The goal
With your partner, win at least three of the five tricks when you choose trump, or stop the other team when they do. First team to 10 points wins.
Setup
Four players in two teams, partners opposite. Use 24 cards: 9, 10, jack, queen, king and ace of each suit.
The deal
Five cards each, in packets of three and two. Turn the top card of the four left over face up: the up-card.
A turn
- Round one: starting left of the dealer, pass or order up the up-card’s suit as trump.
- If ordered up, the dealer takes the up-card and discards one card face down.
- Round two (all passed): pass or name any other suit. All pass again: redeal by the next player.
- Left of the dealer plays the first card. Everyone must play the same suit if they can. Highest trump wins, otherwise highest card of the suit led.
Special cards
- Right bower: jack of trump, the highest card.
- Left bower: other jack of the same colour, second highest, counts as trump.
- The player who chose trump may go alone: their partner’s cards stay face down, and the player on the lone player’s left leads.
Scoring
- Makers (the team that chose trump) win 3 or 4 tricks: 1 point.
- Makers win all 5: 2 points.
- Lone maker wins all 5: 4 points.
- Makers win fewer than 3 (euchred): the other team scores 2.
Winning
The first team to reach 10 points wins.
House rules
- Stick the dealer. If everyone passes in the second round, the dealer must name a trump suit. No hand is ever thrown in.
- Defending alone. A defender may also go alone. If they stop the makers from taking three tricks, the defenders score 4 instead of 2.
- Shorter games. Play to 5 or 7 points instead of 10 for a quicker game.
