Play Euchre Online
You sit South, North is your partner, and West and East are the opposition. First side to ten points wins.
Table settings
How to play euchre in two minutes
Euchre uses a short deck — only the nines, tens, jacks, queens, kings and aces, twenty-four cards in all. Four players sit in two partnerships, partners across from each other. Everyone gets five cards, and the whole hand is over in five quick tricks.
- Look at the upcard. Five cards go to each player and four are left over. The top leftover card is turned face up, and its suit is the first candidate for trump.
- Bid or pass. Starting to the dealer's left, each player either orders the dealer to pick that card up — which makes its suit trump — or passes. If all four pass, the card is turned down and a second round begins, in which a player may name any other suit.
- Whoever names trump are the makers. That team has taken on a job: win at least three of the five tricks. The other side is now trying to stop them, and gets paid well for doing it.
- Play the five tricks. The player to the dealer's left leads. You must follow the suit that was led if you hold it. If you cannot, play anything you like, including trump. The highest trump wins the trick; if nobody trumps, the highest card of the suit led wins.
- Score the hand, pass the deal one seat to the left, and go again until a team reaches ten.
One rule catches nearly every newcomer. The jack of the trump suit is the highest card in the deck, and the other jack of the same colour is the second highest — and that second jack becomes a trump card for the hand. If hearts are trump, the jack of diamonds is a heart: you must play it when hearts are led, and you may not play it on a diamond lead. Our rules page has a diagram of exactly that.
How euchre scoring works
Points are awarded only at the end of a hand, and only one team ever scores. Everything depends on whether the makers — the side that named trump — took at least three tricks.
| What happened | Who scores | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Makers win 3 or 4 tricks | Makers | 1 |
| Makers win all 5 tricks (a march) | Makers | 2 |
| Maker went alone and won 3 or 4 tricks | Makers | 1 |
| Maker went alone and won all 5 tricks | Makers | 4 |
| Makers win fewer than 3 tricks (euchred) | Defenders | 2 |
Notice how lopsided the last row is: calling trump on a thin hand hands the other side two points, the same as a march in your favour. Good euchre is mostly the discipline of passing hands you cannot make — the strategy page covers the rest.
Euchre terms worth knowing
- Upcard
- The card turned face up after the deal. Its suit is the only suit anyone may name in the first round of bidding.
- Kitty
- The four cards left over after the deal. Three of them stay face down and out of play all hand.
- Order it up
- Telling the dealer to take the upcard into their hand, making that suit trump. The dealer then discards a card face down.
- Makers
- The partnership that named trump. They must take three tricks or be euchred.
- Right bower
- The jack of the trump suit — the highest card in the deck for that hand.
- Left bower
- The other jack of the same colour. It counts as a trump card, second only to the right bower, and leaves its printed suit for the hand.
- March
- Winning all five tricks. Worth two points, or four if you went alone.
- Euchred
- The makers took fewer than three tricks, so the defenders take two points.
- Going alone
- Playing the hand without your partner, who sets their cards aside. All five tricks alone is worth four points.
- Stick the dealer
- A common house rule: if everyone passes twice, the dealer must name a suit rather than throw the hand in.
Questions players ask
Is this really free, and do I need an account?
Yes, and no. Nothing to sign up for, nothing to install. Your game, settings and lifetime stats are kept on your own device rather than on our servers.
Will I lose my game if I close the tab?
No. A game in progress is saved as you play and picked up where you left it the next time you open this page, right down to the current trick.
How strong are the computer players?
They play like a decent club player: they count what has been played, know when their card is the best one left, lead trump when they have called it, and hold it back to catch you when they have not. They cannot see your hand, and they are beatable — especially if you bid carefully.
Can I turn stick the dealer off?
Yes, in table settings just below the table. It is on by default because most kitchen tables in Michigan, Indiana and Ontario play that way. With it off, a hand where everyone passes twice is thrown in and the deal moves along.
Why is my jack missing from its own suit?
It has changed suits, not vanished. When spades are trump, the jack of clubs is a spade until the hand ends. Sort it next to the trump jack and the confusion disappears for good.