When you learn how to play euchre, you will out that having an ace in the hole isn't going to necessarily win you the game. Euchre is played with two pairs of partners, small deck of cards and great intensity.
How to Play Euchre: The Deck
The euchre deck consists of 24 cards, the 9, 10, jack, queen, king and ace of each suit.
How to Play Euchre: Ranking Cards
Trump cards are the heart of euchre. When the suit is chosen for trump, the jack of that suit, called the right bower, is the strongest card in the deck. The second highest card is the left bower, or the jack from the suit of the same color.
This isn't as confusing as it sounds. For example, if trump is spades, the right bower would be the jack of spades and the left bower would be the jack of clubs. The jack of clubs would be followed in rank by the ace of spades, the king of spades, the queen of spades, the 10 of spades and the 9 of spades.
How to Play Euchre: How to Deal
Each player has five cards. The dealer distributes the cards starting by giving the player on the left two cards. The next player gets three cards. The dealer continues to alternate two and three card groups until all four players a complete hand.
How to Play Euchre: Choosing Trump
After everyone has their cards, the dealer places the remainder of the deck face down on the table. The dealer then turns over the top card.
The player to the dealer's right looks at the card and decides if that suit would be a good trump suit. If the suit isn't, the player passes to the next person.
When a player accepts the suit as trump, the dealer picks up the card, keeps the card and discards another card face down on the table. The play begins. However, if all four players pass on the suit, there is a second round where a player can declare another suit as trump. If all four players pass again, the cards are tossed in and the deal passes to the next player.
How to Play Euchre: Scoring
By declaring trump, the player commits his or her partnership to picking up at least three tricks, which will give the team one point. If the team wins all five tricks, or "sweeps," the partnership earns two points.
If the player who declared trump has a particularly strong hand, the player can "go it alone." This means that the player commits to getting all five tricks using only his or her hand. The player's partner sits out the round. If successful, a "go it alone" will get the team four points. If the player only succeeds in winning three or four tricks, the team gets one point.
If the team that declared trump doesn't win at least three points, the partnership is "Euchred" and doesn't get any points. However, the opposing team adds two points.
Ten points wins the game.
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