The following rules are specific to how the game of “cards” was played in my family in southeast Michigan. It’s essentially a single-deck 4-player Bid Euchre with no joker.

Note to uninitiated readers: the game described here is different enough from what most people know as Euchre that if you learn this game and then invite some Midwesterners to play “Euchre”, you will be met with unfortunate confusion. Learn more about conventional Euchre here, and about other variations of Bid Euchre here.

Published in memory of John Magiera, Euchre King of the lake cottage.

Players

Four players, in two teams of two. Each player sits on one side of a square table, partners sitting across from each other. As this is a friendly Midwestern game, the players decide among themselves the seats, partnerships, scorekeeper, and the first dealer. The scorekeeper keeps score for both teams using pen and paper.

Game Structure and Object

Euchre is a trick-taking game. Each round consists of the following phases: Dealing, Bidding, the Play, and Scoring. Successive rounds are played until one team wins the game by reaching 32 points.

Cards

The game is played with a deck of 24 conventional American playing cards, consisting of A, K, Q, J, 10, 9 in each of the four suits. Half of a pinochle deck is usually used, to avoid uneven wear on a 52-card deck.

Each round, one of the four suits is selected to be trump, which outranks the other three suits for the purpose of winning tricks. The rank of cards within each suit is as follows:

• In the non-trump suits, the rank is (from high to low): A, K, Q, J, 10, 9 (with the exception that the suit of the same color as trump is missing its J – see below).
• In the trump suit, the jack of the trump suit is the highest trump (known as the right bower), followed by the jack of the other suit of the same color as the trump (left bower). Thus, the seven cards in the trump suit are ranked as follows: J (right), J (left), A, K, Q, 10, 9.

Example

When trump is spades, the seven trumps are J♠︎, J♣︎, A♠︎, K♠︎, Q♠︎, 10♠︎, 9♠︎. As long as spades are trump, J♣︎ is considered, for all purposes, a spade, not a club, leaving only five cards in the club suit (A♣︎, K♣︎, Q♣︎, 10♣︎, 9♣︎). The two red suits each have the expected six cards.

Dealing

The dealer shuffles the cards, then deals them clockwise around the table, starting with the player to the dealer’s left (as this is a family game, the deck need not be cut after shuffling). Deal six cards to each player, in groups of 1, 2, or 3 (or any combination thereof) at the dealer’s choosing.

Misdeal Scenarios

In certain cases where players are dealt a “bad hand”, they may reveal their hand, nullifying the deal and obligating the dealer to re-deal all the cards.

In our play, we trigger a misdeal on one such “bad hand”: if any player is dealt all four 9s, but other house rules are possible here, usually involving hands containing some combination of 9s and 10s.

Bidding and Selecting Trump

Starting with the player to the left of the dealer and continuing clockwise around the table, each player has one opportunity to bid.

A bid specifies a contract: a player, if they win the bid, commits their team to win, at minimum, the number of tricks declared in their bid, in exchange for the privilege of naming the trump suit and leading the first card for that round.

Any number from 1 to 6 (inclusive) is a valid bid (although 1, 5, and 6 are rarely used), and players may also pass. A player bids by speaking the number out loud, or passes by saying “pass” and/or knocking on the table.

The first player (to the left of the dealer) may choose to bid any number or pass. Each subsequent player must bid strictly higher than the highest bid thusfar, or else they must pass.

Once all four players have bid or passed, the player who bid the highest, having won the bid, names any one of the four suits as trump, and the round proceeds to The Play. If all four players passed, the cards are re-dealt by the same dealer and the bidding starts anew.

Variations

Some communities adopt additional house rules in the Bidding phase. Our family doesn’t use any of these, but some common ones are listed here.

• The winning bidder is allowed to name “no trump”, where there are no left or right bowers, leaving A high in all four suits.
• Players must bid at least a minimum value (often 3), or else pass.
• If all the preceding players passed, the dealer must make a minimum bid (often 3 or 4). This is similar to the stick the dealer variation in conventional Euchre, but is not as necessary in Bid Euchre, as almost always at least one player has a strong enough hand to bid.

Special Bids: Playing Alone

In addition to the normal bids described above, a player may also bid take all six tricks while playing alone. We call this shooting the moon, or simply “shooting”. There are two such bids:

• The player bids to play alone after exchanging one card from their own hand with a card from their partner’s hand (in conventional Euchre, this exchange is often called partner’s best). To place this bid, which is worth 12 points, the player dramatically lays their discard face-down on the table, and/or saying the number 12. Upon winning the bid, the player names the trump suit, and then their partner takes the face-down card from the table up into their own hand. The partner then selects one of their own cards (ideally, the best one) and passes it face-down back to the dealer to replenish the dealer’s 6-card hand.
• The player may also bid to play alone using their hand as-is. This bid is worth 24 points, and may be placed whether or not a player has already bid 12. A player places this bid by announcing “I’m going alone” and/or saying the number 24.

A bid of 12 may be subsequently raised only by a bid of 24. In exceedingly rare cases, a 24 may be raised by a subsequent bid of 48, which, aside from the point value, behaves the same as the 24-point bid. 48 may be bid only to raise an existing bid of 24. Bids may theoretically continue to double in this fashion.

After one of these bids is made, the partner of the winning bidder lays their hand face-down on the table and does not participate in The Play for that round. To fulfill the bid, the lone player must take all six tricks.

The Play

The player who won the Bidding leads the first trick by selecting a card from their hand and playing it face-up in the center of the table. There are no restrictions on what card may be led. Proceeding clockwise around the table, each of the other three players also plays a card onto the trick. These players must follow suit (play a card whose suit matches the card led) if able; if a player cannot follow suit, they may play any other card from their hand.

Once all four players have played their card, the trick (the four cards that were played) is won by the player who played the strongest card:

• If the trick contains no trumps: the highest card of the suit led
• If the trick contains one or more trumps: the highest trump

The trick is collected by either the winning player or their partner (whichever is most convenient) and placed face-down in front of them on the table. Arrange them in such a way that they can be counted after the round is complete.

The player who won the trick leads the next one, and play continues in this fashion until all six tricks have been played.

House Rule

If a player about to lead is certain that they have the cards necessary to win all the remaining tricks, they may lay down their hand face-up in lieu of playing out those tricks. The players verify the hand and, if any cards are deemed not to be certain winners, the uncertain tricks are awarded to the opposing team.

Scoring

Once all six tricks have been played, both teams may score points, with the winning bidder’s team scoring first:

• If the winning bidder’s team succeeded in taking at least the number of tricks required by their bid, that team scores one point for each trick taken. If the winning bidder succeeded in taking all six tricks while playing alone, they score the point value of their bid (12, 24, etc.).
• If the winning bidder’s team did not succeed in taking the number of tricks required by their bid, they are said to be euchred (or set), and their score decreases by the value of their bid (teams are allowed to have negative points).
• In both cases, the opposing team scores one point for each trick taken.

The first team to reach 32 points wins the game. If both teams reach 32 in the same round, the winning bidder’s team scores first and thus wins the game (even if the opposing team would end up at a higher score).

If neither team reaches 32 points, the deal passes to the left and another round is played.

Irregularities

Euchre is a family game, and Midwesterners trust each other, so any irregularities should be handled at the players’ discretion.