Euchre Variations

Three-handed (cutthroat) Euchre

The most common way to play with three. There are no fixed partners: everyone plays for their own score.

• Deck and deal: the usual 24 cards (9 to Ace), five to each player. The nine leftover cards form the kitty and the top one is turned up.
• Bidding: exactly as in four-handed Euchre. Order up the turned card or pass; if all pass, turn it down and name another suit or pass. Most groups use stick the dealer.
• Play: the player who names trump becomes the maker and plays alone. The other two become partners for that hand only and try to euchre the maker.
• Scoring: the maker scores 1 for three or four tricks and 3 for all five (a march). If the maker takes fewer than three tricks, each defender scores 2.
• Game: first to 10 points.

Because the maker is always alone, bid more conservatively than you would with a partner: two trumps and hope is a euchre waiting to happen. The 3-point march is what makes the format exciting, so hold out for hands with both bowers or four trumps.

Two-handed Euchre

Euchre works with two, but the play is thin: with only ten cards in action out of 24, most tricks are decided by who holds the bowers. Two popular fixes exist.

Basic two-handed rules

• Deal five cards each from the 24-card deck and turn up the next card.
• Bid as usual: the non-dealer speaks first in each round. Stick the dealer is almost always used, otherwise too many hands get thrown in.
• Scoring is the four-handed scale: 1 point for three or four tricks, 2 for all five, 2 to the defender for a euchre. There is no going alone because you already are.
• Game to 10.

The dummy-hand version

After the five-card deal, each player also receives a dummy hand of four cards, dealt face-down in front of them. Some groups let you look at your dummy before bidding; others keep it hidden until trump is named. Once play starts, each player plays from their own hand and their dummy together (nine cards each, so nine tricks, or five if you keep a five-trick hand and use the dummy only to swap cards). The exact handling varies from family to family, so agree before you deal. The point is the same either way: more cards in play means more skill and fewer coin-flip hands.

If you do not have a second person at all, the nearest thing to solitaire Euchre is the four-player game against a computer partner and two computer opponents, which is what CardCouch offers.

House rules that change standard Euchre

These rules bolt onto the ordinary four-player game. Ask which ones are in force before your first hand at a new table.

Stick the dealer (screw the dealer)

If all four players pass in both bidding rounds, the dealer must name a trump suit instead of throwing the hand in. It keeps the game moving and makes the second-round pass a real decision. CardCouch plays with stick the dealer on.

Going under (the farmer's hand)

A player dealt a hopeless hand, usually defined as three or more 9s and 10s, may announce it before bidding, place those three cards face-down under the kitty and take the top three cards of the kitty instead. That is “going under.” Some groups allow a redeal instead of the exchange, some require all three cards to be 9s and 10s, and some ban it entirely, because it rewards a bad hand. If the player going under is the dealer, the up-card stays where it is.

No trump and going high or low

In the second bidding round some tables allow a call of no trump: there are no bowers, Jacks rank between Queen and 10, and the highest card of the suit led always wins. A stronger version lets the caller choose high (Aces high, as normal) or low (9s high, Aces low). A no-trump march usually scores the same 2 points, and some groups give a no-trump loner 4 points like any other.

Defending alone (the Canadian loner)

When a maker goes alone, one defender may also declare alone, sending their partner out. If the lone defender then euchres the loner, the defenders score 4 instead of 2. It is a gamble: the defender is giving up their partner's cards for a bigger prize.

Steal the deal

A light-hearted rule: if the player whose turn it is to deal is slow to pick up the cards, anyone may grab the deck and deal, and the deal stands. It exists purely to speed the game up.

Ace no face

A hand with an Ace but no face cards may be declared a misdeal in some groups. Like the farmer's hand it is a kindness rule for weak hands and is not used in serious play.

Bid Euchre, pfeffer and hasenpfeffer

The bid-Euchre family replaces the order-up mechanism with an auction. Instead of deciding whether the turned suit will be trump, each player in turn bids the number of tricks they think their side can win, or passes. The highest bidder names trump (often including no-trump) and must take at least that many tricks.

• Players and deck: four players in partnerships with the 24-card deck (six cards each, all dealt), or six players with a double 48-card deck (eight cards each). Some tables use a 32-card deck (7 to Ace).
• Bidding: one round, starting left of the dealer. Each bid must be higher than the last. There is no up-card.
• Scoring: if the bidding side makes its bid it scores the number of tricks it actually took; if it fails it loses the amount it bid. The other side scores the tricks it took. Games run to a higher total, often 32 or 50.
• Bowers: right and left bower rank as usual in a trump call; in no-trump there are no bowers.

Pfeffer (pepper)

A bid-Euchre game popular in Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois, usually for four players with the 24-card deck and six cards each. Bids run from 1 to 6. Bidding all six tricks is called pfeffer (or pepper) and is worth double; in many groups a pfeffer must be played alone. A failed pfeffer costs the full doubled amount, which is why the game swings so hard.

Hasenpfeffer

A four-player partnership version with a joker added as the top trump. Six cards each are dealt, one card goes to the widow, and players bid 1 to 6; the winning bidder takes the widow card and discards. The joker outranks the right bower.

Buck Euchre and dirty clubs

Buck Euchre is a no-partners game for three to five players in which the score counts down. Everyone starts on 15 (some groups use 25) and subtracts one point for every trick they win. The first player to reach zero wins.

• Deal: five cards each from the 24-card deck (a 32-card deck for five players), with an up-card as usual.
• Bidding: order up or pass, then name a suit or pass, as in standard Euchre. Whoever names trump must win at least three tricks (two in a five-player game, at some tables).
• Penalties: the maker who falls short is set and adds 5 points to their score. Any player who takes no tricks at all is also set 5. Everyone else subtracts the tricks they won.
• Going alone: allowed in some versions; a lone march scores an extra 5 off.

Dirty clubs

The rule that gives the game its other name. If the turned-up card is a club, clubs are trump automatically, there is no bidding, and every player must play: nobody can drop out to avoid a set. Because the up-card goes to the dealer, dirty clubs hands are a small bonus for whoever dealt. Some families call the entire buck-Euchre game dirty clubs.

British Euchre and the benny

Euchre is a pub game in Cornwall, Devon and the West Midlands, and the British version has two twists.

• The benny: a joker is added to make a 25-card deck. The joker, called the benny or best bower, is the highest trump in every hand, above the right bower.
• If the benny is turned up: the dealer must name the trump suit before looking at any other card, and the up-card is then taken into the dealer's hand as usual.
• Scoring: the same 1, 2 and 4 as North American Euchre, but games are usually played to 11, and the traditional pegging board is a cribbage-style board rather than counter cards.
• Going alone is common and is often called “going a loner” or simply “alone.”

Railroad Euchre

A faster, higher-scoring version that grew up with travelling salesmen. It stacks several of the house rules above into one game:

• The joker is added as the best bower.
• A player going alone may call for their partner's best card: the partner passes one card face-down and the lone player discards one in return. Some groups let the loner take any card from the kitty instead.
• A lone player may be opposed by a lone defender, exactly as in the Canadian loner rule.
• Some tables score a march with a called card as 4 and a march without any help as 5.

Five- and six-handed Euchre

With five, most groups either play buck Euchre or a version in which the maker names a partner by calling a card (“whoever holds the Ace of clubs plays with me”) and the partnership stays secret until that card is played. Deal five each from a 32-card deck, or from a 24-card deck with one player sitting out each hand.

With six, play in three partnerships of two (partners sit opposite, three seats apart) with a double 48-card deck and eight cards each. Because more cards are out, most six-handed tables switch to bid Euchre rather than the order-up mechanism, and a march requires all eight tricks.

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