It seems like Euchre is a daunting game for many people. It’s already a hot topic of discussion here at BadgeHungry and the next Euchre badge isn’t for another two weeks. Let’s try to ease some anxiety with the unscheduled return of Tuesday Tips Day! Here’s some info about Euchre and most importantly, a tip for the upcoming challenge:
The weekly, Mix-n-Match, and premium badges for this game are for these types of challenges:
* Win X games
* Win X games in a row
* Win X games by Y points or more
* Play the Jack of Trump (the Right Bower) X times this week
* Win X rated games
The upcoming “You Got Euchred Badge” at the end of the month requires you to simply play the Jack of Trump 7 times. The easiest way to do this was outlined in a recent weekend open thread by dottiedotdot:
All you have to do is to PLAY the Jack of trump. So — first you make sure you have a Jack (of any suit) in your hand. If you do, you try to make that suit trump during the play. You can do this by “taking up” a card in the same suit as your jack, or “ordering it up” to another player. This will make your jack the trump and you will absolutely have to play it during the game.
Thanks dottiedotdot!
Please use the comments below to share your tips on Euchre in general, tips for the above-listed Euchre challenges, and any additional hints or tips you may have for the upcoming weekly badge. Thanks in advance for any tips you can provide and for keeping the comments clear of other discussions, your fellow Pogo fans really appreciate it.
Joe C says
The most important tip is learning how to double-browse (or play with a helpful friend) and playing the game.
The best thing to learn is how to lose on purpose as quickly as possible. I find that using the dummy system of going it alone with bad cards works great. I set up the room so the game goes to 10 (unless the badge requries 11) and not allowing “Stick It To The Dealer”. The trump suit is chosen by the card that comes up. The power of trump cards goes Jack of Trump, Jack of other suit in same color (diamonds/hearts, spades/clubs), Ace of Trump, K-Q-10 of Trump.
The dummy chooses a weak hand and “Offers it Up Alone”. The dummy dumps non-trump high cards whenever possible. Losing three of the five tricks means the dummy loses the hand and the good player gets 2 points. This means 5 successful hands equals a 10-point win. I have helped many people win Euchre badges, including the Rated Euchre badge Euchre Planet.
BillTrout says
If you’ve played spades or bridge, the basic concepts of those games transfer to euchre.
Euchre is played with a mini-deck – all of the cards below 9 (the 8’s down to the 2’s) are removed from the deck. The ranks of each cards are traditional, *except* for the trump suit and the jack in the other suit of the same color. The jacks of those suits are the two top trumps… The jack of the trump suit, called the right bower, is the top trump, and the jack of the other suit of the same color is the second highest trump, called the left bower.
So as an example, if hearts were trump (I’ll get to naming the trump suit shortly), each suit would be ranked as follows:
Hearts (trump): J, J of diamonds, A, K, Q, 10, 9
Diamonds: A, K, Q, 10, 9
Spades: A, K, Q, J, 10, 9
Clubs: A, K, Q, J, 10, 9
OK, so, on to the bidding.
Each player is dealt 5 cards, and then the 21st card is turned face up on the deck. Starting with the player to the left of the dealer, each player determines if they want that suit to be trump. If they do, the card on top of the deck is given to the dealer, and the dealer discards one card from his or her hand. That suit then becomes the trump suit.
(It’s called “ordering it up” if you are not the dealer, and “taking it up” if you are the dealer, as that refers to the process of giving that card to the dealer.)
If no player orders or takes up the card, then it is turned face down, and another round of the table is made to bid any other suit (the suit that was turned up cannot be named on this round). If no one bids a suit in this second round a new hand is dealt.
The hand of 5 cards is then played out. If the team naming the suit takes all 5 tricks, their team gets two points. If they take 3 or 4 tricks, they get one point. If the take less than 3 tricks (they are “euchred”), the opposing team gets two points.
—
There are some advanced play options you may notice, such as the “alone” designation during bidding. The alone designation means you play alone against the two other players; the only difference in scoring is that if you take all 5 tricks, you get 4 points instead of 2.
Additionally, another popular advanced option is the “stick the dealer” option, meaning that if none of the other three players orders up the turned up card, the dealer has to take it up and play with that suit as trump.
Both of these can safely be ignored for newer players or those that are otherwise clueless. 🙂
BillTrout says
As Joe C pointed out, my preferred method of obtaining win badges is to double browse, and stick my second account on the other team. (I prefer it directly to my right, personally, to control the game play.)
The second account always orders up or bids bad hands alone and gets euchred, scoring two points per hand. Occasionally, you’ll get one of the computer players that orders it up for real, and you’ll have to play the hand out, but this method works often enough to pretty much guarantee you the win each game.
BillTrout says
Sorry, the stick the dealer option in my first post is to require the dealer to name trump on the second round, not the first. Shows you how often I use the option or how often I play this game. 🙂
shygirlornot says
well thank you all so far, but its gonna be tough for me unless i get my friend Scott to help he knows how, i know spades pretty well now thxs to debi. and maybe i can get this game to lol.
Joe C says
Also, I forgot to mention another way to speed up games by using the TRAM feature in the game setup. TRAM in many Pogo card games “finishes” the hand when the outcome is known. In Euchre, when a team loses its bid, the hand is over. (Other examples are Spades, when one player has all of the most powerful cards remaining and cannot lose the lead, and Hearts, either when the player cannot get out of the lead or if all the Hearts/Queen of Spades/Jack of Diamonds) have been played.
If you have TRAM enabled on a double browsing game with dummy play, once the dummy loses the TAKE IT UP ALONE/ORDER IT UP ALONE bid, no more cards will be played in the hand. This really speeds things up nicely.
bobbi (bjvs1118) says
saw this by dottie & put it in my guestbook so i dont lose it. TY dottie! been practicing & hardly ever get a jack, can we play with a friend & if they get the jack Stand & move over, we will take turns doing this that way we both get the badge / havent tried it yet so i don’t know if it will work
thanks for posting this lura i’m sure a whole bunch of people will read these comments
Joe C #1 I read your info & i’m as confused as ever, but that dosent mean anything, in prior “Hard” games I wound up not only understanding the game but liking it 2 Ya never know!
tt4n&hagr8d<3
vlamp66 says
pick the longest game and just play!
you dont have to win a hand or a game for this badge its just play the right bower!
the bower is the jack in the trump suit!
its not rocket science!
and if it ever is win a game or hand double browse or ask a friend to help.
Erin says
Thanks so much, Joe C and BillTrout. I realize this week’s badge doesn’t require winning the game, but I have a backlog of Euchre badges that do require winning. I really appreciate the help!
Sjaan13 says
After reading all the discussion on this badge I decided to activate an old badge that has the same requirement. I was scarred at first but the game came back to me, I played with tinman.
Most important thing to remember is the Jack and to get it as trump. It did not matter if I won or lost but the luck of trump Jack. Once you get the hang of how to play it will be easy.
Hels says
I have figured out how to make my second account lose by double-browsing, as has been already described. That’s pretty much it for Euchre for me…
Could we also have Backgammon tips, please? If other games, like Euchre and Cribbage and Spades, that I can’t really win without double-browsing, I get somewhat – this game I do not get at all. I have read how-to several times, but I just don’t get it at all.
Lura says
Hels: I’ll queue up a Backgammon tips thread for a future Tuesday. I can’t make any promises as to when, but it’s officially on the to-do list, along with a few other games that don’t have ranks and therefore never got added to the ranks, badges, and tips pages.
Jenna says
In the Q and A section, tmooner posted this link. It helped me to understand the rules of the game, maybe not winning, but what this game is all about. Here is the link: http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/the-basics-of-playing-euchre.html
I can’t wait for some lovely BH friends to help me out not only on this badge but the older ones too. 😉 GL all!
~Jenna (purplyesterday6)
StarFire says
Thankyou so much for the tips , I did 2 eucher badges in no time at all with the help.
YELLOWPRYCESS1 says
Thanks for all of the helpful tips……………. 🙂
justagramma says
Being a French Canadian I think the first game I ever learned to play was Euchre.
A few things to remember when playing. There are 13 trump cards counting the left bower.
If you make it trump and have the lead you SHOULD lead trump.
You should rely on your partner for at least one trick.
You should try to call trump if you have at least 3 trump in your hand, unless it’s your partner’s deal, then only if you have a very strong hand.
Watch what your partner is playing sometimes there are clues to what he’s holding. I usually discard or play my off suit so I can use my trump to cut.
Lastly there is an old saying right and Ace always get Euchred and it’s usually true, unless you have a lot of other Aces.
and most crazy Frenchmen will say you will never get Euchred making it trump with only a 9 & 10 , I’m not brave enough to do that..lol
If anyone wants help with next weeks badge or any Euchre badge message me
Justagramma
roger says
As for the upcoming challenge, dottiedotdot, is correct except the failure to mention that you do not play the game out. If the next hand has no jack or you do not get the proper suit as trump as your jack, reset the game and try the new hand. Restart the game as often as necessary so you will be holding the jack of trump.
In game play, try to order up anytime you have a good chance of setting your opponents as this results in more points. Go alone if you think you can take all the tricks as this is worth 4 points as opposed to 2 if you play partnered.
bobbi ((bjvs1118)) says
OMG! Wednesday is around the corner & I still cant figure out echre . Lura, is there going to be a BH Room to play in?
(I put on my Boggle “B” Badge)
I’ll check back later to see if there is a Room Name we can use.
Thanks so much <3
sipcat11 says
Just wanted to thank everyone for their tips. I have been practicing and I am ready to get the badge! Come on Wednesday!!
bobbi (bjvs1118) says
Thanks Roger 4 the tip about resetting if you dont get the jack trump
G Dav says
Not a Euchre player, myself. But for the badge, and if winning is not important…….When you get dealt a jack, and get the option to pick trump, pick the suit of your jack.
playerqanda2 says
hi i dont know the first thing about that card game i wish there was a way it could be outline on how to play it