If you are coming to the University of Michigan as someone who did not grow up in the state, or even the Midwest, you will undoubtedly be surprised to discover some characteristic regional quirks. You might do a double-take upon hearing someone use the word “pop” instead of “soda,” for example, or get totally lost watching someone point out where they are from on the palm of their hand (this will happen a lot, trust me — just nod your head and pretend to know what they are talking about).
Perhaps the biggest surprise when I came to school here was the lore surrounding the game euchre (pronounced YEW-ker). This card game is known as a “Midwest secret,” but is especially well-loved in Michigan. Journalist Jason Boog, a self-proclaimed euchre enthusiast, described the game to Michigan Radio as “a game that passes idle time with real people in real life, a kind of loafing that feels as endangered as any card game.” I can personally attest to this statement, as I’ve spent many, many hours in my friend’s dorm room doing nothing but playing euchre, or at least watching other people play.
Euchre is extremely confusing at first, and may seem daunting to learn — especially as someone entirely unfamiliar with the game. So in hopes of smoothing the transition to a college in the “Euchre Belt,” I will attempt to explain the rules of the game in the simplest way I can.
My first tip: whatever you do, do not look up the official rules of the game before you first play. From experience, the lingo that is used there will only confuse you, and you will get lost in the instructions to the point where you won’t want to play anymore. If anything, preface your first game with the Family Guy episode “Bend or Blockbuster,” which is a strikingly accurate representation of what it feels like to he the rules of euchre explained to you for the first time.
The set-up
The game is usually played in groups of four with two teams. You must sit directly across from the player on your team — not next to them (this limits any cheating that can happen). Euchre is played with a deck of cards that only includes aces, kings, queens, jacks, 10s and nines of each suit. There are five rounds, or “tricks,” in each game. Each player will place one card down on the table on their turn, and a player takes a trick when the card they placed is the highest out of any other card. The game ends when one team reaches 10 points.
Step 1: To begin, each player will draw a card at random from the deck to determine the first dealer. The person that draws the highest card will be the dealer for the first trick. If you are the dealer, you then pass each player five cards.1
Step 2: The dealer will flip the top card from the deck face up, which reveals the potential trump suit. The trump suit is considered the highest suit of that round. You are then going to go around the table once, giving someone the chance to tell the dealer to pick up the flipped-over card (which declares the suit as trump or the highest). For instance, if you he a handful of diamonds and the flipped card is a high diamond (and if you or your partner are the dealer), you would want to call that card as trump. If you are told by your partner to pick up the card, then you must discard a card from your hand (you can choose, so I would recommend a low-value card).2 If someone decides to pick up the card on the first round, then the second round doesn’t happen. However, if everyone passes on the first round, the dealer must discard the flipped card to prepare for a second round, in which people can arbitrarily call for which suit they want as the trump suit. All of this starts with the person to the left of the dealer.
Step 3: Here is where the rules get more convoluted, if you can believe it. The “right bower” is the highest card in the trick and the “left bower” is the second-highest card. Both bowers are jacks of the same color, and they depend on which card was called the trump suit. Think of the colors as pairing the bowers together: hearts and diamonds are both red so they pair together for the bower, and spades and clubs are both black so they also pair for the bower. For instance, if hearts are trump for that trick, the right bower would be the jack of hearts and the left bower would be the jack of diamonds.
The game
Step 1: The starting player (the person that is left to the dealer) puts down their lead card (this should be the highest card that the player has — preferably in the trump suit). The suit of the card that is led must be followed by the rest of the players. For example, if a diamond is the suit of the card played, then all other players must “follow suit” and play a diamond if they he it. If you don’t he a card that follows suit, you can play any other card, including a trump card. Just remember, trump cards win the trick if it is the highest card played.
Step 2: A big part of this game is keeping score. My advice to you is to let the Michiganders keep score for the first few times you play because it’s super confusing (or at least for me it was). But, to try to explain: a team gains points if they win a majority of tricks. For attackers (if your team initially called the trump suit), you gain a point for winning three or four tricks and two points for winning five. For defenders (if the other team called trump), you gain two points if your team wins the majority of the tricks.3
Step 3: Play each trick until you run out of cards and when one team reaches 10 points, the game is over and that team is victorious!
Weird Rules
1 When passing out the cards, you must deal everyone two cards first, and then three cards. Meaning, you cannot deal one person all of their five cards at once.
2 If you he a great hand, you can choose to play this trick alone (“go alone”), which exempts your partner from playing in that trick. “Going alone” can be a good strategy because it can get you extra points in that trick, which will help you win. I personally liked when my partner “went alone” because that meant that I wouldn’t he to play that round.
3 There are tons more little rules that are valuable components of the game. For example, when you and your partner he nine points (with only one point left to win) you are “in the barn.” Your partner (if they are cool like my friends are) will reach their hands across the table with their thumbs out (this represents the udders of the cows) and you must milk the “udders” with your fingers. It sounds silly, but it is honestly a fun thing to do, because you know you are close to winning.
Now you know the rules of euchre! The best way to get the hang of it, like any card game, is to practice. After being told that I wasn’t very good at euchre (I am still not), I practiced by playing online games, which I recommend. I should note that this is not a complete list of all of the rules, strategies and oddities of euchre, but this is all you need to know when first starting out. Most importantly, he fun with it, and welcome to Michigan!
Daily Staff Reporter Emma Lapp can be reached at emmalapp@umich.edu.
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