If you’d rather leave it up to chance, have each player draw a random card. The players with the 2 lowest cards become one team and the other players become the second team.
You can buy a specialty Euchre deck so you don’t have to pull cards out every time you want to play. Some people play with slightly larger decks that may include the 7s and 8s. They may also include a joker. Ask the people you’re playing with to clarify any rules they use.
Alternatively, you can choose the first dealer based on who had the highest card when you picked teams.
Alternatively, you can deal out 3 cards to each player the first time around and 2 cards the second time. Either way works as long as everyone gets a total of 5 cards.
If a player doesn’t want the suit as trump, they can pass it to the next person to decide instead. If a player accepts the trump suit, an opponent says, “I order it up,” the dealer’s partner says “I assist,” or the dealer says “I take it up. ” If you’re the dealer, discard a low-valued card from your hand, like a 9 or 10, since it won’t be as powerful for winning.
If all players still pass without picking a trump suit, collect all of the cards and shuffle them again. The person to the left of the dealer becomes the new dealer. The team that accepts or chooses trump become the “makers” while the other team become the “defenders. ”
Going alone can get you bonus points if you’re able to win all the hands during a round, but it can be risky if you don’t have strong cards.
Example: If the trump suit is diamonds, then the trump suit ranks from highest to lowest are jack (diamonds), jack (hearts), ace (diamonds), king (diamonds), queen (diamonds), 10 (diamonds), and 9 (diamonds).
Try leading with a card in the trump suit. Other players have to play the same suit if they can, so you’ll flush out all the most powerful cards right at the start of the round.
If you want to win the trick, play a card higher in value than any other cards that have been played. If your teammate already played a high-ranking card in trump or the lead suit, then you can play lower-valued cards since your team is already set to win. If you don’t have any cards matching the lead suit or in the trump suit, try to get rid of a low-valued card. You won’t be able to win the current trick, but you can save your higher-valued cards to win ones in the future.
Example: Trump is clubs. The lead card is an ace (spades). Players follow with jack (spades), king (spades), and queen (hearts). The ace of spades is the highest rank of the lead suit and wins the trick. Example: Trump is hearts. The lead card is king (hearts). Players follow with jack (diamonds), 9 (hearts), and 10 (clubs). Since the jack of diamonds is the right bower, it ranks higher than the king and wins the round.
Since there’s such a small number of cards, try to memorize what’s already been played so you can get an idea of what players might still have in their hands.
If a member of the maker team opted to “go alone,” then they get 4 points for winning all 5 tricks instead.
If you want a shorter game, only play until you reach 7 points. For a slightly longer game, you could play until a team reaches 15 points instead.
