Common Euchre errors

It is common for new players to think of only their hand when making a bid or playing the hand. I cannot stress this fact enough: winning has to be a team effort. You have a partner! They are there to help. Ask yourself these questions. Do you allow then the opportunity to help? Are you watching for clues they send? Do you try to guess what the hold? Do you trust their ability to play the hand? A no answer to any of these will limit your team's ability to win.

Remember, euchre is a partnership game. Passing any hand sends a message to your partner. Your partner is watching for clues and passing says a lot about your hand. Send the wrong message and you limit his ability to call. You should also keep in mind a pass gives your opponents the opportunity to name trump; they may even be waiting to make a lone call.

You will be able to create a void and should be able to trump the suit you're void in. By passing, your telling your partner that you are void in that suit. He may let a trick go by, expecting you to trump.

The logic behind calling next is simple: your opponents do not many cards in that color. Well, if they don't, it's a fair bet their cards are in the other color. Does your partner have the opposite suit of the same color? While there is always the risk of a euchre, many next calls are made on weak hands. Calling next also stops an opponent from going alone in green.

A second round, second seat call of green (AKA reverse next) is missed by many new players. This basic strategy should be part of every player's toolbox.

Trumping your partner's Ace is almost never a good idea. Why would you want to waste a trump taking a trick from them? The one major exception would be when defending against a lone call. There may be a couple of others, but those require having a definite plan along with the cards to back it up.

When you take that first trick and lead a trump back to your partner. You are setting your team up for a euchre. Why? This may strip all trump and leave your team in precarious situation in which there may be no way to recover.

It is common knowledge that the third seat is one of the weakest positions to make a successful call in the first round. Any lead, other than trump may weaken the hand even farther.

Following Harvey Lapp's The Ten Commandments of Euchre, number six commandment states "Thou shalt not leadeth trump to thine opponent's order". However, there may be exceptions.

The fourth trick play often proves pivotal. Get it wrong and you could be giving up an extra point or even putting your overall success in jeopardy.

On most next calls, you will need your partner's help. Leading the right may strip him of that ability. This would be especially true if the only trump they held was the left.

Sure, this stops a lone call dead in its tracks. However, with no chance of this call being successful, why not wait and what happens. With your partner help, is a euchre possible?

A lone is called when holding a strong trump hand. A trump lead will only help in making the hand stronger, limiting any chance your team had to stop or euchre it.
The logic that it may make your aces good just doesn't make sense here.

Euchre is a partnership game, and you need to think about what your partner holds. Consider a situation where he has the other two aces. How does he pick which ace to discard on Fourth lead?

Any call from third is difficult. Successful lones, even more so. Why? The dealer has the opportunity to discard. Taking advantage of this, the dealer should discard next. Thus, with his partner leading next, the dealer would be able to stop the call by trumping in.

Holding the Ace and leading the king causes your partner to try to guess whether the King is the only one he has, if it came from an Ace-King set, or if it came from a King-Queen set. Now, does he trump or not.