Porchlight › How to play › Euchre
How to play Euchre
A quick trick-taking card game for four players in two partnerships. Your partner sits across the table from you.
The aim
Each hand has five tricks. The partnership that chose trumps must win at least three of them. The first partnership to reach the target score wins.
Setting up
Euchre uses 24 cards: the 9, 10, jack, queen, king and ace of each suit. The first dealer is chosen at random, and the deal moves one seat clockwise each hand. Each player gets five cards, and the next card is turned face up. This is the upcard.
Choosing trumps
Starting with the player left of the dealer and going clockwise:
- First round. Each player may order up the upcard, which makes its suit trumps, or pass. If anyone orders it up, the dealer adds the upcard to their hand and discards one card.
- Second round. If all four pass, the upcard is turned down. Each player may now name any other suit as trumps, or pass. The dealer can't pass in this round ("stick the dealer"), so every hand is played.
Going alone. The player who chooses trumps may go alone. Their partner puts their cards down and sits the hand out. If the partner sitting out is the dealer, the upcard stays where it is: nobody picks it up.
Card ranks
When a suit is trumps, its cards rank from highest to lowest:
- The jack of trumps (the right bower)
- The other jack of the same color (the left bower)
- Ace, king, queen, 10, 9
The left bower counts as a trump for the whole hand, not as a card of its printed suit. If hearts are trumps, the jack of diamonds is a heart. The other suits rank ace, king, queen, jack, 10, 9.
Playing
The player left of the dealer leads the first trick, skipping anyone sitting out. Play goes clockwise.
- You must follow suit if you can. If you can't, play any card.
- The highest trump played wins the trick. If no trump was played, the highest card of the suit led wins.
- The winner of a trick leads the next one. All five tricks are played.
Scoring
The partnership that chose trumps are the makers; the other partnership are the defenders.
| Result | Points |
|---|---|
| Makers win 3 or 4 tricks | 1 to the makers |
| Makers win all 5 | 2 to the makers |
| A lone maker wins all 5 | 4 to the makers |
| Makers win 2 or fewer (they are "euchred") | 2 to the defenders |
Euchring a lone maker is still worth 2. Defenders can't go alone.
Winning
After each hand, if a partnership has reached the target score, it wins.
Table options
| Option | Choices | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Play to | 5, 10 or 15 points | 10 |
| Dealer's partner ordering up | Allowed, or Only by going alone | Allowed |
| Computer players | Easy, Normal or Hard | Normal |
| Turn timer | Normal, Relaxed (twice as long), Quick (half as long) | Normal |
Only by going alone is a house rule common in Canada, Australia and England: in the first round, the dealer's partner may order up only by going alone. Naming a suit in the second round isn't affected.
Ranked games always use the defaults.
On Porchlight
You sit at the bottom, your partner across from you, and your opponents to your left and right.
- First round. Press Order up (or Pick it up, if you're the dealer) or Pass.
- Second round. Click a suit to name it as trumps, or press Pass. The turned-down suit can't be chosen, and the dealer has no Pass button.
- Going alone. In either round, tick Go alone before you order up or name a suit. At a table with the "only by going alone" rule, the dealer's partner sees Order up and go alone instead of a plain Order up.
- Discarding. If you're the dealer and the upcard was ordered up, click the card you want to throw away. The upcard is highlighted in your hand.
- Playing. Cards you can legally play are lit. Click one to play it.
On a Normal timer you have 25 seconds for each decision. If time runs out, the computer acts for you. If it runs out twice in a row, you're out of the game: a computer player takes your seat and you're placed last. The same happens if you leave, or if your connection drops and you don't come back within about a minute.
The host can fill empty seats with computer players.
Tips
- Count both bowers when judging how strong a suit would be as trumps.
- Ordering up when an opponent is dealing gives them a free trump card.
- If your partner is already winning the trick, play your lowest card.
- Go alone only with a very strong hand, such as both bowers and another high trump.