Game play overview
Euchre is pronounced Ukur!
Euchre is a trick taking game for 4 players in fixed partnerships, partners sitting opposite. Five cards are dealt to each player and the object is to win at least three of the five tricks, with an extra bonus for winning all five.
Games are played until 1 team reaches 10 points. Most people like to play a mini-match, best of 3 or best of 5 to decide who wins.
Scoring
The object is to take at least 3 tricks as a maker. The following explains how the tricks are scored:
The makers take 3 tricks, the Makers team gets 1 point.
The makers take all 5 tricks, the makers team gets 2 points.
The defenders take 3 tricks, the defenders team get 2 points. This is known as a Euchre!
The defenders take all 5 tricks, the defenders team get 4 points.
The maker goes alone:
The maker takes 3 tricks, the makers team gets 1 point as normal.
The maker takes all 5 tricks, the makers team gets 4 points.
The defenders take 3 tricks, the defenders team gets 2 points for the Euchre.
The defenders take all 5 tricks, the defenders team get 4 points.
The Blind Adrenaline Card room offers 2 types of tables for Euchre:
"Stick The Dealer"
With this option, if a Trump has not been made after 2 rounds of passing then the dealer will be forced to make a Trump out of what they have in their hand. A great option for strategic play on both sides.
"Re-Deal"
This option allows a total passing on the hand, if the dealer does not make it on their 2nd choice the hand will be scrapped and the deal will be passed to the player on the left. This is the more popular option in many circles.
A pack of 24 cards is used consisting of Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10 and 9 in each of the four suits: hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades.
The trump suit has 7 cards ranking from highest to lowest as follows:
Right Bower (the jack of the trump suit)
Left Bower (the jack of the same color as the trump suit)
Ace
King
Queen
Ten
Nine
The most important thing to remember is this card ranking system.
The other suits have 6 or 5 cards ranking as normal: Ace, King, Queen, (Jack) 10 9.
Note that the left bower counts as belonging to the trump suit. For example if hearts are trumps, then the jack of diamonds is a heart, not a diamond. It can be played to a heart lead and if it is led, hearts must be followed. Similarly, if spades are trumps, then the Jack of clubs is considered a spade and is ranked 2nd highest in the order.
The Jacks are the most important. Most confusion is caused when playing Jacks. The jacks of the opposite color of the Trump are just Jacks, they will not beat an ace as the Bowers do.
The Deal and Making Trump
The first dealer is selected at random. The turn to deal then rotates clockwise throughout the game.
Five cards are dealt to each player, the next card in the pack is turned face up and is known as the up-card. This up-card is used as a basis for selecting the trump suit. The remaining three cards are left face-down and are not used.
The process of making Trump begins, starting with the player to the left of the dealer. In the function keys it will be the player seated in the function key to the right of your name, if you are in F4, then the player on F1 is the next player.
If the first player thinks they have enough of the same suit as the up-card to take 3 tricks, then they will make the up-card suit Trump. The dealer then picks the up-card into their hand and discards 1 card and puts it with the dead pile. This would normally be a low card of an off-suit. If the first player does not make it then the turn is passed around to each player and in turn they can choose to make the up-card Trump. To choose the up-card as Trumps, press Alt T.
If the dealer decides not to choose the up-card when it is their turn, the up-card is then turned down and the next player can then choose to make a Trump suit out of the cards in their hand, they may not choose the suit of the turned down card however.
Normally you would choose a suit of which you have high cards of the same suit including the left or right bowers. To choose trumps press Shift and the first letter of the suit you wish to make trumps. Depending on the game type options as above, everyone can choose to "pass"their turn until it gets to the dealer and if it is the "stick The Dealer" option, the dealer must make it something no matter what.
In "Re-Deal" if the dealer chooses not to make it on their 2nd opportunity then the cards are gathered and a new hand dealt with the deal passing to the next player an a clockwise direction.
Note that the trump making process ends as soon as someone accepts or makes trump (rather than passing). That player's side are the makers and the other side are the defenders.
The Play
Any card may be led, and each player in clockwise order must follow suit if possible. A player who cannot follow suit may play any card.
Important: Remember, that for the purposes of following suit, the Left Bower is considered to belong to the trump suit and not to any other suit.
Example:
If an Ace of hearts is lead and you have the Jack of diamonds with no other hearts, you must play that Jack.
The trick is won by whoever played the highest card of the suit led, unless a trump was played in which case the highest trump wins. The winner of each trick leads the next one and again everyone must follow suit..
Going Alone
If a player thinks they can take all 5 tricks by them self, they would ""Go Alone".
To do this press Control A, this will make the dealer pick the up-card into their hand on the first round. If it is the 2nd round of making, then you would press Control A then Shift and the first letter of the suit you wish to make Trumps.
You would normally have the top Trump cards as per the ranking system, including the left bower, Ace, King, queen and hopefully Aces of the off-suits. You can always try with lower cards and hope that the defenders will not have a higher card of your off-suit.
In this case, the partner of the maker will put their hand down and only the 2 defenders will play with the maker.
For Example:
If the up-card is a 9 of diamonds and you have Ace, King, Jack of diamonds and the Jack of hearts and a king of spades you would consider "Going Alone" as this is a very strong hand. Although the Dealer would have a 9 of Trumps you would take that with one of your high cards. Depending who has the lead dictates how you play the cards.
If it is your lead then you would start out with the highest Trump in your hand, for this example that would be the Jack of diamonds. This would pull out all the Trumps from the other players, follow this with the Jack of hearts, pulling out any remaining Trumps from the other 2 players. Continue with the Ace then the King and you are left with the King of spades.. You hopefully will take this last trick, maybe your partner had the Ace of spades in their hand or one of the defenders have already played it trying to figure out what to keep to stop your attempt.
You will be richly rewarded for succeeding as your team will receive 4 points!
Key Commands and Card Navigation
The arrow keys are mirrored on the J(left), K(down), L(right) and I(up) keys.
Shift J will jump you to the clubs line.
Shift I will jump you to the spades line.
Shift K will jump you to the diamonds line.
Shift L will jump you to the hearts line.
you can then look through them with the J or L keys. You may arrow up and down through the different suits with I or K.
To play the highlighted card press enter.
At commencement of the game players in F1 and F3 are partners and players in F2 and F4 are partners.
This may be switched around by the person in the F1 position to make different teams. Control plus the function key with the name of the player that F1 wants to partner with.
I.E.
Lucy is in F1 seat, and wants to partner with Bob in F2 seat, Lucy would press Control F2 to make Bob her partner. The other 2 players would automatically become partners.
Shift m will start the game with a full table or call in monkeys to fill it.
For the observation room, Team 1 is Seats F1 and F3, Team 2 is Seats F2 and F4 so you can follow the game.
On the table it will say Your team and other team.
t will say what the up-card is
After trump is declared it will say what the trump is.
P will pass up the trump choice to the next person to the left In both rounds of choosing
First round of choosing.
Alt t or Shift t will make the up card's suit trump. Remember this will make the dealer take the up-card into his hand and force them to discard one of theirs.
Control A will make you go alone, thereby making the up card suit trump. This again will make the dealer take the up-card into their hand and discard one of his own.
Second round of choosing after dealer has passed on up card.
Shift and the first letter of the suit you want to be trump to choose trump.
Control A, followed by Shift and the first letter of the suit you want to be trump, will make you go alone.
e will tell you the current hand scores in tricks
c will tell you the game score
x will tell you how many cards are left to play in the hand
v will tell you how long there is to make the current move (choose trump, or play the card)
Tab key will tell you what part of the game you are in I.E. First round choosing trump Dealer is discarding.
q will tell you what player made trump.
Shift q will tell you the team configuration.
w will tell you who's turn it is
Shift w will tell you what team made trump
r will tell you the current round of cards played
Shift r will tell you the prior round of cards played
Alt p will vote to pause the game, 3 people need to vote for pausing and likewise 3 people need to vote to un pause.
Control p will vote to un pause
n will tell you who is in the observation
Shift n will mute chat from the observation
F11 to choose screen reader
Spacebar to chat, double tap spacebar for actions
Shift c to copy the last chat entry
If someone is being abusive or going over the line with x rated chat, you can send a report to the developer with the alt plus control r command
Some basic strategy
There are lots of web sites out there to learn strategies and how to play, we suggest Google as a great source of information. A simple search for Euchre Strategies should return a gazillion results.
A few tips, try not to trump your partners tricks if you can help it.
Example:
With hearts as Trumps:
If your partner plays an Ace of spades and it is followed by a 9 of spades. You should not play a heart or the Jack of diamonds, if you don't have a spade, play a low card from another suit in hopes that the last player does not trump the Ace
Back up your partner, if your partner makes Trumps and you have the first lead, try to play a card that will take the first trick or a card that you think your partner is low on that suit.
Example:
If hearts is Trumps.
Play an Ace of spades, the chances of someone trumping it are very low and it should win a trick. If you do not have an Ace, and you have 3 clubs the chances are slim to none that your partner will have a club, so you could try to play your highest club, like a queen and hope that the next player will top it with a King or an Ace. This allows your partner to Trump the cards and take the trick for your team.
Try to anticipate what plays are going to be made in advance. Learn strategies, try to come up with your own strategies and work with your partner.
Check out the FAQ and tutorial page for audio tutorials on the game and strategy guides.
Some Rules
The main rule in this game is no "Table Talk". What this means is, you can not give your partner hints as to what cards you have in order to help them make a decision on what to do about making Trump. This is blatant cheating and will not be tolerated. If you are found to be doing this VIA table chat or voice communication you may be banned from playing Euchre and nobody wants that to happen. We know that people will have fun with it and if it is being done in fun amongst friends, there is and should not be a problem.
Some people take the game seriously though and if they don't appreciate it, then do not do it!
The mailing list
Click the below link to subscribe to the Euchre email list, a great resource for finding out about upcoming games:
Subscribe to the Euchre email list