Euchre Strategy: When to Call Trumps and How to Win More Hands
How to win more at Euchre: count your trumps before calling, think about who gets the turned card, call next, use your discard and know when to go alone.
Sunroom Games · Updated
Euchre moves quickly: five cards, five tricks, and a new hand in a couple of minutes. Almost every hand turns on one decision, whether to choose trumps or pass, and the best players make that decision well again and again. Here's what helps most, with numbers from our own test games.
If you'd like the rules first, see how to play Euchre.
What our test games showed
We had our computer players play 20,000 games of Euchre against each other and looked at what happened when someone chose trumps.
- The callers usually make it. The team that chose trumps won at least three tricks 88 times in 100, and all five about one time in five.
- Who gets the turned card matters. When the dealer's partner ordered it up, the call worked 91 times in 100. When the dealer picked it up, 86. When an opponent of the dealer ordered it up, giving the dealer an extra trump, only 80.
- Going alone pays. Players who went alone won all five tricks 43 times in 100, scoring 4 points, and almost never lost the hand.
1. Know the order of the trumps
The two Jacks of the trump color are the highest cards in the game, and the second one catches out every beginner.
The left bower counts as a trump for the whole hand. If hearts are trumps and someone leads a diamond, your Jack of diamonds isn't a diamond, so you can't use it to follow suit. And if hearts are led and the Jack of diamonds is your only trump, you must play it. With hearts as trumps, the diamond suit has only five cards.
2. Count your trumps before you call
A good calling hand usually has three trumps, including a bower or the Ace, plus an Ace in another suit. Two trumps can be enough with both bowers, but it's riskier: in our games, calls made with two trumps worked 82 times in 100, with three trumps 88, and with four 96. Holding the right bower helped too, 88 times in 100 against 84 without it.
A single bower with a low trump isn't enough on its own. With the Jack and 9 of hearts and nothing else, it's usually better to pass.
3. Think about who gets the turned card
When you order up the turned card, the dealer adds it to their hand. If the dealer is your partner, that's one more trump for your team, so you can order it up with a slightly weaker hand. If the dealer is on the other team, you're handing them a trump, so you need a stronger hand to be safe. That's the gap in our numbers: 91 calls in 100 worked when the dealer's partner ordered it up, but only 80 when an opponent did.
4. As the dealer, make your discard count
When you pick up the turned card, you throw one card away. The best card to throw is usually your only card of a suit, as long as it isn't an Ace. With that suit gone, you can trump it the first time it's led.
5. In the second round, think about calling "next"
When everyone passes and the card is turned down, the suit of the same color is called "next". If a heart was turned down, diamonds are next. Everyone passed on hearts, including the dealer, who would have picked the card up, so the other team probably doesn't hold the Jack of hearts. When diamonds are trumps, that Jack is the left bower.
In our test games, when the player on the dealer's left called next, the call worked 88 times in 100. When the same player called a suit of the other color, it worked 80 times.
6. Lead trumps when your team called them
If you chose trumps, lead them. Each trump you lead draws out the other team's trumps, and once those are gone, your Aces can't be trumped. If your partner chose trumps and you have one, leading it helps them the same way.
When you're defending, do the opposite: don't lead trumps, which only helps the callers draw them out. Lead an Ace from another suit while everyone can still follow.
7. Don't beat your partner
If your partner is already winning a trick with a card that can't be beaten, play your lowest card and save your good ones. Trumping your partner's winning trick throws away a trump that could win a trick of its own later. Our Hint button says so whenever it happens: "Ben is winning this trick already."
8. Use your trumps where they count
When you can't follow suit and the other team is winning the trick, trump it with your lowest trump that wins. Keep the bowers for when they're needed. And when you can't win a trick at all, throw away your weakest card, ideally your last card of a suit, so you can trump that suit later.
9. Go alone with the top trumps
Going alone makes sense when you hold the right bower, the left bower or the Ace, at least three trumps, and at most one other card that might lose. Your partner sits out, and if you win all five tricks you score 4 points instead of 2. Even when a lone hand loses a trick, it usually still wins three, for the same 1 point you'd have scored with your partner.
How often should you win?
In our test games, the two teams won about equally often. The team that dealt first won slightly more, about 52 games in 100, which is why the first dealer is chosen by the first black Jack rather than always being the same player. If you and Ben win about half your games, you're playing as well as our computer players.
The Hint button explains every decision, from whether to call to which card to throw away, so it's a good way to learn. If you enjoy partner games, our Spades strategy guide has more ideas.