Euchre Variants
Euchre has never had one rulebook. It travelled by kitchen table, so nearly every county plays it a little differently, and arguing about whose way is correct is part of the game. Below are the four variants you are most likely to run into, each described completely enough to deal a hand tonight. All of them assume you already know the standard rules: 24 cards, five each, an upcard, two rounds of bidding, right and left bower.
Stick the dealer
Also called screw the dealer. In the plain game, if all four players pass twice the hand is thrown in, the cards are gathered up, and the deal moves to the left. Under stick the dealer that is not allowed: in the second round of bidding, if it comes around to the dealer and the first three players have all passed, the dealer must name a suit — any suit except the one that was turned down. There is no pass available to them.
Nothing else changes. The dealer's team becomes the makers and the hand is scored normally, which means a dealer stuck on a hopeless hand usually hands the other side 2 points for the euchre. That is the point of the rule: it removes throw-in hands, keeps the game moving, and puts a genuinely interesting decision into every second round of bidding.
Three things change about the way you bid once it is in force. The dealer should be counting all four suits from the very first bid, not from the moment they get stuck. Players in front of the dealer should be more willing to pass a marginal hand, because passing forces a call out of somebody who does not want to make one, and defending against a bad call is worth more than making a shaky one yourself. And when you are the one stuck, name the suit you hold the most of, even if it is three small trump — you are no longer trying to score a point, you are trying to hold them to two tricks.
Stick the dealer is switched on by default in the CardPorch game and can be turned off in settings.
Farmer's hand
Sometimes called a bénévole, or just a benny. It is a mercy rule for a hand so bad that no amount of good bidding can rescue it.
The usual definition: if you are dealt three nines and a ten — no ace, no face card, nothing higher than a ten anywhere in your hand — you may declare a farmer's hand. You show the hand to the table to prove it, then set three of your five cards aside face down and take the three unseen cards of the kitty in exchange. (The kitty is four cards and the top one is the upcard, so exactly three sit underneath. That is why the swap is three.) Bidding then proceeds normally and you bid on your new hand like everyone else.
The common restrictions, all worth agreeing before you start: the declaration must be made before any bid, the dealer usually may not declare one because they already stand to get the upcard, and only one farmer's hand is allowed per deal — first to speak gets it. Tables vary on what qualifies. Some require exactly three nines and a ten, some accept any hand containing no card higher than a ten, and a few skip the exchange altogether and simply throw the hand in for a redeal.
Whichever version you use, three fresh cards while everyone else has five known ones is a real advantage, so it is worth being strict about what counts.
Three-handed (cutthroat) euchre
Euchre for three players, and the friendliest thing about it is that there is no partner to be annoyed with.
Deal five cards each from the standard 24-card deck, turn one card face up as the upcard, and set the remaining eight aside face down — they take no part in the hand. Bidding runs exactly as in the four-handed game: round one on the upcard, round two on any other suit, and stick the dealer if your table uses it.
Here is the difference. Whoever names trump is the maker and plays alone, always, because there is no partner to help. The other two become temporary allies for that hand only, and next hand one of them may be the maker with the other two against them. Play itself follows the normal rules: the player to the dealer's left leads, follow suit if you can, the left bower is a trump, and the highest trump takes the trick.
Scoring is where three-handed differs most. The usual table is:
- Maker takes three or four tricks: 1 point.
- Maker takes all five: 3 points.
- Maker takes fewer than three (euchred): 2 points to each defender.
First to 10 wins. The 3-point march and the doubled euchre are what keep the game honest — with two players hunting you every hand, a loose call is expensive twice over. Some tables score the march at 2 instead of 3, and some award the euchre only to the defender who took the most tricks. Settle it before the first deal.
One practical note: eight cards are buried every hand, so a third of the deck is missing. Aces get trumped more often than you expect and counting cards is much less reliable. Bid a little tighter than you would with a partner.
Bid euchre
Bid euchre replaces euchre's two rounds of "call or pass" with an auction: you say how many tricks you will take, and the highest bidder names trump. It plays more like a small game of spades or 500, and it rewards accurate hand counting far more than the standard game does.
The single-deck game. Four players in two partnerships and the usual 24-card deck, but all of it is dealt: six cards each, no upcard and no kitty. Starting to the dealer's left, each player either passes or bids a number of tricks. The minimum bid is three and the maximum is six, and each bid must beat the one before it. A bid to go alone outranks a plain bid of the same size, and many tables allow "six alone" as the top bid of all. The dealer, bidding last, is commonly allowed to take the contract by matching the highest bid instead of beating it.
The high bidder names trump and leads to the first trick. Play is ordinary euchre play: follow suit if you can, the left bower belongs to trump, highest trump wins.
Scoring. If the bidding side takes at least as many tricks as it bid, it scores one point per trick taken. If it falls short, it loses the number of points bid — scores go negative, and everyone enjoys that. The defending side normally scores a point for each trick it takes. A successful lone bid is usually worth double. Game is 25 or 32 points, depending on how long an evening you want.
The double-deck game. Very common in Indiana and Michigan: shuffle two 24-card euchre decks together for 48 cards, deal twelve to each player, and bid anywhere from six up to twelve. Everything else is the same, except that duplicate cards now exist — when two identical cards fall in the same trick, the one played first wins it. Games usually run to 52 points. It is longer and more forgiving, because with twelve cards in your hand you can actually plan the whole thing out.
What CardPorch plays
The game on this site is standard four-handed euchre to 10 points, with going alone, and with stick the dealer switched on by default — turn it off in settings if your table plays throw-ins. The farmer's hand, three-handed and bid euchre are here as reference for your own kitchen table. If you would like one of them built into the site, say so and it goes on the list.