Q&A for How to Play Euchre

If you have a card in the suit that was led for the trick, you have to play it, even if the only one you have left is the right bower.

Collect all of the cards and give them to the person to the left of the dealer. They become the new dealer, so they'll shuffle the cards and deal out a new hand.

The person to the left of the dealer will always lead the first trick of the round.

Deal four hands as if you had four players. The two blind are considered dead; no player can look at them before or during play. Doing this may be fun and interesting.

Yes, you can lead with trump. If your partner made trump, it is a good idea to lead your highest trump card so they see where it is. If you made trump, leading trump will flush out trump from your opponents, and potentially prevent them from using their trump cards on your aces or your partner's aces.

Yes. When you order your partner up, you must go alone. Never ask this during the game though! If you do, and you decide not to order your partner up, it sends a signal to your partner that you have good cards in your hand should the turned up card be made trump.

One bower is the trump suite jack, the other bower is the same colored jack to the trump suite (where spades are trump, then Jack Spades - right bower, Jack Clubs - left bower). Jack trumps highest trump, same color jack next highest trump.

Just let them go alone and take a break.

Chances are you are not being aggressive enough. Call trump more often. Play your hand, not theirs.

You lead in the second round if you won the first round. If that's the case, it's generally not advisable to lead trump again unless you want to annoy your partner.

If you're playing with that variation, then when it's your turn to bid on the turned up card and you have at least three 9s and 10s in your hand, you can exchange three 9s and 10s for the bottom three cards of the kitty.

House rules should be declared before the game starts. Some may say you may not make trump; others would say you can. Generally, you must have one in your hand to pick it up, and the one in your hand cannot be the left bower, as it would only be trump once trump is declared.

If an opponent quits, that's a forfeit, and you've won the game. There's no need to keep score at that point.

In tournaments, no. But if you're just playing casually, you can talk. Try to not talk about your hand or your partner's hand, as it will annoy your opponent and is not a respectful thing to do.

Play with 4 players and 24 cards: 5 cards for each player, with the kitty having 4 cards.

The left bower is considered trump, so yes, you would have to follow trump/suit. If left is played, right bower would have to be played and the suit with it.

Jack of diamonds is a heart since it’s the left bower, so he would have to play that or the other heart since you have to follow suit.

The opponents get 2 points. Remember, no table talking. Feel out everyone's motive on how they play.

Absolutely because, you can still get 3 tricks and score a point. If you lead heavy and take out some of their better cards it can happen. I would lead small off-suit the first time just to get them to use their larger cards. You can usually find out from there.

Absolutely not. You make the choice, you earn the consequences. Play it fair.

No. If you have all the remaining trump cards, wait until the round is over, then plop 'em down.

It depends what he wants trump to be, for example if he has two jacks the jack of diamonds and jack of hearts, if he were to call hearts to be trump the jack of hearts would be the right and jack of diamonds the left.

Ignore the ghost hands completely and play like they aren’t there. The ghost hands are simply there so that the number of cards in the “kitty” is the same.

The left bower is considered a trump, so other players must follow trump suit.

Yes, you can if you make 3 tricks you get a point, if you get all 5 tricks on, you get 4 points (the highest points of the game) and if you don’t get 3 tricks, the opponent who got 2 or more will receive 2 points.

The jack of clubs would count as a spade, so you don't have to play it if clubs are led.

Yes dealer picks up if ordered or chosen on their own turn. No other player can pick up the turned over kitty (top) card.

No, any trump can follow and /or the left bower as well. But if you have that respective suit, you must play accordingly.

Card etiquette dictates that any player may only look at the last trick taken. In other words, you can't go rifling through the discarded tricks--only the previous trick!

If you know that your opponent is going to go alone if given the opportunity to call trump, and has a strong hand to do so, this would be a smart strategy to only give up 2 points (from being Euchred) compared to giving up 4 points with the Loner.