Euchre — rules card
Print this page on one sheet, one side only ,
in landscape . Then:
Crease each FOLD line and fold the sheet up like a concertina.
Crease the two FOLD & TEAR edges and tear the spare paper off against the crease.
The top and left edges are the sheet's own — leave them alone.
No scissors, no double-sided printing. 4 panels, 4x1 accordion.
If the print preview shows a tall page, set the
orientation to landscape by hand — some browsers ignore the page setup
this sheet asks for, and the fold marks only line up on a wide sheet.
Euchre
4 players · 24 cards — nine up to ace — in
two partnerships
THE IDEA
• Five tricks a hand, always. You and the
player opposite are a team, and you need
three of the five.
• One suit is TRUMP for the hand, and
choosing it is most of the game.
THE BOWERS — THE RULE THAT
CATCHES EVERYBODY
• The jack of trump is the RIGHT BOWER:
the highest card in the game.
• The other jack OF THE SAME COLOUR is
the LEFT BOWER. It stops being its printed
suit and becomes trump — second highest in
the game.
• So the order is: right bower, left bower, ace
of trump, king, queen, ten, nine.
• Not a technicality: if your only club is the
jack of clubs and spades are trump, you are
VOID in clubs and may throw anything on a
club.
• The two jacks of the other colour are
ordinary cards.
CHOOSING TRUMP
• One card is turned up. Round one, anybody
may ORDER IT UP: its suit is trump and the
dealer takes the card.
• If all pass, round two anybody may NAME
any suit but the one turned down.
• With "stick the dealer" on, the dealer may
not pass the second time round. Somebody
has to choose.
PLAYING A TRICK
• You must follow the EFFECTIVE suit that
was led — and the left bower's effective suit is
trump, not the colour printed on it.
• Any trump beats any non-trump. A card of
neither the led suit nor trump cannot win,
however high it is.
GOING ALONE
• Whoever chose trump may GO ALONE:
their partner lays their hand down and sits the
deal out.
• Three tricks alone is worth more than three
tricks together, and all five alone is worth most
of all.
WHAT THE TABLE TELLS YOU
• Trump is a chip at the top of the screen, not
a caption somewhere. It is the most consulted
fact in the game.
• The legend names the two bowers for the
CURRENT trump, so it never describes a
hand you are not in.
• When a play is refused, the message names
the EFFECTIVE suit you are holding, which is
the whole of the confusion.
WORDS THIS GAME USES
Trump — The suit that beats all others this
hand. Chosen, not fixed.
Right bower — The jack of trump. The highest
card there is.
Left bower — The other jack of that colour. A
trump, not its printed suit.
Order it up — To make the turn-up's suit
trump. The dealer takes the card.
Euchre — Choosing trump then failing to take
three. The other side scores for it, and the
game is named after it.
Void — Holding none of a suit — not the
same, with the left bower, as holding nothing
that LOOKS like it.
WHERE THESE CAME FROM
Pagat.com — Euchre. A folk game whose
regional forms disagree loudly. This is the
common North American four-handed one.
w.richardpringle.com/games/euchre/
▲ FOLD ▼
▲ FOLD ▼
▲ FOLD ▼
FOLD & TEAR