New Appendix
since initial publication on March 1, 1999 ![]() to the first edition, incorporated in the second, follow) : | ![]() |
Revision (with additions), pages 8-9 (September 17, 2017; thanks to John McLeod (host of the Card Games web site) and others: “Bower” and “march” – two other strange terms of euchre (besides the word “euchre” itself) – have German roots, “Bauer” and “Marsch.” “Bauer” is German for “farmer,” or peasant, colloquial for the jack in a deck of cards (this derivation is widely known; some euchre players yet spell the trump jack “Bauer”). “Marsch” is German for both “march” and “marsh”; so you can say that, when one side takes all the tricks in a round (that’s a “march” in euchre), the victors have “marched” through the vanquished (I’m told that that’s what the Germans meant, but it might as well mean “marsh,” since the vanquished are “swamped”). Further confirmation of the origin of euchre in or about Alsace is found in the game Bauern, still played in Saarland and the Hunsrück region of the Rhineland, just up the road in Germany (less than 100 kilometers from Strasbourg). Both areas use 32-card decks ranked as for euchre. The Hunsrück version is closer to euchre, but has two teams of three players each. Both versions are scored downward – winners are the first to zero. . . . [Further description of Bauern from Mr. McLeod (not in the book): In Saarland, four players are dealt eight cards each. The first player has to choose tump after getting the first four cards, and the maker's team needs to take five of the eight tricks to win a point. In a variant with a 20-card deck (eliminating 7's through 9's), players get only five cards each. [The game in Hunsrück is for six players in two teams of three players each. Five cards are dealt to each player in batches of three and then two, and one of the two remaining cards is turned up. If no one wants this trump, trump can be named (as in euchre). [The Saarland game starts at 8 points and goes to zero; the Hunsrück game, at 5 and to zero. If the trump makers take more than half the tricks, they subtract a point from their score; if not, they add a point and the opponents subtract one.] [back to the book:] Henry Anners’ book Hoyle’s Games (1845) had a four-page section on euchre, calling it “a German game”; but it is not commonly played in Germany – even Jucker seems to have been limited to Alsace, and Bauern to southwestern Germany. See reviews of books on euchre published before and after The Columbus book of Euchre: |
Footnote to term “Edinburg fault,”
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“Safety” (new, June 20, 2004): |
![]() ![]() ![]() teric tactics in the bag of the good player. ![]() consists of ordering up for the purpose of being euchred, to squelch a loner in the opposition (it’s better to lose two points than four). ![]() this a “donation”; some, a “safety.” ![]() developed from a principle known as “Ordering at the bridge.” ![]() said to be “at the bridge.” ![]() has 6 or 7 and you are in the lead and “at the bridge,” you must order up whatever is turned, according to this principle, unless you have a sure trick in the suit turned. ![]() guarantee that the dealer’s team will not take the game on that hand, or even tie the score. ![]() respondingly, if you and the second player pass, your partner must order if he has two reasonably sure tricks, since he knows that you, having passed, have one sure trick. ![]() ples of euchre are eloquently explained by Paul H. |
Seymour in Laird & Lee’s Hoyle Standard Games (Albert Whitman & Co., Chicago, 1952. ![]() also an excellent section on leading). |
not necessarily
weak altogether. ![]() for the coup when you have a loner in the oppo- site color. |
![]() ![]() ![]() opponents have fewer than 6 points is called the “Bubinski.“ ![]() depends on a “sense” of a loner in the oppo- sition. ![]() ![]() appropriate time for the Bubinski is when you have at least six points and your opponents have fewer than 4. ![]() lead even if euchred; and the euchre will not put your opponents within range of winning the game even on a lone hand on the next deal. |
with a high likelihood” of being euchred
rather than “for the purpose” of being euchred. ![]() also that, as in football, a “safety” gives oppo- nents two points when it does turn out to be a donation). |
sider picking up whenever the opponents are at 6 or 7 and he does not have a sure trick in each of the remaining three suits, but he may engage the corollary at any time. ![]() player he can rely on intuition. |
July 5, 2003:
April 2, 2001: |
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Footnote to variant spellings of ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() in Roy Bookbinder’s rendition of the hillbilly blues song “In the Jailhouse Now.” |
Footnote to definition of ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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“Playing out of turn”).
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End play (July 5, 2003): | the end, you don’t have to put the lower card in your tenace at risk; you need play only high enough to take the trick. |
the opponent on your left. ![]() leading weak from a weak hand – or even from a marginal hand if you need only one point to win the game, or to enhance an al- ready healthy lead without risk. ![]() ple, you already have a trick; and you hold the right bower and king of trump, a king of one suit off trump, and a nine or ten of an- other. ![]() bower. ![]() ponent on your left may take it and have to lead back into your pocket (your right-king tenace). Finesse, a new section added July 5, 2003, along with End Play, was revised February 12, 2009. |
Spankings |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() If your partner has made trump, you have two trump, and you can trump the first trick at sec- ond or third hand (without trumping your part- ner’s ace, play your higher trump (to guard against being overtrumped on your left) and lead the lower (to put your partner in charge). You can trump in even with the left or right bower in this situation; you can assume your partner has the other bower. |
your little hearts may take a spade trick later, or be led back to your partner when you take your red ace. ![]() one-point hand into a two-point hand, and it can save a one-point hand. ![]() euchre. |
Call Ace Euchre ![]()
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Your aces are no good if they are trumped. Someone will eventually lead to or from your aces. ![]()
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lish a king – either in trump or off suit – by leading low from a king-high doubleton. ![]() you lead the king, it usually will be topped by the ace or a trump; and the nine or ten you have left will be no good either. ![]() lead the low card first, the king will often come back for a second trick in the same suit. This strategem may work particularly well a- gainst a two-suited trump maker. ![]() works from a tripleton because no one else is likely to have a doubleton in that suit to lead back from.
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then presume that the dealer has another card of that suit. ![]() through the dealer, his partner has a good chance to trump for the trick. ![]() er had a singleton, the lead back puts the play- er to the dealer’s left in position to overtrump. |
because it is a lead through strength.
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trick; the card played out of turn stays in the trick (unless a renege, which can be correct- ed), and the player on the other team that played the higher card on that trick leads the next trick. |
aces (or one ace and a guarded king in an- other suit) should you lead one, to protect yourself against a squeeze play. |
ered your partner up to go alone. ![]() your partner likely to be short in “next,” but al- so he will have had an opportunity to discard it (which he must do, when he is ordered, if the discard creates a void and is not an ace. ![]() a convention). ![]() maneuver” under Don’t discard early. |
Additions to first edition; incorporated in second edition:
AUTHOR’S PREFACE |
![]() ![]() ![]() euchre (since Alsace once bordered France, and is now part of France), while it tends to satisfy also the recurring consensus that eu- chre originated among the Pennsylvania Dutch (who are of Alsatian and other south- western German lineage). |
tle French thrown in) to euchre,
came the jo- ker – originally a Jucker, perhaps, but pro- nounced joker because that’s about how an American would pronounce “Jucker” if he saw it in writing. ![]() you be looking for a shorter cut through these woods (or a way out), that (1) “Juck- er” is not German for “joker” (it’s a German surname, also meaning “carriage horse”), and (2) the joker was not depicted on cards as a court jester until after it was already known as the “joker” (some of the early jo- kers were even blank). DEFINITIONS |
ing “green.” ![]() ner calls the “next” suit, he is “going green.” Same deal if a player leads a suit of his op- ponents' strength. PLOYS & AXIOMS |
is one reason bridge (like chess) lends itself easily to computer programs while euchre does not. ![]() ter bridge player; a psychic might make a better euchre player. ![]() bridge expert is a better card player? |
When to order or name trump depends, of course, first of all on your cards: ![]() have three sure tricks in a particular suit? Then, of course – and go alone. ![]() have two sure tricks in a particular suit? Then count on your partner for one and call trump. ![]() Then, maybe. |
can still go to diamonds, which are almost as good. ![]() have first choice once the dealer turns the card down (as the lead says to the dealer in Columbus, “You’re pitching, but I’m bat- ting”). |
go through him: ![]() to trump him on an off suit, or overtrump him. Example: ![]() hold Left-King-Queen of Diamonds and A-9 of Spades. ![]() Spades lead. ![]() wait to see if it’s good before committing your Ace (which may be good later if not on the first trick). ![]() to risk its being trumped by the dealer. ![]() suppose diamonds lead (as they should, from your partner, if you called them at third hand): ![]() dealer’s possible Right (and the dealer might have the Ace of trump behind his Right). ![]() you’re the dealer with that holding, how- ever, your Left is safe. |
![]() ![]() ![]() of being led through; but his partner is the stopper, and can take or hold back (if he has no cards or two in the suit led). |
33] – Some good players believe that the lead must order, regardless of the turned card, when the dealer's team has 6 or 7 points and the lead does not have a sure trick. ![]() |
euchre will not put your opponents within range of winning the game even on a lone hand on the next deal. |
rules do not allow the dealer to pick up the turned card if he has no other cards of that suit in his hand. |
ington corollary – this maneuver is compel- led even more if the two black cards are not aces. |
![]() ![]() ![]() however, if you’re careless, or drink too much (as I do). ![]() for trump to be made and then sort your cards, and always sort then (even if your cards are already in perfect order: ![]() reposition them and keep them in order). |
Canada) observe a rule requiring the deal- er’s partner to go alone if he orders. ![]() unnecessary rule, and overly restrictive (like those Michigan rules discussed elsewhere in this book). ![]() the dealer’s partner to keep his mouth shut – the principal of which is the danger of squel- ching his partner’s lone hand by ordering up. In general the second player, on the first round, should keep his mouth shut unless he senses there is no chance the dealer holds a loner. ![]() |
lead on the first trick in all lone hands to the left of the loner (but not all – e.g., the Offi- cial Rules of Card Games published by the United States Playing Card Company leaves the lead to the left of the dealer, even speci- fying that it goes to the second player when the third player goes alone. ![]() tacitly). |
chigan requires the dealer to discard before he picks up the turned card. ![]() the opponent to the left from leading against a late discard, but it's kind of like requiring motorcyclists to wear helmets, or other mo- torists to wear seat belts, or (same thing) swimmers to wear water wings. ![]() if the guy on the left isn't paying attention, fuck him. |
![]() ![]() ![]() this subject beginning at p. 50] – If the play- er to the left of the dealer does not call “next,” it is often wise for the dealer's part- ner to call a suit of the other color – even if he has nothing of strength in the suit. There was a reason his partner turned the first color down. ![]() support (because he has no hand), and the call results in a euchre, it may avoid a lone by the third hand. |
and politics and go to the bathroom all in 15 minutes. |
voices. ![]() activity, but not necessarily for the latter. |
ever been euchred.” ![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() for next-to-last paragraph on this subject, at p. 63] Two-handed euchre [see p. 67] |
chre, deal four cards face down, in a row, in front of your opponent; four cards face down, in a row, in front of yourself; four cards face up to each of you (each on top of a face- down card), and four cards to each hand (that's all 24 cards). |
player passes. ![]() (or no trump). ![]() least six of the 12 tricks to establish trump. |
no trump) fails to take the number of
tricks he bid, he is euchred; and not only does he not score, but also the number of tricks he bid is deducted from his score (and, yes, it can go below zero). |
two points. ![]() tricks, he scores a point; if he takes 10, 11 or 12, he scores two points; if he has announ- ced his intention to take all 12 tricks and takes them, he has “gone alone” and scores four points (but he’s euchred by a single trick taken by his opponent). ![]() and you score it with markers, just as in reg- ular euchre (and don’t have to use match- sticks or pencil and paper as you do in the bid version). |
a) even play “no
trump” and “low trump” in four-handed euchre. ![]() trump” and “low trump” are tabu in four- handed euchre. ![]() handed euchre is exciting enough the way it is (just like straight poker for high stakes, with nothing wild and no “low ball”). ![]() use of ![]() or three-handed euchre, however, gives those games a little spice they otherwise would not have. Computer Euchre [new] – |
such as Sierra’s Hoyle.
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development of ![]() ![]() Computer programs require formulae; and as one will find trying to play by a certain author’s point system, one cannot play eu- chre by formulae alone. ![]() ter than solitaire. |
elbows, and spilling beer on your opponents’ markers. ![]() a partner who trumps your ace on line? ![]() you can do is “flame” him, and that’s not “netiquette.”) ![]() book to analyze the games on line further, as |
euchre on line is a developing game yet in its infancy. ![]() the games themselves and in forums on line, such as Yahoo!’s, and Borf’s links page and guestbook (see below). |
“Over hamburgers sold!”