Euchre Strategy
Euchre is a fast paced trump card game that takes a little time to learn but an eternity to perfect.
Card game enthusiasts love the game for its complexity and the variety of Euchre strategy that's involved.
Basic Euchre Vocabulary
Learning Euchre vocabulary and terminology is key to learning Euchre strategy.
When playing Euchre, your non-trump suits are ranked as normal -- Aces are highest followed by King, Queen, Jack, on down to nine which is the lowest non-trump car rank. This means the strongest card of the trump suit is the Jack (trump Jacks are known as the "Right Bower") -- the second highest trump card is the Jack of the same color but a different suit -- he's called the "Left bower".
When a team picks a suit for a trump, that team has to win three or four tricks in order to score a point. If they're lucky and the makers of the bid win all five tricks it is called a "march", and they score two points.
Now to the name of the game -- if the team that called the trump does not win at least 3 tricks, they are what is called "euchred", and the other team scores two points. Remember that it is easier to score those two points by "euchring" the makers of the bid than it is to "march" as a bidder through all the tricks. This means that Euchre is a defensive rather than an offensive game.
A few more words to know -- if a player has been dealt a hand that looks strong enough to march right through all five tricks by themselves, they bid "alone" and play the hand without their partner. If they successfully win all five tricks, their team scores a big hit -- four points. An "alone" attempt like this doesn't have to be perfect to score -- winning a majority of tricks (but not all five, or "march") and you still score a single point (or "ones"). An "alone" bid that doesn't take a trick majority (at least three tricks) is "euchred" just like a regular bid that doesn't make three tricks and the other team scores two points. Since the first team to score ten points wins the game, this marching and alone business becomes quite important strategically.
Euchre Trump Card Strategy
Simple Euchre trump card strategy depends on a few things. Since there are seven cards of each trump suit available for play (remember that four cards are buried) this means that on average there will be six trumps live and one buried. But this is just basic statistics, and in reality all seven could be spread across the four player's hands. Since you just can't know where those trumps are, keep a good count of the trump cards when they're played. Remember which cards are still "out".
Anytime your partner names a trump, either by ordering or picking up an exposed card or calling trump in the second round, you need to make a big decision on what you'll play. If you are in the lead, you should play an off-trump Ace or other mega off-trump card. Unless you hold either bower, in which case LEAD THE BOWER -- then your partner will know where it is and can use that inside info to figure out his or her own strategy the rest of the hand. You can almost always use trump strategy to "talk over the table" to your opponent, especially about the bowers.
If you call a trump, count on your partner for at least one trick. This way you don't bid too conservatively and blow the game. The cards distribute themselves in such a way that the game is nice and random -- sometimes your partner won't catch a single trick, and sometimes they can catch two -- but you can usually count on one trick from a partner. If you have two sure tricks, this means go ahead and bid. Count on your partner -- they'll count on you.
If your partner called the trump and leads with any other card besides an Ace or a trump, you need to know that it is time to trump in. This is your partner communicating to you that their hand has some weaknesses. Bad partners are partners that don't listen. If your partner does lead with an Ace, don't trump it and step on his play, unless your opponent already put down a trump of course.
At the end of a game of Euchre, it can be better to call a trump, even when you've got a bad hand. If you don't call it, you allow your opponents to get the jump on you and call the trump. In fact, when you have any chance at all of winning a hand go ahead and call the trump. Don't let your opponents choose -- strangle them from the outset.
Remember that dealers always have the advantage.
Euchre Eldest Strategy
Euchre eldest strategy makes use of the weakest position in Euchre, which is whoever sits to the left of the dealer. This position is known as the "elder" or "eldest" -- if you sit in the eldest position your play strategy changes entirely. Do not lead with boldness when leading as eldest -- unless you have three solid trick wins in your hand. You just don't know enough about the other hands at the table to make big leaps of faith.
One advantage of the eldest position is you can easily Euchre an opponent if you have that annoyingly strong but not-quite-good-enough for trump hand. Wait for your opponent to be bold and call a trump, then you have the first chance to make trump if they pass on the option. In other words, you're in perfect position for a "Next" move as the "eldest". This position doesn't have to be a problem for strategic Euchre play.
Euchre is an easy bidding game that you can learn quickly. Just don't expect to have much success until you've been beaten into submission a few times.
The key to Euchre strategy is to remember that you can communicate with your partner using nothing more than the way you play a hand. Count on your partner and develop that winning relationship so necessary to a successful Euchre partnership.
For additional advice, visit the Euchre strategy pages at Play Card Games dot org.