Euchre is one of those games that gets handed down rather than taught. Someone's nan deals you in at the kitchen table, you lose four hands in a row, and by the fifth you have worked out what a bower is.
It is fast, it is loud, and a full game takes about twenty minutes, which makes it perfect for caravan parks, camping trips and rainy afternoons.
Here is everything you need to know, including the bits that cause the most arguments.
🗣️ First Up, How Do You Even Spell It?
If you got here by searching for "euka card game", "yuka" or "uka", you are in very good company. It is spelled euchre and it is pronounced YOO-ker, which is one of the least helpful spellings in the English language.
Plenty of Australians have played it their whole lives at family gatherings and never once seen it written down. So if you have been calling it yooker and guessing at the spelling, nothing has gone wrong. You are playing the right game.
🃏 What You Need
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24 cards. Just the 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King and Ace of each suit. Take everything else out of a standard deck, or grab a purpose-made euchre pack.
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Four players in two teams, partners sitting opposite each other.
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Something to keep score on. Traditionally a pair of spare cards, though a proper score sheet saves a lot of arguing.
Plenty of Australian households add the Joker, which is called the Benny and outranks everything. More on that further down.
🎯 The Aim of the Game
Each hand, one team commits to winning at least three of the five tricks with a trump suit of their choosing. Manage it and you score. Fall short and the other team scores instead, which is called being euchred and is where the game gets its name.
First team to 10 points wins.
👑 The Bowers, and Why Euchre Confuses Everyone
This is the part that trips up every new player, so it is worth getting straight before you start.
When a suit is named as trumps, the two Jacks of that colour become the two most powerful cards in the game:
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Right Bower - the Jack of the trump suit. Highest card.
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Left Bower - the other Jack of the same colour. Second highest.
The important bit: the Left Bower stops being its own suit and becomes a trump card. If hearts are trumps, the Jack of diamonds is now a heart. It is not a diamond any more, you cannot play it when diamonds are led, and it beats the Ace of hearts.
So with hearts as trumps, the order runs:
- Jack of hearts (Right Bower)
- Jack of diamonds (Left Bower)
- Ace of hearts
- King, Queen, 10, 9 of hearts
Every other suit runs normally: Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9. Except the suit that lost its Jack to the Left Bower, which is now a Jack short.
🎴 Dealing
Pick a dealer any way you like. The deal then passes to the left each hand.
Deal five cards to each player, in packets of two and three rather than one at a time. The remaining four cards go face down in the middle, and the top one is turned face up. That card is the proposed trump suit.
🙋 Making Trumps
First round. Starting to the dealer's left, each player either passes or accepts the turned-up suit as trumps. Accepting is called ordering it up. If someone does, the dealer picks up the turned card and discards one from their hand, and play begins.
Second round. If everyone passes, the turned card goes face down and is out of play. Going around again, each player may either pass or name any suit as trumps except the one that was just turned down.
If everyone passes twice, most tables either throw the hand in and redeal, or play stick the dealer, where the dealer has to name something. Agree which before you start.
🚶 Going Alone
Whoever names trumps can declare they are going alone. Their partner puts their cards face down and sits the hand out.
It is a big call. Win all five tricks on your own and you score 4 points, which is nearly half the game. Fall short and you have handed the other team the same 2 points you would have given them anyway, but with one fewer player helping.
▶️ Playing the Hand
The player to the dealer's left leads first. Everyone must follow suit if they can. If you cannot, play anything, including a trump.
Highest trump wins the trick. If nobody trumps, the highest card of the suit led wins. Winner of each trick leads the next.
Remember the Left Bower rule here, because it catches people out constantly. If hearts are trumps and someone leads diamonds, you cannot play the Jack of diamonds as a diamond. It is a heart now.
📊 Scoring
Only the team that named trumps can be euchred, and only the team that named trumps can score the bonus points. Everything hangs on whether they get their three tricks.
| Outcome |
Who scores |
Points |
| Makers win 3 or 4 tricks |
Makers |
1 |
| Makers win all 5 tricks |
Makers |
2 |
| Playing alone, win 3 or 4 tricks |
Makers |
1 |
| Playing alone, win all 5 |
Makers |
4 |
| Makers win fewer than 3 (euchred) |
Opponents |
2 |
💡 First team to 10 points wins. Some families play to 11, which just makes for a slightly longer night.
🔄 Variations Worth Knowing
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The Benny. Add the Joker and it becomes the highest trump of all, above the Right Bower. Very common in Australia. If the Benny is turned up as the proposed trump, the dealer usually chooses the suit.
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Stick the dealer. Nobody can pass twice. If it comes back around, the dealer must name a suit, however grim their hand.
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Three-handed. Everyone plays for themselves. The maker plays against the other two.
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Two-handed. Works fine with a slightly smaller deck. Good for a caravan when there are only the pair of you.
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Six-handed. Add the 7s and 8s for a 32-card deck and play three against three.
Grab a Playing Card Case to keep all your card games protected.
🧠 A Few Things That Help
- Count the trumps. There are only seven, so once a few are gone you can work out who is holding what.
- Both bowers plus one more trump is usually enough to go alone. Both bowers and nothing else usually is not.
- If your partner ordered it up, they have something. Lead trumps and let them use it.
- Leading a suit you are void in is a decent way to get a trump on the table early.
- Euchring the other team is worth the same 2 points as sweeping all five tricks. Defence counts.
❓ Common Questions
Can the Left Bower be led as its own suit?
No. Once trumps are named, it is a trump card and nothing else.
What happens if someone reneges?
If a player fails to follow suit when they could have, most tables award 2 points to the other team. Agree the penalty before you start.
Can you go alone on the second round of bidding?
Yes. Any player naming trumps can choose to go alone.
Does the dealer have to discard after picking up?
Yes. They always end up with five cards, same as everyone else.
How many cards is a euchre deck?
Twenty-four, or twenty-five if you play with the Benny.
Euchre travels well. Twenty-four cards, four players and twenty minutes is all it takes, which is why it turns up at so many caravan parks and kitchen tables around the country. If you are putting a games kit together for the van, a euchre deck and a pack of 500 cards will cover most nights, and there is plenty more in our card games collection.
Already play 500? Have a look at our guide to playing 500, which covers bidding, misère and the full Avondale scoring table.
