How to Keep Score in Euchre With Two Fives
Each team takes two Fives from the unused part of the deck, and the pips left showing are that team's points. Up to 5, one Five is face up and the other lies face down on it as a cover; from 6 to 10, both are face up and the second Five adds its visible pips to the first. A Six and a Four work the same way.
Play Euchre NowThe whole method in one line
Visible pips = points. Count only the large suit symbols in the middle of the card, not the small ones under the corner numbers. If you can see seven pips, the team has 7. Everything below is just a tidy way of arranging two cards so the right number shows.
Why Fives, and who keeps them
Euchre uses only the 9 through Ace, so the 2s to 8s are spare. Two Fives have ten pips between them, and a game of Euchre is played to 10, which makes them a ready-made scoreboard. A common habit is for one team to take the two red Fives and the other the two black Fives. One player on each team keeps that team's cards and updates them after every hand, in plain view of the opponents.
Points arrive 1, 2 or 4 at a time: 1 for making your bid, 2 for a march or a euchre, 4 for a lone march. The Euchre scoring guide has the full table of what each hand is worth.
Score card positions from 0 to 10
A Five has a pip in each corner and one in the center. A Six has two columns of three; a Four has one pip in each corner. The table shows one consistent way to display every score with either pair.
| Score | With two Fives | With a 6 and a 4 |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Both Fives face down, one on top of the other. No pips show. | Both cards face down, one on top of the other. No pips show. |
| 1 | One Five face up. Lay the face-down Five over it at an angle so a single corner pip shows. | Six face up. Lay the face-down Four over it at an angle so a single corner pip shows. |
| 2 | Slide the face-down Five straight along the face-up one until the end row of two pips shows. | Slide the face-down Four straight along the Six until the end row of two pips shows. |
| 3 | Slide a little further: the end row of two and the center pip show. | Cover one long side of the Six instead, so one column of three pips shows. |
| 4 | Turn the face-down Five at an angle so it hides one corner pip only. The other four show. | Slide the face-down Four along the Six until two rows of two pips show. |
| 5 | One Five completely face up, the other face down underneath it or beside it. | Turn the face-down Four at an angle so it hides one corner pip of the Six. Five show. |
| 6 | Both Fives face up. The top Five is fully visible; one corner pip of the lower Five peeks out (5 + 1). | The Six completely face up, the Four face down underneath it or beside it. |
| 7 | Both face up. The top Five is fully visible; the end row of two pips of the lower Five shows (5 + 2). | Both face up. The Six is fully visible on top; one corner pip of the Four peeks out (6 + 1). |
| 8 | Both face up. The end row and the center pip of the lower Five show (5 + 3). | Both face up. The Six is fully visible; one row of two pips of the Four shows (6 + 2). |
| 9 | Both face up. The top Five hides just one corner pip of the lower Five (5 + 4). | Both face up. The Six hides just one corner pip of the Four, so three show (6 + 3). |
| 10 | Both Fives face up, side by side (5 + 5). Game over. | Both cards face up, side by side (6 + 4). Game over. |
Notice the pattern with the Fives: 6, 7, 8 and 9 are the same shapes as 1, 2, 3 and 4, except that the covering card has been turned face up so its own five pips count too.
Two Fives or a 6 and a 4?
Both pairs add up to ten pips, so both can show every score. The difference is how easy each number is to set and to read from across the table.
- Two Fives are symmetrical: either card can be the one on top, and the second half of the game repeats the shapes of the first half. The fiddly scores are 1 and 4 (and so 6 and 9), where the cover card has to sit at an angle to work around the center pip.
- A Six and a Four have no center pip, only straight lines. Sliding the cover card along the Six shows 2, 4 and 6 by rows, and covering one long side shows a column of 3, which many players find quicker to read. An angled cover is still needed for 1, 5, 7 and 9, and because the two cards are not interchangeable everyone has to agree which one is the base.
Conventions that differ by table
There is no rule book for score cards, only habit, and habits vary. None of these is wrong:
- The Four as the base card. Some 6-and-4 players show 1 to 4 on the Four with the Six face down as the cover, and only bring the Six into view from 5 or 6 upwards.
- How 3, 4 and 5 look. These are the scores where groups differ most, for example showing 5 as the whole Four plus one pip of the Six instead of five pips of the Six.
- Where the spare card goes. At 0 and at 5 (or 6 with a Six), the card that shows nothing may sit underneath, beside, or crosswise on top.
- Marking 10. Many tables never bother: the game is over, so the cards just go back in the box.
If you sit down with new players, ask how they mark a 4 and a 5 before the first deal. After that, trust the one-line rule and count the pips you can see. Some tables also have a name for sitting on 9 points, one short of the win: being "in the barn".
A worked example
Your team uses two Fives and has 3 points: one Five face up, the other face down over it with the end row and the center pip showing. You call trump and take all five tricks, a march for 2. Slide the cover card right off so all five pips show: 5. Next hand the opponents call and you euchre them for another 2. Turn the spare Five face up, tuck it under the first, and slide it out until its end row of two pips shows: 5 + 2 = 7. A lone march from there would be worth 4, which carries you past 10, so you simply lay both Fives face up and the game is over.
Keeping score on CardCouch
Online there is nothing to slide. When you play Euchre on CardCouch the score for both teams is kept automatically, updated after every hand, and the game stops as soon as one team reaches 10. It is a handy way to learn what each result is worth before you take charge of the Fives at a real table. For a one-page reminder of the point values, print the Euchre cheat sheet.
Frequently asked questions
How do you keep score in Euchre with two Fives?
Each team takes two Fives. The pips you can see are your points. For 1 to 4, one Five is face up and the face-down Five covers all but that many pips. For 5, one Five is fully face up. For 6 to 9, both Fives are face up: the top one shows all five pips and the lower one peeks out to show 1 to 4 more. Both fully face up is 10.
Why do some people use a 6 and a 4 instead of two Fives?
Mostly habit and readability. The pips on a Six and a Four sit in straight rows of two (and the Six has columns of three) with no center pip, so 2, 3, 4 and 6 are clean lines that are easy to read across the table. The total is still 10 pips, and the rule is the same: visible pips are points.
Which cards are used as Euchre score cards?
Any low cards left over from the 24-card Euchre deck. Two Fives per team is the most common choice, often the red Fives for one team and the black Fives for the other. A Six and a Four per team is the main alternative. Some groups use a printed or pegged scoreboard instead.
Is there one official way to show each score?
No. Score cards are a table custom, not a rule. Groups differ on how they show 3, 4 and 5 in particular, and on whether the unused card sits underneath or beside the other. Any arrangement is fine as long as the number of visible pips equals the score and both teams can read it.
Do I need score cards to play Euchre on CardCouch?
No. CardCouch keeps the score for you: both teams' points are always on screen and are updated after every hand, and the game ends automatically when a team reaches 10.