| Basic Euchre Tips
Euchre is very much like Bridge -- it is a game of probabilities. You make bids and plays in the expectation that, more often than not, your play will work out to your advantage. Of course, this means that sometimes your plays will not work so you must have an understanding partner to adopt some of these strategies. The following tactics are designed for the 24-card game.
First Round of Bidding
The general principle in the first round is to count on your partner for 1 trick. If you have 2 sure tricks, preferably 2 sure trump tricks, order the dealer up. Note that if your side is not dealing the cards, Aces are not sure tricks since on ordering the dealer up, he may discard to a void in your Ace suit. If your side has dealt the cards, Aces are generally a sure trick, but 2 of them may not be 2 sure tricks.
Turn Down a Bower -- Lose for an Hour
As dealer, I always pick up a bower if I have at least 1 more trump in hand. Since the opponents will be reluctant to lead trump (more on this later), you can discard to create a void. You then count on making your bower a trick by ruffing the void suit and hopefully a trick from partner to make your point.
First Hand Bidding After 4 Passes
When all players have passed and dealer has turned down, then the First Hand player should attempt to call the other suit of the same color (if dealer turns down black you try to call the other black, if dealer turns down red, you try to call the other red). Almost any decent holding in the other colored suit will do -- singleton bower; doubleton Ace, doubleton King with a black suit void etc. This is almost mandatory when dealer has turned down a bower. An example: | |
| After 3 passes, North the Dealer has turned down the Queen of Hearts (red suit) and passed. East should call Diamonds, the other red suit! Yes, this is very risky -- he might easily be euchred and lose 2 points. If he passes meekly, South will likely call a black suit, and East has no defense against a black suit contract. So the opponents will probably be getting 1 point anyways. Calling Diamonds and getting Euchred then will probably cost you only 1 point -- the 2 points you lost less the 1 point you were going to lose anyways. But if Diamonds happens to make, the gain is 2 points, the point you win and the point you didn’t lose! As you can see in the hand above when East calls Diamonds, they will always win 3 tricks -- 2 trumps and the Ace of Clubs and win one point. If East passed and South calls Clubs, then North/South will take all 5 tricks in Clubs for 2 points when East leads the Ace of Diamonds. So in this case making a risky call of Diamonds with the East hand gained 3 points -- the 1 point you made plus the 2 points you didn’t lose.
The corollary to this is, when calling the other color (that is dealer turns down red and you want to call black in First Hand position), you must be very careful. Since dealer does not like red, it increases the probability he does like black, so you should not make a highly speculative different suit call in First Hand position.
Second Hand Bidding After 5 Passes
After 5 passes, you should to call a suit of a different color than partner (dealer) has turned down; that is, if partner turned down black you prefer to call red; if partner turned down red, you prefer to call black. Again, almost any good excuse will do.
Third Hand Bidding After 6 Passes
Let's say dealer turned down red -- partner who will stretch to call the other red has passed -- second hand who will stretch to call a black has also passed. Now you are fairly safe taking a speculative black call since partner doesn’t have the other red and Right Hand Opponent (RHO) does like either black. This is more dangerous than the other 2 seats however, since Dealer sits to your left and doesn’t like red -- but it is sometimes worth a speculative call.
Dealer’s Bidding After 7 Passes
Lets say you the dealer turned down red on the first round, and it has gone pass, pass, pass back to you. LHO doesn’t have the other red, and partner didn’t choose a black, so there's a decent chance partner has the other red. You can bid anything in this seat but given the choice between a black and the other red, I’d go for the red suit since that is the one partner is most likely to have help in.
Going Alone
To go alone, you should have 4-1/2 or 5 tricks in your own hand. Four top trumps and a side King is worth going alone. Four top trumps and a side Queen is not -- the odds favor the opponents winning your Queen trick if you go alone. Three top trumps and A-x in another suit is an excellent hand to go alone. Never go alone in a game to 10 when your side has only 8 tricks.
Dealers Discard
You pick up or have been ordered up and you must discard. Of course, you keep your trumps and your Aces and create a void in a suit. When you have a choice of suits to create a void in, choose the suit that is a different color than the trump suit; if trumps are Hearts, you prefer to have a void in Clubs or Spades than a void in Diamonds. The reason is the Jack of Diamonds is a trump, not a Diamond, so there are fewer of them. If you trump a Diamond, there is a greater chance you will be overtrumped than if you trump a Club or Spade.
Opening Lead
If your side has called the trump suit, it is frequently wise to lead the trump. The reason is the dealer will have created a void somewhere and leading trumps will remove his opportunity to ruff. If the opponents have called the trump suit, you would only lead trump if the dealer has picked up a bower. The dealer may have done this with the Jack and a little one, counting on scoring the little one with a ruff. You might also want to lead trump if you have three little ones -- for the same reason, to prevent the other side from scoring their trumps separately with ruffs.
Leading trump is unusual however, and we normally lead our Aces. Let's suppose dealer has picked up a Heart, and you have A-x of Spades A-x of Diamonds and A of Clubs. Which Ace to lead? I would lead the Ace of Clubs. Since you have only one of them it is less likely to get trumped than either of the other 2 Aces. If everyone followed suit to that, I would next play the Ace of Spades. Since the Jack of Diamonds is a trump, the Ace of Diamonds is more likely to get ruffed than the Ace of Spades.
If you don’t have any Aces, the next best is the top card of a sequence like a King from K-Q. Never lead an unsupported King -- if you must lead from a suit headed by the King without the Queen, lead low, not the King.
Tricks 2-5
Leading a second round of a suit is usually not a good tactic unless you know where the trumps are. It may happen that one opponent will ruff and the other discards a sure loser. It is usually better to try a new suit in this case. If you know RHO has no trumps, leading the second round of a suit can be a very good tactic.
If you win the first trick and partner discards, it is usually correct to return the suit partner discarded, hoping for a ruff.
If you win the first trick, you have a bower and partner has called the trumps, it is usually correct to lead your bower.
Tricks from Trumps
Suppose we are down to the last two cards. Hearts are trump. | |
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If you need one of the last two tricks, you will have to have West on lead. If North or East or you are on lead, West will always score both tricks. When holding a position like above, you try not to win trick 3, hoping your LHO will have to win it. In Bridge, putting West on lead to lead away from the A-J is called an endplay, and these are frequent occurrences in Euchre.
Another frequently occurring play in Euchre is an Uppercut. Again, Hearts are trumps, North on lead, and you (South) need one of the last two tricks:
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