Euchre uses a short deck. Just the nine, ten, jack, queen, king and ace of each suit, so 24 cards total. You get five each, one suit becomes trump, and the team that picked trump has to win three of the five tricks or they lose points to the other team.
The rule that trips up everyone new: the jack of the trump suit is the highest card in the game, and the other jack of the same colour is second highest. If hearts are trump, the jack of hearts is the right bower and the jack of diamonds is the left bower. For that whole hand, the jack of diamonds counts as a heart. It isn't a diamond anymore. You can't play it to follow diamonds, and if someone leads hearts you have to play it.
Once that clicks, the rest of the game is straightforward.
One card gets turned face up. Going around the table, you either accept that suit as trump, which is called ordering it up, or you pass. Ordering it up means the dealer picks that card up and throws something away, so if you're not the dealer you're handing them a card.
If everyone passes, you go around again and this time anyone can name a different suit.
Whoever names trump has committed their team to three tricks. Get three or four and you score a point. Get all five and you score two. Fail and the other team gets two, which is called being euchred.
If you think your hand can take all five tricks by itself, you can go alone. Your partner puts their cards down and sits out. Take all five that way and it's worth four points.
It's tempting more often than it's correct. A strong hand is worth one point either way, and if you get euchred going alone you handed the other team two.
You play to ten, and a hand takes about a minute. Most games are over in under ten minutes, which is a big part of why it's the standard game across a lot of the American Midwest.
Three bots are ready now. The full guide to Euchre explains the bowers, ordering up, going alone and how scoring works.
Euchre came to North America with German and Dutch settlers in the 1800s and is credited with introducing the joker to standard decks, which was originally added as an extra trump. It's the everyday card game across a lot of the American Midwest and southwestern Ontario.
This version is written from scratch to run in a browser. There's no download and no account, it works on a phone as well as a desktop, and empty seats are filled by bots so a game starts the moment you want one. The full rules, scoring and strategy are on the Euchre rules page.
Why is the other jack a trump?
The jack of the same colour as trump becomes the second highest trump for that hand. It stops being its printed suit entirely.
What does euchred mean?
The team that named trump took fewer than three tricks, so the other team scores two points.
What happens if everyone passes twice?
The dealer has to name a suit. That rule is called stick the dealer.
How many points wins?
Ten. One for three or four tricks, two for all five, four for taking all five alone.
If something here is broken, or a rule doesn't match the way you play, email hello@turngames.io. Saying which game and what you were doing helps. Requests for new games are welcome too.