Hold Your Own Euchre Tournament - 2

The Grand Prix format (Partners)

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The Grand Prix format was developed by Joe Andrews and was successfully used at the World Series of Euchre. The WSoE was a national tournament that ran up until 2011. Joe is now sharing this with the euchre community. This style works best for completive events. Teams all play the same number of rounds and there are provisions for uneven teams. The winners are determined by the total amount of Games won. Total points are used as tie-breakers when two teams win the same number of games.

Here's what is needed to get started:

1) Euchre card deck for each table.

2)Master score board(Needed to help players visualize their position during the event)

3 a) Team Score Sheets ( These are for each team to track their score )

3 b) Individual Team Score Sheets

3) The number of games is determined by the tournament director.

4) Each table needs to be numbered (1, 2, 3, etc)

* Printing Directions *

Acrobat Reader is required to print these forms

It is best to have a sign-up table to greet players as they arrive. This is where you will assign each team a number and their starting position. The simplest way is to assign numbers as teams arrive. Names may also be placed in a hat and drawn out. On the master scoreboard, list each team alongside their number. Give each team a score sheet with their name and team number. One person from each team is designated the captain and will be responsible for keeping that teams score.

Start by seating teams at a table. Teams 1 and 2 would sit at table 1, Teams 3 and 4 at table 2. Keep going until all the teams are seated. Once all teams are seated, play may begin. The first dealer is determined by dealing out cards face up till a jack appears. The player receiving the first jack deals. Each game (called a round) is played to TEN points. In this style tournament, it is to a team's advantage to go alone at 8 or 9 points. This is because total points are used as a tie-breaker when two teams win the same number of games.

When the game is complete, (once a team reaches at least 10), each captain will fill in his score sheet, he then passes his sheet to the captain of the other team. That captain then verifies the score is correct and initials it. The captain then writes their score on the master Score Sheet.

The odd numbered teams will then move up one table. The even numbered teams stay at the same table. They are stationary the entire tournament. (It makes no difference what team won the match.) Everyone plays the same number of games

Six games (rounds) should take around 3 hours to complete. After using this format for the last year at our weekly group, we have found using a timer and limiting each round to 20 minutes helps the tournament on schedule. All game played would stop at 20 minutes and the team that's ahead wins. If tied, the win would go to the team first making the tying point.

Having an odd number of teams does not create a problem. The only requirement for this style tournament to work correctly is there must be an even number of rounds (4,6,8 etc). The solution for an odd number of teams is to have the highest numbered team sit out the first round. At the start of the second round, this team will sit at table 1. All other odd numbered teams move up one table. The odd numbered team from the last full table will now sit out for 1 round. On the following round that team will play at table 1

Assuming a tournament of six games, after the first six games, there will be 6 teams left that only played 5 games. (One team from each round) They will need to play a 'catch-up' round at the end. This gives everyone the same total number of games.

The only time this does not work is when you have 3 or 9 teams. As most tournaments have more than 10 (5 tables) this seldom comes into play. In these rare cases, a possible solution may be to give the team that still needs the last game, 10 points and a free win.

This is illustrated in the sample Master Score Sheet below

This sheet shows a tournament after the first two rounds have been played. In this example, there are 11 teams. In round 1 (game 1), team 11 sat out. We have found it helpful to mark an X on the scoreboard to show rounds where teams sit out.

In round 2. Because team 11 sat out the first round they now play at table 1. Their score is marked in the column for game 2. Now team 9, which sat at table 5 in round 1, sits out in round 2. They show an X in the column for game 2. In round 3 this repeats with the team from table 5 sitting out. After the six rounds have been played, there will be six teams that played only 5 games. They will now play each other. In the example above teams 11 and 9 play each other, as do teams 7 and 5, and teams 3 and 1. Their scores can now be filled in. This gives everyone six games total.

A master scoreboard such as the one shown allows everyone to see where they stand at any point during the tourney. Also shown are table numbers, while they are not fancy, they do work.

For large tournaments where more control is needed for the score, and the number of games, we offer these score sheets. They can be used in any large Euchre tournament. A new sheet is given after each game and the completed sheet is turned in. They come two per sheet.

Download by clicking here

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Suggested Further Reading: