Euchre or eucre ( / ˈ juː k ər / YU -kər ) is a trick-taking card game commonly played in Australia, Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand, and the Midwestern United States. It is played with a deck of 24, 25, 28, or 32 standard playing cards. There are normally four players, two on each team, although there are variations for two to nine players.
76-551: Euchre emerged in the United States in the early 19th century. There are several theories regarding its origin, but the most likely is that it is derived from an old Alsatian game called Jucker or Juckerspiel . Euchre was responsible for introducing the joker into the modern deck of cards, first appearing in Euchre packs in the 1850s. Euchre has a large number of variants and has been described as "an excellent social game". Eucre
152-445: A 19th-century Rhineland game, also shares the feature of having two Jacks as the top trumps, but is a three-hand game played with 10-card hands and a 32-card Skat pack. Bester Bube also employs two Jacks as top trumps and a 5-card hand, but is a member of the Rams group in which players may drop out if they do not think their hand is strong enough. There appears to be no equivalent of
228-414: A clockwise direction, ending with the dealer. As spades are always trump, no trump suit is named during bidding as with some other variants. A bid of "zero" is called "nil". Players must bid at least one if they don't want to bid "nil" (see below). In partnership spades, the standard rule is that the bids by the two members of each partnership are added together. Two very common variants of bidding are for
304-437: A club again unless spades are again named as trump during a subsequent hand. A player who fixes the trump suit may announce "alone" and play without the aid of a partner. The partner's hand cards are laid face down and the partner takes no part in the game. Play is as before: the eldest leads and players must follow suit if able, otherwise may play any card. The first team to score the target number of points (5, 7 or 10) wins
380-529: A common expression in German card games; "cards away" from Karten weg or Kart' ab , an expression in games from the Palatinate/Saarland region for the same announcement, "bridge" possibly from Pritsche , a plank bed, hence a place of safety. The earliest known treatise is a 1839 lost book called Game of Euchre and Its Laws , by an unknown author. The earliest surviving rules appeared in 1844, in which there
456-502: A confused memory of Écarté , which then developed into Euchre. Yet another theory is that Euchre may have been introduced to America by immigrants from the counties of Cornwall or Devon in southwest England, where it remains a hugely popular game. Euchre was introduced into Devon in turn by French prisoners of The Napoleonic Wars , imprisoned in Dartmoor Prison between 1805 and 1816. American prisoners were also housed there after
532-478: A line; if they lose, they add a line and the winners erase a line. There is another version of Bauer played in the Saarland which is a four-handed, plain trick, partnership game. This time 8 cards are dealt to each player clockwise in two packets of 4, trumps being chosen by forehand after the first packet has been dealt. It employs a 32-card, French-suited Skat pack and there are 2 Jacks ( Bauern ) as top trumps:
608-484: A net negative score in much the same way. If a player failed a nil bid but the partnership bid and took 5 tricks, the net score is −50 points. If a nil bid is set, most tournament rules dictate that the overtricks make the nil invalid. A common scoring variant is designed to penalize players for underestimating the number of tricks they will take, while at the same time not removing the possible strategy of intentionally taking overtricks, or "bags", in order to "set"
684-548: A new game to him, in the Rhineland region. The game also appears in an 1874 book of poetry in the dialect of the Hunsrück region of Germany in 1874 and in an article in a Palatinate newspaper that same year as played socially by ordinary folk alongside Tarock . No complete rules have been found, but Martin and Lienhart (1899) describe Jucker as a "card game in which the Bauer [Jack]
760-432: A player or partnership to bid "blind", without having looked at their cards, or to bid "nil", stating that they will not take a single trick during play of the hand. These bids give the partnership a bonus if the players exactly meet their bid, but penalizes them if the players takes more or fewer. A combined bid of two "blind nil" is usually allowed and is worth both the blind and nil bonuses or penalties. In some variants,
836-447: A player would rarely bid on a king in a long side suit (5+ cards) nor a queen in any length side suit because of the risk of their being trumped. This risk is reduced in partners by the possibility that partner may be out of the long suit and able to discard or to overtrump an opponent. In partners, nil bids are easier to make because the nil bidder's partner can overtake or trump the nil bidder's high cards. In cutthroat, this safety valve
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#1732852109900912-425: A second packet making the hands up to 5 cards. The next card is turned as a potential trump. Often, it is customary to offer a cut of the deck to the player on the dealer's right before passing out the cards. The process of making trump is as follows: As soon as someone makes trump (instead of passing) that player's team become the makers and their opponents are the defenders. Should either opponent order it up or
988-432: A simplification of contract bridge such that a skilled spades player can learn bridge relatively quickly, the major additional rules being dynamic trump, the auction, dummy play, and rubber scoring. The game's rise to popularity in the U.S. came during World War II, when it was spread by soldiers traveling around the globe. The game's popularity in the armed forces stems from its simplicity compared to Bridge and Euchre and
1064-510: A team did not make its contract, it was "set" and 10 points for each bid trick are deducted from the team's score. E.g.: six bid and any number less than six taken, results in minus 60 points. If a player/team took more tricks than they bid, a single point is scored for each overtrick, called an "overtrick", "bag", or "sandbag". A bid of 5 tricks with 6 tricks taken, results in a score of 51 points. To this contract score, players add bonuses earned and subtract penalties assessed based on whether
1140-418: A team's bid is 5 tricks and they take 8 tricks, the score for the hand is 53 points. If the team's total score before this hand had a digit in the ones place of 7 or more, for instance 108, the team has "bagged out" or been "sandbagged". The hand's score is added to the total and then 100 points are deducted. In the example, the score would be 61 points after the penalty. The 10 bags could be considered to make
1216-568: A variant called "Euchre with the Joker" in which the blank card ranked above all the rest. It must have been in use even earlier, since the term "Best Bower" appears in a satirical 1861 piece about the American Civil War. Later, the Joker was embellished with a motif and specifically intended for use as the top trump. It was later transferred to the game of Poker and initially called the Mistigris. In
1292-506: Is "march", which is the literal translation of Marsch , itself an abbreviation of Durchmarsch and the German for a slam in many card games. Other words or phrases that reflect a German origin are: "maker" from Macher , short for Spielmacher i.e. "game maker", the person who determines the type of game to be played; "euchred" from gejuckert ; "having a dog from every county" from aus jedem Dorf ein Köter i.e. "a mongrel from every village",
1368-456: Is a four-player game using a pack of 25 cards with a joker and four suits comprising AKQJT9. Card ranking is as per the 1844 rules with the exception that the top trump is the Benny or Best Bower represented by the joker or ♠ 2. Deal and play are clockwise. The first dealer can be chosen by any random method. The dealer shuffles and deals each player a packet of 2 or 3 cards in any order and then
1444-584: Is briefly mentioned as early as 1810, being played in a gaming house alongside all fours , loo , cribbage , and whist . In 1829, uker was being played with bowers on a steamboat in the American Midwest. The earliest written rules appeared in 1844. The mode of play and terminology of Euchre have resulted in several theories which suggest that it has an origin in Spanish Trionfo, French Ecarté or Triomphe , or Alsatian Jucker. An early American theory
1520-438: Is chosen by a draw for "first spade" or "highest card". Thereafter the deal passes to the dealer's left after each hand. The dealer shuffles, and the player to the right is given the opportunity to " cut " the cards to prevent the dealer stacking the deck. The entire deck is then dealt face-down one card at a time in clockwise order. With four players, each player should receive 13 cards. The players then pick up their cards, verify
1596-525: Is no Joker. 32 cards are used. The Right Bower , the trump Jack, is the "commanding card" with the Left Bower , the Jack of the same color, as the second-highest card. According to Parlett, the Joker was added to a 32-card pack in the 1850s specifically for the game of Euchre and is first mentioned in a set of rules in 1868 where it turns out to be a blank specimen card not intended for actual play. This gave rise to
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#17328521099001672-418: Is not affected by any other bonus or penalty, or the contract score. As a result, a partnership can have a net positive score even if they failed to make their contract. For instance, if one player successfully made a nil bid, but their partner bid 5 tricks and only took 4 tricks, the partnership still gets the bonus which is represented as −50 points + 100 points = 50 points. Conversely, a partnership can have
1748-480: Is not available. Partners allows a mix of weak and strong players by pairing a weak player with a strong one, resulting in a more satisfying game (provided that the division of talent is about even) than in Cutthroat where individual weak players would stand little or no chance against strong players. Conversely, against a computer program where the object is for a human to beat the computer software, being saddled with
1824-503: Is played slightly differently in North America and there are numerous variations. The following account is a summary of the typical rules for the four-hand game. Four players play in two teams, the partners sitting opposite one another. A 24-card pack is used with cards ranking as before with a right bower and left bower as the top two cards of the trump suit. A pack of 32 cards (AKQJ10987) or 28 cards (no 7s) may also be used, but 24 cards
1900-435: Is played with four players in two partnerships. However, there are variations that allow for greater or fewer players. Partnerships are optional even with four players. All other rules should be agreed upon beforehand by the players. The differences partners spades and cutthroat bidding and play are substantial. In partners, a player would bid a trick for every ace, king, and queen in a side suit (i.e.: non-Spade). In cutthroat,
1976-637: Is still played as a social game in the US Midwest, the Canadian province of Ontario, Australia, New Zealand, and Great Britain, especially Cornwall. The earliest surviving rules were published in America by Thomas Mathews in his 1844 work, The Whist Player's Hand-book , in which a four-hand version of Euchre is described right at the end. The following is a summary: Euchre is played by two to five persons, but most often by two or four. A 32-card French-suited Piquet pack
2052-517: Is that, instead of trump being decided by the highest bidder or at random, the spade suit always trumps, hence the name. Spades was devised in the Midwest of the United States in the late 1930s. Bridge author, George Coffin ascertained that it originated in Cincinnati between 1937 and 1939. The game is descended from Whist and is closely related to Bridge , Pinochle and Euchre . It appears like
2128-502: Is the basic method. All players must align tricks earned from time played consecutively to last hand Once a hand is completed, the players count the number of tricks they took and, in the case of partnerships or teams, the members' trick counts are summed to form a team count. Each player's or team's trick count is then compared to their contract. If the player or team made at least the number of tricks bid, 10 points for each bid trick are awarded. A bid of 5 would earn 50 points if made. If
2204-565: Is the first to reach 500 points, or forcing the opposing team to drop to −200 points. Alternatively, the game could be played for a fixed number of hands or a fixed time limit. With four players, eight hands can generally be played in about an hour. If there is a tie, then all players participate in one more round of play until a winner is decided. As with any widely played game of such a flexible nature, spades has many variations, ranging from significant changes in play to small tweaks that suit individual or household preference. Traditionally spades
2280-399: Is the standard. Deal and play are clockwise. The face-down pack is spread on the table and players draw a card each. The players with the two lowest cards playing together against the others and the player with the lowest card dealing first. For this purpose only, suits are irrelevant, aces rank low and jacks rank immediately below the queens. The dealer then shuffles the pack and offers it to
2356-448: Is used and cards rank in the trump suit as follows: Right Bower (trump knave ), Left Bower (knave of same color), A > K > Q > 10 > 9 > 8 > 7. The side suits rank in their natural order . Deal and play are clockwise. The pack is shuffled and four cards distributed. The players with two higher cards become partners and play the other two. The dealer deals five cards each in packets of two and three and turns
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2432-621: Is worth more than the Ace" and a Marsch was to take all five tricks in Jucker. Rausch (1908) states that Juckerspiel was widespread in Alsace and e Marsch mache means to take all the tricks and that the Bauer is the highest card. Modern sources state that the game was played in the Rhineland and the South Hessian region. Jucker has been suggested as the ancestor of the popular American game, Euchre, on
2508-502: The Marsch . Spades (card game) Spades is a trick-taking card game devised in the United States in the 1930s. It can be played as either a partnership or solo/"cutthroat" game. The object is to take the number of tricks that were bid before play of the hand began. Spades is a descendant of the whist family of card games , which also includes bridge , hearts , and oh hell . Its major difference as compared to other whist variants
2584-479: The War of 1812 . Card game historian David Parlett believes that Euchre is derived from an eighteenth-century Alsatian card game named Jucker or Juckerspiel, pronounced "yooker". Clues to a possible German origin are the names of the trump Jacks. Bower is phonetically identical with the German word Bauer which normally means farmer, but also refers to the Jack in playing cards. Another word probably derived from German
2660-527: The "canard" of a link with Ecarté pointing out that the two games emerged at roughly the same time and that Ecarté is a two-handed game in which Jacks are not the top trumps. David Parlett , an expert on the history of card games, goes further and argues that, "on linguistic grounds alone there can be no doubt as to [Euchre's] origin in the Alsatian game of Juckerspiel as brought to America by German immigrants." Not only are Jucker and Euchre phonetically alike, but
2736-442: The "trick count". The player who wins any given trick, leads the next. Play continues until all players have exhausted their hands, which should occur on the same last trick. Otherwise, it is declared a misdeal. A partnership reneges on their contract if they violate the rules of play. Most often this happens when a player plays offsuit when they could have—and therefore should have—followed suit. This may not be noticed until later in
2812-462: The basis of chronology, linguistics and mode of play. 19th century American sources show that eucre was being played as early as 1810 and that by 1829, as uker , it was played with Bowers as early as 1829 in the American Mid-West, and that Euchre was invented in America during the 1820s from the mixing of Écarté with ideas from German card games by German immigrants. Bumppo (1999) refutes
2888-503: The cards are thrown in and the next dealer deals. If anyone orders up, the dealer picks up the upcard and discards a card in return. The dealer's partner may bid "assist", in which case the dealer takes up trump and they become the makers. A player confident of taking 5 tricks single-handed may say "cards away" to the partner and play alone against the opponents. The eldest leads to the first trick . Players must follow suit if able; otherwise may play any card. The highest trump takes
2964-414: The center of the table and its top card flipped. The eldest hand opens the bidding by passing (saying "pass") or accepting the suit of the upcard as trump by saying: "I order it up" (or "pick it up"). If the eldest passes, the second hand, the dealer's partner, may pass or accept by saying: "I assist" (or "I'll help you"). If the second hand passes, the third hand may pass or accept. If the first three pass,
3040-434: The closest relative of Juckerspiel is a variant of Bauer , or Bauern , played in the Hunsrück , uses 32 French-suited cards and is a six-handed, two-team game in which there are two Jacks as top trumps: the trump Jack and the Jack of the same colour. Like Jucker , players receive 5 cards each and there is a bonus for a slam, known as a Durch (short for German Durchmarsch , means "marching through", taking all tricks). If
3116-458: The correct count of the cards, and arrange them as desired. The most common arrangement is by suit, then rank. A misdeal is a deal in which all players have not received the same number of cards, or a player has dealt out of turn. A misdeal may be discovered immediately by counting the cards after they are dealt, or it may be discovered during play of a hand. If a single card is misdealt and discovered before players in question have seen their cards,
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3192-467: The cut card is a Jack, it determines the trump suit unless superseded later. Players are dealt five cards each from a skat pack and, if trumps have not already been decided, the top card of the skat is turned for trump. If it is a Jack, it determines trumps even if the cut card was a Jack. If it is a Jack, the bottom card of the skat is turned and, if it is the same suit, dealer may exchange with it. If not, players are asked in turn if they will play with
3268-399: The dealer may accept the turnup by discarding a card (called "taking it up") or turn it down by placing the upcard, face up, half under the kitty (called "turning it down"). If the dealer acquires the top card, either by being ordered to pick it up or choosing to pick it up, it becomes part of the dealer's hand. It is left in place until played, and the dealer discards a card to the bottom of
3344-478: The dealer take it up, the suit of the upcard becomes trump. The dealer picks it up and discards a card face down. Note that the dealer's partner cannot make trumps and play with the dealer, but can only pass or play alone by turning it down. This does not apply to the second choice in which the player may choose any suit. If the upcard is the Benny, the dealer must announce trumps before picking up their own hand cards and
3420-406: The dealer's left makes the opening lead by playing a single card of their choice. Players in clockwise fashion then play cards of their choice. They must follow suit if possible. Otherwise they may play any card, including a trump spade. Once a card has left the hand of a player, it stands and cannot be retrieved, unless the player who threw the card makes an effort to correct their mistake before
3496-427: The dealer's team are the makers (a "blind shout"). Before the first trick any player may announce they are going "alone", whereupon the partner of the lone player puts their cards face down on the table and drops out of that hand. A maker and a defender may both go alone in which case it is one against one. Play and scoring are as in the 1844 rules, except that: The following rule variations are recorded: Euchre
3572-521: The fact that it can be more easily interrupted than Poker , all of which were also popular military card games. After the war, veterans brought the game back home to the U.S., where due to the GI Bill it spread to, and became popular among, college students as well as in-home games. It also remained widely popular in countries in which U.S. troops were stationed, both in WWII and later deployments. The first dealer
3648-428: The first spade in a hand is known as "breaking spades", derived from its parent rule, "breaking hearts". When a player leads with a spade after spades has been broken, the other players must follow suit. Another common variant rule, also borrowed from Hearts, is that a player cannot lead spades in the first trick. The trick is won or taken by the player who played the highest card of the led suit. If trumps were played,
3724-473: The game is considered cheating. Unacceptable table talk may include code words, secret gestures, bidding out of turn or suggesting what the partner should play. Depending on the local rules, such infringements may incur a penalty. A player who does not follow suit when able has revoked . Sometimes this is called "reneging" but, strictly speaking, a renege refers to a situation in other card games when you may legally not follow suit when you can. If discovered,
3800-433: The game. Common penalties for reneging are for the reneging player to automatically lose their bid, or for the reneger to have three tricks added to their bid as a penalty, meaning that the team may still make contract but must take three additional tricks to do so. It does not matter whether the player reneged on purpose. Once the final trick is played, the hand is then scored. Many variants for scoring exist. What follows
3876-401: The game. In Columbus, the target is 10. Scores can be kept by using two otherwise unused cards as markers, with each team often using cards of the same color. Scoring begins using one card face up, covered by the other card face down. Upon winning points, the top card is moved to reveal the appropriate number of suit symbols on the bottom card. After all points are revealed on the lower card,
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#17328521099003952-420: The highest trump card wins. The player who wins the trick gathers the cards up into a facedown arrangement that allows players to count the number of tricks taken. The contents of each trick can not be viewed after this point, except to determine whether a player reneged . The number of tricks a player has won cannot be disguised. If asked, each player must count out their tricks until everyone has agreed on
4028-420: The kitty, face down. If no one orders up the top card and the dealer chooses not to take it up, each player is then given the opportunity, in turn, to pass again or call a different suit as trump. If no trump is selected, the hand is discarded and the deal passes to the left. When trumps are chosen, the trump jack becomes the top card or right bower. The jack of the same color is the second-highest trump, known as
4104-466: The late 19th century, Euchre was regarded as the national card game of the United States. It has since declined in popularity, although it retains a strong following in regions such as the Midwestern United States. Euchre has also been described as Canada's national card game. With the rise of 20th century games such as Contract Bridge and Spades , Euchre has declined in popularity, though it
4180-399: The left bower. Example: Spades are trump. In this case, the trump cards rank as follows (highest first): The J ♣ effectively becomes a spade during the playing of this hand. This expands the suit of spades to the seven cards above and reduces the suit of clubs by one card, its jack being seconded to the trump suit. Once the hand is over, the J ♣ ceases to be a spade and becomes
4256-483: The next for trump. The eldest hand (to the left of the dealer) opens the auction and may either 'order it up' (= accept the turnup as trump) or 'turn it down' (= pass ), in which case the next player in turn has the same options and so on. The team that order it up are the 'makers'. If all pass, the dealer does not exchange , and another round of bidding begins with eldest who may make trump of any other suit. If all pass again and dealer does not want to make trump,
4332-440: The next player lays down a card. Nil rules: One nil per game. A common variant rule, borrowed from Hearts , is that a player may not lead spades until a spade has been played to trump another trick. This prevents a player who is "long" in spades (having a large number of them) from leading spades one after the other at the beginning of the hand to deplete them and thus prevent other players using them as trumps. The act of playing
4408-452: The number of suit symbols showing and adding them to the 5 when the cards are crossed. In Canada and Michigan, it is common for each team to use two 5 s of the same color to keep score, with one team red and the other black. The 5 s are usually referred to as "counting cards" in this situation. Euchre does not require silence as in some other games; some table talk is acceptable. However, communicating with one's partner to influence
4484-408: The opposing team is awarded two points or two points are deducted from the offending team. Euchre terminology varies greatly from region to region and is highly colloquial. Some examples include: The following North American rule variations are recorded: Jucker (card game) Jucker , also known as Juckerspiel ("game of Jucker") or Juckern ("playing Jucker"), is a card game that
4560-441: The other team. This is accomplished by keeping track of bags in the ones place on the scorecard, and assessing a 100-point penalty when 10 bags are accumulated and the ones place rolls over. In shorter variants of the game, where players play to 250 points, instead of the standard 500 points, sandbag penalties can be assessed earlier. In these variants, a 50-point penalty would be assessed when 5 bags are accumulated. For example, if
4636-410: The penalty 90 points. The penalty can instead be 110 points to offset this, or the ones' place can simply not be carried when adding. Anything over 10 sandbags is retained in the first digit and count towards future overtricks. A player or team can bag out multiple times in a game. Sandbags do not count as points. One of the players is the scorer and writes the bids down, so that during the play and for
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#17328521099004712-418: The player bidding nil passes one or two of their cards (depending on the variant rules) to their partner and receives an equal number of cards back from said partner. Nil passing may be allowed only in the case of a blind nil. Usually teams must be down by 100 points to bid blind nil. Each hand consists of a number of tricks. A four-handed game consists of thirteen tricks using all fifty-two cards. The player on
4788-408: The player successfully did or failed to do any of the more specific things they said they would in the bidding phase. Many variants exist that award or penalize according to certain behaviors. They are covered below. For the basic nil and blind bids, points are awarded as follows: Though some variant bonuses or penalties are based on the contract score, normally a bonus or penalty does not affect and
4864-407: The player that is short a card can pull a card at random from the player with an extra card. Otherwise a hand is misdealt. The hand is considered void and the hand must be redealt by the same dealer, unless the reason for the redeal is the hand was dealt out of turn. Each player bids the number of tricks they expect to take. The player to the left of the dealer starts the bidding. Bidding continues in
4940-401: The right for cutting. Five cards are dealt in two rounds. In the first, the dealer may deal either 2 or 3 cards each, in turn and in clockwise order beginning with the eldest hand. This is followed by a second round to bring each player's hand to 5 cards. Whichever system is used initially, it must not subsequently be changed. The remaining four cards, called the kitty , are placed face down in
5016-503: The scoring afterward, this information will be available to all the players. When a hand is over, the scores should be recorded next to the bids. Alternatively, the scorer can turn the bid into the contract score by writing in the number of bags (zero if there were none) behind the bid, and a minus sign before it if the team was set, then add bonuses and subtract penalties beneath. A running score should be kept so that players can readily see each other's total points. The most common condition
5092-453: The team earns a Brot ("loaf" or "roll"; translation: "bread") or Schrööm . The equivalent of a going alone is Karten weg ("cards away") which is announced by a player who intends to take every trick. The partner's cards are set aside and the player wanting to "make a march" (" einen Durchmarsch machen ") leads off. Winning earns an extra Brot . The game is sometimes played with a shortened pack of 20 cards or by two teams of 3. Reunion ,
5168-663: The terms Bauer and Marsch have been imported into Euchre as 'Bower' and 'march'. His conclusion is that Euchre derives from the Alsatian game of Jucker which, in turn, is descended from Triomphe or French Ruff , probably via Bête . Recently, members of the International Playing Card Society identified two games, still being played today in the region north of Alsace in the area of Rhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz) in Germany, that could be descendants of Juckerspiel: Bauer and Hunsrücker Bauern . Possibly
5244-526: The top card is flipped over, adding pips on both cards to indicate the score. In Columbus, score is kept with a 4 and a 6 . A variation of scorekeeping in Western New York and Ontario involves each side using the 2 and 3 of one suit. Scoring starts with counting the symbols on the cards, for points 1 to 4; at 5, the cards are turned over and crossed. Crossing the cards indicates 5 points. Points 6 to 9 are counted similarly by counting
5320-416: The trick or the highest card of the led suit if no trumps were played. The trick winner leads to the next trick. The makers must take at least 3 tricks to win and score 1 point. Otherwise they are euchred , i.e. have lost and their opponents score 2 points. Winning all 5 tricks is a march which earns 2 points. Announcing "cards away" and winning all 5 tricks alone scores 4 points. Points are tallied using
5396-447: The trump Jack or Dicke ("fat one") and the Jack of the same suit colour or Linke ("left one"). Forehand leads with a trump (sometimes optional). Suit must be followed, but players may play any card if unable to follow. Teams start with eight points and aim to be first to zero, one point being deducted to the winners of a deal if they declared trumps. If the declarers lose, they add a point and their opponents deduct one. On reaching zero,
5472-415: The turnup suit. If any player says yes, the dealer may exchange with it. If no-one wants to play with the turnup suit, it is turned over again and players are asked if they will play with another suit. If all pass, the cards are redealt. This process is similar to that used in Euchre. Teams start with five lines marked on a slate ( Striche ) and play for the best of five tricks. If the declarers win, they erase
5548-486: The unused Deuce and Trey cards, or counters . Game is 5 points. The following terms were used by Mathews. Many continue to be used today: In Britain, euchre is played in southwestern England, especially Cornwall , Devon and Guernsey , as well as in coastal East Anglia . A key feature is that a joker, called the Benny , is the highest trump. The following is a summary of modern British rules by John McLeod , supplemented by other sources where indicated. Euchre
5624-562: Was popular in the Alsace and Palatinate regions on either side of the modern Franco-German border. It is believed to be the ancestor of Euchre and may have given its name to the playing card known as the Joker . The earliest known reference to the game occurs in 1792 in a German dictionary, as Juckern , where it is described as "a game with cards" and assigned to the Palatinate region. By 1848 it
5700-401: Was that Euchre was brought into the United States by the German settlers of Pennsylvania , and from that region it was disseminated throughout the nation. The 1864 edition of The American Hoyle disputes its alleged German heritage, tracing the game's origin to Pennsylvania itself in the 1820s. It goes on to surmise that a "rich German farmer's daughter" had visited Philadelphia and carried home
5776-467: Was well known enough for Spindler to mention it in his Vergißmeinnicht ("Forget-me-Not"), in which a young man gambles his time away in pubs playing various games including Jucker ( [er] juckert ). In Erckmann-Chatrian 's 1864 novel L'ami Fritz , set in Alsace , there are frequent references in French to playing the game of youker as far back as the 1830s. In 1856, Hackländer recounts playing Juckern,
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