sets their hand face-down and sits out for the rest of the round.^[9]

Make jacks in the trump and same-colored suit the highest ranked cards. For most suits, the card ranks from highest to lowest are ace, king, queen, jack, 10, and 9. Once a trump suit is picked, the jack of the trump suit becomes the strongest card in the suit and is called the “left bower.” The jack of the suit with the same color (hearts/diamonds or spades/clubs) becomes the second-highest trump card, known as the “right bower.” The other cards in trump rank normally.^[10]

The starting player plays 1 card to lead the first trick. The player to the left of the dealer starts the first turn. Each turn is called a “trick.” The player can choose any card they want to play, and the suit of the card becomes the “lead suit.”^[11]

Play a card of the same suit as the lead card if you’re able to. Take turns clockwise around the table. Players must “follow” by playing a card in the same suit as the lead card. If you don’t have a card in your hand that matches the lead card, then you can play any other card you have in your hand, including a trump card.^[12]

Win the trick for your team by playing the card with the highest value. Once everyone plays 1 card to the trick, check who put down the highest-ranking card. If any trump cards are showing, then the highest-ranking trump is the winner. Otherwise, the highest card in the lead suit wins. The person with the highest card takes all of the played cards and sets them face-down in a pile in front of them.^[13]

Continue playing tricks until you run out of cards in your hand. Whoever won the last trick plays the first card to start the next one. Each turn, you’ll only play 1 card. Once you play through 5 turns and run out of cards in your hand, then the round ends.^[14]

Gain points as the makers for winning 3 or more tricks. If your team accepted or chose the trump suit, you gain 1 point if you won 3 or 4 tricks. If you were able to win all 5 tricks for the round, your team gets 2 points.^[15]

Earn points as the defenders by winning 3 or more tricks. If you prevented the team that accepted or chose the trump suit from getting a majority of the tricks, then they’ve been “euchred” and your team gains 2 points.^[16]

Pass the role of the dealer and deal out a new hand. The person to the left of the last dealer becomes the new dealer, meaning the role alternates between teams each round. Collect all of the cards from the deck to shuffle and deal out again to start the next round.^[17]

Play hands until a team reaches 10 points and wins. Tally up your scores after each round and add them to your old scores. As soon as a team crosses 10 points, they immediately win the game!^[18]