Streblerm wrote: Tue Jun 04, 2019 10:44 am
Is it bad form to call an obvious loaner when you’re in the barn? I was recently playing a game where my partner quit over this call. The score was 9-7 in our favor. I thought that was one of the dumber things I’d seen lately. I was in the second seat holding
The up card was:
If I’m in the dealer’s position I’m thinking, awesome we win. From my perspective this was all but a guaranteed loaner and at least a guaranteed point.
My partner took this as an insult and the opponents dragged out the final hand to a ridiculous degree so it has me wondering if I’m the jerk.
I really want to know how drunk you were if you got set on that hand. Even on the off case that the Ace of Spades gets trumped, that's still a guaranteed point.
A lot of amateur players consider it bad form to go alone if you have either eight or nine points. Pretty much no serious euchre players do. For instance, it's pretty easy to think of a hand in which taking your partner along gets you only one point instead of two.
For example:
You're in first seat holding this:
You order the

up.
If your partner is holding the Ace of Clubs then this is a one point hand if the dealer has a void in clubs. If you go alone, then it's a 4 point hand unless the dealer has four diamonds (and if he has that then it's a one-point hand no matter what you do).
So that's the argument for going alone on 8.
The argument for going alone on 9 is a little more iffy. Technically, it is possible for your partner to get you euchred when you would have made a point by going alone. In probably 10,000+ games of euchre, the only time I can recall seeing that happen is when the call was made on a fairly weak loner hand (two trump, neither of which was a bower+a green ace or two) and the partner trumped a green ace and led back something that the enemy was able to take. Such a scenario pretty much relies on your partner being drunk, stupid, or both.
The only good reason that I'm ever seen for bringing your partner along on eight or nine points when you have a viable loner is that it's the polite thing to do since the partner was with you the whole game to begin with. Few serious players are going to have a problem with you going alone when in the barn as long as you had a hand that was a viable loner. Now, if you had something like a farmer's hand and went alone, your partner would understandably upset. But with the hand you describe, no serious player is going to have a problem with you going alone there.