Euchre Card Game

These are the rules used for this version of Euchre. I realize there are many variations possible, so this might not be the exact way you're used to playing. There is no bidding in this version, so it's Knock Euchre, not Bid Euchre.

*** Overview ***

Euchre is a trick taking game with a trump, played by four players in teams of two. The basic play is similar to Whist, i.e. each player plays one card, the highest card of the suit led wins the trick, unless someone has played a card of the trump suit. An important difference from Whist is that one of the teams names the trump and must then win the majority of the tricks in that hand. The game is played over several rounds until one team has gotten 10 points.

*** Dealing ***

Euchre uses a non standard deck of 24 cards. It's made up of the 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King and Ace of each suit. Some variations also use the Joker, but this version does not. The initial dealer is chosen randomly, in the next round the player to the dealer's left is the new dealer and so on. Five cards are dealt to each player in two rounds of dealing. Once all players have their cards, the top card of the deck is turned face up, so it's ready for the next part of the game, which is...

*** Naming Trump (Calling Round) ***

After the cards are dealt they players must pick what will be the trump suit. At this point there is one face up card on the table, the suit of that card is the potential trump suit. Going clockwise around the table, starting with the player to the dealer's left, each player can either say "Pass", meaning they don't want the suit to become trump, or they can say "Order it up" in which case the suit of the card becomes trump and the calling round ends immediately. The face up card on the table goes to the dealer which takes it and discards one of the cards from his hand and then the game is ready to begin. The team that picked the trump are known as the "Makers" and the other team are known as the "Defenders".

If all players pass on the trump card then there's another round of naming trumps, where a player may simply name which suit he wants to be trump, or say pass. If all players pass on this round as well then the deal is ruined and a new hard is dealt.