Stick the Dealer

A euchre forum, which focuses mainly on the advanced strategies and statistics used by experienced players, can be a little overwhelming to a new player.
We are here to help.
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Nobilis
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Stick the Dealer

Unread post by Nobilis » Thu Dec 08, 2022 1:14 pm

I have been working at and trying to get good at this game. I am still working on calling Next or Cross, and I am a bit better at dealing with loners, but I am really at a loss when it comes to stick the dealer. This site really doesn't cover that topic. Often when everyone has passed, twice, then I get stuck with this, I notice that my hand is a complete mix of nothing I could possibly bid on. An example would be Red Bower, mixed suits of low and mid numbers, 4 suited, an no aces. What to do? The timer ticks down and I have to decide quickly. The only think I can think of is to try to remember what my partner declined and guess from there. Anybody good at this with any tips?? Thanks.



raydog
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Unread post by raydog » Mon Dec 12, 2022 9:04 am

There is no easy or accurate answer to your question, because so few hands make it to this point in the game (easily less than 1%), so the answer is nearly entirely dependent on how the other players bid. Are they really calling all the hands they should be (all the hands which give them a better expected outcome if they call than if they pass, even if that outcome is negative)? Are your opponents a strategy of passing some pretty good hands because they are trying to trap you into getting euchred rather than earning just 1 pt if they call (a perfectly logical strategy)? Since you (I think) mostly play with bots and randos on the internet, you don't have much occasion to get a read on how they bid.

I would suggest this simple rule: bid the suit where you have the most trump. And if it's a tie, bid the suit with the stronger cards (higher trump value). You will always have a callable suit with at least 2 trump - if you have two trump in the suit you turned down, you shouldn't have turned it down!

Yes, I think bidding the suit with 10-9 is better than bidding the suit with the lone R, though it is debatable. Not only do you have twice as many trump, there is also 1 less trump for the opponents to have.

No, I don't think you can use the rule of preferring a next suit bid from seats 1 and 3 and a green suit (crossing suits) bid from seats 2 and 4, which is usually the case for the 2nd round, because the other players, having passed, have defied any predilection for those suits. It's simply a toss-up.

Know that singleton and doubleton aces have a much better chance of winning when there is a 2nd round bid, because the cards tend to be distributed more evenly. So If I had A-9H and Q-10D, I would actually bid the D, hoping that AH could win a trick on its own.

Above all, realize that there is a good chance you will get euchred. Perhaps with any suit you bid. That's just the nature of the game. Fortunately, this scenario shouldn't arise too often.

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Dlan
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Unread post by Dlan » Mon Dec 12, 2022 11:02 pm

Picking a suit of the opposite color from the suit you turned down tends to give you the best chance of success.

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Nobilis
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Unread post by Nobilis » Sat Dec 17, 2022 9:15 pm

Thank you both so much! At least this gives me some kind of buoy to use for a guideline in this situation. You are right that they do not turn up that often, but I seem to get Euchered whenever, although the last time this happened [yesterday] for the first time I chose the suit with two trump, and with the help of my partner, it walked.

Again - thank you!

sdu754
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Unread post by sdu754 » Fri Dec 30, 2022 4:05 pm

You should always consider the turned-up card as the dealer. You need to imagine your hand with that card in it and also what your discard would be. If the suit of the turned-up card is your best suit, you should consider calling it in stick the dealer, especially if the player to your right passes a lot in the hopes of euchring you.

The first time that I played stick the dealer the first time I dealt I got a crap hand and it passed back around to me. I noticed throughout the night that the person to my right would never call it in the hopes of getting another Euchre. My team easily won as I called several times from this seat earning points. I called it almost every time I dealt.

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Nobilis
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Unread post by Nobilis » Sun Mar 05, 2023 12:34 pm

Thank you for that reply. Good grief - I never realized that somebody could actually deliberately cause somebody a euchre by not calling. I will pay attention to that in the future.

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