How to play Euchre

Euchre is the great partnership card game of the American Midwest, Ontario and the Maritimes. It is played with only 24 cards, five to a hand, so a deal takes a couple of minutes, yet every one of them turns on a real decision: should you make trumps with the card that has been turned up, name another suit, or let the other side try? The two jacks of the trump colour, the bowers, become the highest cards in the game, and a strong hand can even go alone for four points. Reading your partner, counting trumps and judging when to call make Euchre a true game of skill.

How to play on skill.games

When you open the game, the settings appear. Choose a difficulty (Easy, Normal, Hard or Crazy) and, if you like, two common house rules: stick the dealer and the Canadian loner. Then press PLAY.

• The table: you sit at the bottom and your partner Jake sits across from you. Emma on your left and Owen on your right are the other team. A "D" marks the dealer. At the top, the status line says whose turn it is; one chip shows the match score, and the other shows the trump suit, who made it and the tricks each team has taken so far.
• Calling trumps: after the deal, the three cards left over lie in the middle with the turned-up card beside them. On your turn a panel opens above your hand: PASS, ORDER UP (PICK UP if you are the dealer) or ALONE to order it up and play without your partner. In the second round the panel shows the three suits you may name; tap ALONE first if you want to play alone, then tap the suit.
• Discarding: if you are the dealer and the turned card is ordered up, it joins your hand. Tap the card you want to throw away.
• Playing: tap a card or drag it onto the table. Playable cards are lifted and glow; a card that isn't allowed shakes and the status line explains why, such as "You must follow suit" or "The left bower is a trump".

After each hand a sheet shows who made trumps, the tricks each team took, the points for the hand and the match score; press NEXT HAND to continue. You can drag cards within your hand to rearrange them. The menu button in the top-left corner pauses, starts a new match or turns the sound off. The match is saved as you play, so you can press CONTINUE later. At the end, the results screen shows the score, the contracts each team made, the marches and your statistics.

Rules

The cards. Euchre uses 24 cards: the nine, ten, jack, queen, king and ace of each suit. Four players play in two teams, partners sitting opposite each other.

The deal. The first dealer is chosen at random, and the deal passes to the left after each hand. Each player gets five cards, dealt in packets of three and two. The next card is turned face up on the three cards left over, which are not used.

First round. Starting on the dealer's left, each player in turn may order up the turned card, making its suit trumps, or pass. If someone orders it up, the dealer takes the turned card into their hand and discards a card face down. The dealer may also pick it up when it is their turn.

Second round. If all four pass, the turned card is turned face down. Starting again on the dealer's left, each player may name any other suit as trumps or pass. If everyone passes a second time, the cards are thrown in and the next player deals.

The bowers. In the trump suit the jack is the highest card, the right bower. The jack of the other suit of the same colour is the left bower, the second highest trump; it counts as a trump in every way, not as a card of its own suit. Trumps then rank ace, king, queen, ten, nine. In the other suits the order is ace, king, queen, jack, ten, nine. So with hearts as trumps, the jack of diamonds is a heart.

Going alone. The player who makes trumps may say that they will play alone. Their partner lays their cards down and sits the hand out. If the dealer's partner goes alone, the dealer doesn't take the turned card.

The play. The player on the dealer's left leads the first trick; when someone plays alone, the player on the lone player's left leads. You must follow the suit that was led if you can; if you can't, you may play any card, including a trump. The highest trump wins the trick; if there is no trump, the highest card of the suit led wins. The winner of a trick leads to the next one.

Scoring. The team that made trumps needs at least three of the five tricks:

• three or four tricks: 1 point;
• all five tricks, a march: 2 points;
• a march by a player going alone: 4 points;
• fewer than three tricks: they are euchred, and the other team scores 2 points.

Winning. The first team to reach 10 points wins the match.

Strategy tips

• Count your trumps. Three trumps with a bower, or both bowers and an ace, usually make a good call. Two small trumps and nothing else rarely do.
• Think about the turned card. Ordering up gives the dealer an extra trump. If the dealer is your opponent, you need a stronger hand to order it up; if the dealer is your partner, a slightly weaker one will do.
• Remember the left bower. When a suit of the trump colour is led, the left bower can't follow it. When trumps are led, it must.
• Lead trumps when you made them. Drawing the other side's trumps protects your aces. As a defender, lead your off-suit aces instead.
• Short suits win tricks. A void lets you trump the other team's aces. When you are the dealer and pick up, discard to create one.
• Go alone with a sure hand. The right bower, the left bower and an ace, or something close, can bring in four points instead of two.
• Don't overtake your partner. If your partner is winning a trick and the last player has passed, throw your lowest card.
• Watch the second round. A player who passed the turned card probably holds little in that suit, and a player who names a suit usually holds both bowers or the ace.

Difficulty levels

Your partner always plays at least at Hard, and at Crazy it plays Crazy. The difficulty you choose sets how well your opponents play:

• Easy: calls trumps by a rough count of its hand, now and then calls on a weak one, and often plays a careless card.
• Normal: calls by counting its bowers, trumps, aces and short suits, and plays solid cards, but it doesn't remember what has been played.
• Hard: tests every call it could make, alone or not, in many imagined deals before it decides, chooses its discard the same way, remembers every card, and before each card plays out possible deals that fit what the others have shown.
• Crazy: the strongest: far more imagined deals, and it reads the calling, imagining only deals that fit what each player passed.

Modes

• Stick the dealer: off by default. When it is on, the dealer may not pass in the second round and must name trumps, so no hand is thrown in.
• Ordering your partner: standard by default, where the dealer's partner may order the dealer up and play together. With the Canadian loner, the dealer's partner who orders up must play alone.

Statistics are kept for each difficulty.