How to play euchre

Euchre explained from the deck to the last trick: dealing, bowers, ordering it up, going alone, and scoring, in the order you actually need them.

Last updated 2026-09-06

Euchre is a four player, two team trick taking game played with 24 cards. A hand takes about two minutes. A whole game takes about fifteen. It is the fastest good card game there is, which is why the Midwest will not shut up about it.

Everything below is the standard game. Where families disagree, and they always do, that is flagged.

What you need

• 24 cards. Nine, ten, jack, queen, king and ace in each of the four suits. Everything from the eight down comes out of the deck.
• Four players in two teams. Partners sit across from each other, so play alternates between the teams around the table.
• Something to keep score to 10.

The one thing that makes euchre different

In every hand, one suit is trump, and in that suit the jacks are not where you expect them.

• The right bower is the jack of the trump suit. It is the highest card in the game.
• The left bower is the other jack of the same color. It becomes a trump card for the whole hand and is the second highest card in the game.

So if hearts are trump, the ranking of trump is:

Jack of hearts (right bower), jack of diamonds (left bower), ace, king, queen, ten, nine of hearts.

The jack of diamonds is a heart now. It is not a diamond. You cannot play it when diamonds are led, and you must play it if hearts are led and it is your only heart. This trips up every new player exactly once.

Every other suit ranks normally: ace, king, queen, jack, ten, nine. Except the suit that lost its jack to the left bower, which is down to five cards.

Dealing

The dealer shuffles and deals five cards to each player, going clockwise, in packets of two and three rather than one at a time. The four cards left over are the kitty. The top card of the kitty is turned face up.

That face up card is the proposal: do you want this suit to be trump?

Bidding, round one

Starting with the player to the dealer's left and going clockwise, each player either passes or orders it up.

Ordering it up means: make that suit trump, and dealer, pick that card up into your hand.

• If your partner is the dealer, you are giving them a good card, so you say "order it up."
• If you are the dealer, you say "I'll take it."
• If the dealer is your opponent, ordering it up hands them a card, so you need a real reason.

When someone orders it up, the dealer takes the face up card into their hand and discards any card face down. Bidding is over and play starts. The team that named trump are the makers.

Bidding, round two

If all four players pass, the face up card is turned down. Its suit is now dead for this hand.

Starting again to the dealer's left, each player either passes or names any of the other three suits as trump. The dealer does not pick anything up in this round.

If everybody passes again, the hand is thrown in and the deal moves left. Unless you are playing stick the dealer, which most people are, in which case the dealer is not allowed to pass and has to name something.

Playing the hand

The player to the dealer's left leads to the first trick. Then:

1. Everyone plays one card, clockwise.
2. You must follow suit if you can. If spades are led and you have a spade, you play a spade.
3. If you cannot follow suit, play anything, including trump.
4. The highest trump wins the trick. If nobody played trump, the highest card of the led suit wins.
5. Whoever wins the trick leads the next one.

Five tricks, and the hand is over.

Remember the left bower. If clubs are trump, the jack of spades is a club. Leading the jack of spades is leading trump, and a player holding spades does not have to follow it.

Going alone

Before the first card is played, whoever named trump can declare they are going alone. Their partner puts their cards face down and sits out the hand, and it becomes one player against two.

You do it for the extra points. Taking all five tricks alone is worth four points, which is nearly half a game in one hand. See going alone in euchre for when the risk is worth taking.

Scoring

First team to 10 points wins. Some families play to 11, some to 15 or to two games out of three.

Getting euchred is the whole tension of the game. You named the suit, so you have to take three tricks. Fail and you hand two points to the people you were trying to beat. Full detail on euchre scoring.

The five habits that make you good fast

1. Count trump. There are seven trump cards including both bowers. Track how many have been played. This alone beats most casual players.
2. Lead trump when you are the maker. You called it because you were strong. Pull their trump out before they can use it on your aces.
3. Do not order it up on three small trump. You need power, not quantity. Two of the top three trump plus an outside ace is a bid. Three nines is a euchre waiting to happen.
4. Watch what your partner passes on. A pass in round one is information. If they passed on hearts, they are not sitting on the right bower.
5. Call "next" when you are stuck. If the upcard is turned down, the suit of the same color (the "next" suit) is often stronger than it looks, because the bowers of that suit did not appear in round one.

FAQ

How many cards are used in euchre?

Twenty four. The nine, ten, jack, queen, king and ace of each suit. Some regional versions add the eights, or a joker used as the highest trump.

What is the highest card in euchre?

The right bower, which is the jack of the trump suit. Second is the left bower, the other jack of the same color. Both outrank the ace of trump.

What does it mean to order it up?

It means telling the dealer to pick up the face up card, which makes that card's suit trump for the hand. The player who orders it up joins the makers and their team must take at least three tricks.

How many points do you need to win a euchre game?

Ten in the standard game. Eleven is a common house rule, and some groups play to 15.

What happens if everyone passes twice?

Normally the hand is thrown in and the next player deals. Under stick the dealer, which most people play, the dealer has to name a trump suit rather than pass.

Can you play euchre with fewer than four people?

Not the standard game, which needs four. Three handed and two handed versions exist with adjusted rules, and online you can fill the empty seats with bots and play the real four handed game with any number of humans.