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Euchre (pronunced 'you-ker') is a trump based card, trick taking card game that has been played in the U.S. since the early 1800's. Although the early games were played using 32 card deck, that was created by removing the 2's through 6's from a standard 52 card deck, today the standard euchre deck is 24 cards as the 7's and 8's are also removed. This leaves the Ace through nines of each suit. Euchre is an easy game to learn. The more one plays, the more one realizes what a fun yet challenging euchre is.

Euchre is played with four people in teams of 2 each sitting across from one another. There are variations of euchre for 2 or 3 people, but those are covered in other areas of this site. The first dealer of a game is randomly determined by having someone begin dealing cards clockwise face up until a player receives a jack. In some circles it's the first black jack. This person shuffles cards and offers the player on his right the opportunity to cut the deck. The dealer then deals out the cards in groups of two's and three's going clockwise until everyone has 5 cards. At that time there should be 4 cards left over. These are called 'the kitty'. The dealer places these in front of him and turns up the top card.

The most important aspect to learning euchre is understanding the rank of the cards. This is the part that confuses many new players. First of all, the trump suit is the most powerful suit and out ranks any other suit. You must follow suit if possible. If you are not able to follow suit then trump may be played.

The suit of the left bower only has 5 cards A,K,Q,10,9 as the jack is temporarily a member of the trump suit. The fact that there are only 5 cards in this suit is worth remembering during play as it is more likely to be trumped than any other suit.

After the cards have been dealt and a card turned up, then the naming of trump may begin. Starting with the first player left of the dealer, each player in turn has the opportunity to name trump by ordering the dealer to pick up the card on top of the kitty. This suit will become trump. Each player also has the option of passing. If a player decides to order up the top card then he is making that suit trump, the dealer then has to pick up the card on top of the kitty, place it in his hand and discard another. If everyone passes including the dealer, then the dealer flips the card on the kitty over and second round of bidding begins. Bidding again starting back with player 1. Each person, once again, can decide to call a trump suit based on the cards in their own hand. Any suit, except for the suit that was turned down, can be named as trump. If no person names trump, the hand is forfeited and dealing goes on to the next player left of the original dealer.

During the bidding processes a player may, while his turn and if his hand is strong enough, declare a he's going to play alone, by stating this intention with the words "I'm Going Alone". His partner sits out that hand and places his cards face down on the table. The Loner declarer will score 4 points by winning all 5 tricks. In most circles no one is allowed to see the cards in the kitty.

Once a trump suit is named, play starts with the first player on the dealer's left, by him playing a card from his hand. Everyone has to follow suit, if able, or may trump in if void in that suit. The trick is won by the highest card in the suit lead, or the highest trump if any trump have been played. The winner of that trick gets to lead the next card. To score a point, the team that named trump must take the majority of tricks (3 or more out of the 5 possible tricks). If the bidding team wins all 5 tricks then they score 2 points. If a player goes alone and takes all five tricks his team receives 4 points. If on a lone bid the bidding team only takes 3 or 4 tricks are taken then that team scores 1 point.

If the biding team fails to get at least 3 tricks in any given hand then they are said to be 'euchred' and the opposing team receives 2 points. This is true on lone hands also.

If a player reneges, (in other words, fails to follow suit when possible), the hands ends. The non offending team gets 2 points. If the renege happens during a lone call the non offending team gets 4 points. The first team that reaches 10 points wins the game.

These are just the basics of the game. It may be helpful to read 'The Ten Commandments of Euchre' for a beginning strategy on playing the game. Once those have been mastered there are many advanced strategies elsewhere on this site.