Euchre Rules — How to Play and Keep Score
Euchre is a fast trick-taking game for two teams of two, played with a stripped deck of just twenty-four cards. Each hand produces exactly one small number for exactly one side, so a full game fits on a scrap of paper and a rounds sheet handles it perfectly. Games are short and a session usually means several of them.
Overview
Euchre is a fast trick-taking game for two teams of two, played with a stripped deck of just twenty-four cards. Each hand produces exactly one small number for exactly one side, so a full game fits on a scrap of paper and a rounds sheet handles it perfectly. Games are short and a session usually means several of them.
Setup
Strip a standard deck down to the nine, ten, jack, queen, king and ace of each suit. Deal five cards to each player in packets of two and three, then turn the top card of the remainder face up. Going round from the dealer's left, each player may order that card up as trump or pass. If everyone passes, a second round lets each player name a different suit as trump. Whoever fixes trump is the maker and their side is committed to winning at least three tricks.
The jack of the trump suit is the highest card in the game, called the right bower. The other jack of the same colour joins the trump suit as the second highest card, the left bower, and stops being a member of its printed suit for that hand.
Scoring
Only one side scores each hand, and only one number is written.
- Makers take three or four tricks: 1 point.
- Makers take all five tricks (a march): 2 points.
- Maker played alone and took all five: the lone hand value, 4 by default.
- Maker played alone and took three or four: 1 point, the same as with a partner.
- Makers take fewer than three tricks (euchred): the defenders score 2 points, and the makers score nothing.
- Makers euchred while playing alone: the defenders still score 2. Going alone risks nothing extra.
- Defenders playing alone who euchre the makers: 4 points when that setting is on, otherwise 2.
- Makers take no tricks at all: the defenders score 4 when super euchre is on, otherwise 2.
Nothing is ever negative and no side scores more than the lone hand value in a single hand.
Ending the game
The first side to reach the target ends the game immediately, mid hand if necessary, since the score can only ever go up. With the best of three or best of five format, the game total resets and the match tally increments instead.
Common variations
Bid Euchre expands the auction so players name a number of tricks rather than just a suit, which changes the scoring completely and belongs in its own sheet. Adding the sevens and eights to make a thirty-two card deck slows the game and reduces the power of the bowers. Screw the dealer, the stricter cousin of stick the dealer, additionally penalises a dealer who names trump and then gets euchred.
Scoring at a glance
| Who wins | First to target |
|---|---|
| Played to | 10 points by default |
| Score sheet | One number per player per round, with a running total |
| Typical round score | 0 – 4 |
| Negative scores | Never — scores only go up |
| Worth knowing | One small number per side per hand, never per individual player. Exactly one side scores each hand and the other scores zero. |
Euchre — score sheet
Worked example
Settings: targetScore: 10, matchLength: single, loneHandValue: 4.
Sides: Us and Them.
Every hand fills both cells — one side's figure and a real zero for the other.
| Hand | What happened | Us | Them |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Us made the bid, three tricks | 1 | 0 |
| 2 | Us euchred — took two | 0 | 2 |
| 3 | Them took all five, a march | 0 | 2 |
| 4 | Us alone, all five | 4 | 0 |
| 5 | Them made the bid | 0 | 1 |
| 6 | Us took all five | 2 | 0 |
| 7 | Us alone, all five again | 4 | 0 |
Running totals:
| After | Us | Them |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 2 | 1 | 2 |
| 3 | 1 | 4 |
| 4 | 5 | 4 |
| 5 | 5 | 5 |
| 6 | 7 | 5 |
| 7 | 11 | 5 |
Expected standings after hand 7: Us 11, rank 1 — winners; Them 5, rank 2.
finished: true.
What this catches:
Here the side that crosses the target is the side that won. Euchre is first-past-the-post, the exact opposite of Hearts and Crazy Eights, where the target is a ceiling and the crosser loses. Both readings live in the same engine, so both need a worked example holding them apart.
Overshooting is normal. Us finish on 11, not 10, because a lone hand is worth four and nobody stops at exactly the target.
A euchre pays the defenders. Hand 2 credits Them with 2 even though Us named trump — the number goes in the column of the side that did not bid. Crediting the bidding side would invert every failed contract in the game and still produce a plausible-looking sheet.
Both cells are written, and the loser's is a zero rather than a blank. A blank leaves the hand unfinished for the sheet, which is how a player who steps away is represented. Euchre never has that state: exactly one side scores and the other scores nothing, which is a recorded nothing.
A match format turns the whole sheet into one leg. With matchLength: bestOfThree
these seven hands win a single game, not the match — the running total resets and the
side needs two games. That is the match layer at work, not a different scorer.
House rules and settings
Every table plays Euchre a little differently. These are the 10 rules groups argue about. Each one is a setting in the app — and changing it recalculates a match that is already in progress, which is the thing no other score keeper does.
Play to: what is the default in Euchre?
The first side to reach this total wins. Ten is the North American standard and eleven is the British one.
Default: 10. Adjustable from 5 to 21 in steps of 1.
In the app: “Play to”.
Match format: what are the options in Euchre?
Whether reaching the target wins outright or just wins one game towards a longer match.
Default: One game. Three options:
In the app: “Match format”.
Lone hand worth: what is the default in Euchre?
What a player scores for sending their partner out of the hand and then winning all five tricks alone.
Default: 4. Adjustable from 2 to 6 in steps of 1.
In the app: “Lone hand worth”.
Defending alone allowed: on or off in Euchre?
Lets a player on the defending side also drop their partner and try to beat the makers single handed, for the same enlarged reward.
Default: off.
In the app: “Defending alone allowed”.
Stick the dealer: on or off in Euchre?
Forces the dealer to name a trump suit rather than passing when everyone else has passed twice, so no hand is ever thrown in.
Default: off.
In the app: “Stick the dealer”.
Joker as top trump: on or off in Euchre?
Adds a joker to the deck that always counts as the highest trump card, no matter which suit is trump.
Default: off.
In the app: “Joker as top trump”.
Super euchre bonus: on or off in Euchre?
Awards the defenders four points instead of two when the makers fail to win even a single trick.
Default: off.
In the app: “Super euchre bonus”.
Farmer's hand: on or off in Euchre?
Lets a player holding three nine and ten cards swap three of them for the three cards left over from the deal, before the bidding starts.
Default: off.
In the app: “Farmer's hand”.
No trump and misere bids: on or off in Euchre?
Allows extra contracts where nothing is trump, or where the bidder promises to take no tricks at all.
Default: off.
In the app: “No trump and misere bids”.
Score display: what are the options in Euchre?
Whether the sheet shows a plain running total or mimics the two upturned cards traditionally used to peg the score.
Default: Written running total. Two options:
In the app: “Score display”.
Variants of Euchre
British Euchre
Played to eleven with a joker in the deck, and a defender who goes alone and euchres the makers scores four.
Six-handed Euchre
Three against three with a larger deck. A march or a euchre is worth three instead of two, and a successful lone hand is worth six.
Cutthroat Euchre
Three players each score for themselves, and both opponents of the maker collect the two points for a euchre.
Euchre is also known as
Eucre, Bid Euchre, Pepper. These are the same game — the rules and the score sheet above apply to all of them.
Keep score offline
The sheet above works in your browser. Cardzo for iPhone remembers your players, survives a closed tab, and works in a field with no signal.
Coming to the App Store.