Euchre Help

Euchre Rules

These are the standard NeuralPlay Euchre rules. You may customize the rules to your liking as described here.

Euchre is a 4-player partnership game played with a 24-card deck. The deck contains the 9, 10, J, Q, K, and A of each suit. You form a team with the player sitting across from you. Teams earn points as hands are played, and the first team to reach 10 points wins.

Each hand consists of four stages: dealing, bidding, play, and scoring.

Dealing

At the start of the game, the dealer is chosen randomly. The deal then rotates clockwise after each hand. Each player is dealt 5 cards. The remaining 4 cards form a face-down pile called the kitty, and the top kitty card is turned face up.

Bidding

Bidding determines the trump suit and which team will be the makers. It begins with the player to the dealer's left and proceeds clockwise. Bidding may have up to 2 rounds.

First Round

During the first round, the suit of the face-up card is offered as trump. In turn, each player may do one of the following.

• Accept. Make the face-up card's suit trump. This is also called ordering it up.
• Accept and play alone. Make the face-up card's suit trump and play without help from a partner. The bidder's partner sits out for the rest of the hand.
• Pass. Give the next player an opportunity to bid.

The player who accepts becomes the maker, and the maker's team is responsible for taking at least 3 tricks. Bidding ends immediately. The dealer takes the face-up card into their hand and discards 1 card face down to the kitty.

If everyone, including the dealer, passes, the face-up card is turned down and bidding continues to the second round.

Second Round

Beginning again with the player to the dealer's left, each player may name a trump suit, name a trump suit and play alone, or pass. The suit of the card turned down after the first round cannot be named. When a player names a suit, that player becomes the maker and bidding ends.

If all 4 players pass again, the hand is passed out. No cards are played and no points are scored; the deal rotates and a new hand begins.

Play

A hand consists of 5 tricks. Ordinarily, each trick contains 4 cards, one from each player. When the maker plays alone, the maker's partner sits out and each trick contains 3 played cards.

Every trick has a leader, a suit led, and a winner. The player to the dealer's left leads the first trick. If that player is sitting out during a loner hand, the next active player leads. Play proceeds clockwise. Each player must follow the suit led when able. A player who cannot follow suit may play any card.

The highest card played in the suit led wins unless a trump is played, in which case the highest trump wins. The winner gathers the trick and leads the next one. Play continues until all 5 tricks have been completed.

Cards in a nontrump suit rank from low to high as follows.

9, 10, J, Q, K, and A.

The trump suit has 2 special cards. The jack of trump is the right bower and is the highest trump. The jack of the other suit of the same color is the left bower and is the second-highest trump. The left bower belongs to the trump suit for the entire hand; it does not belong to its printed suit.

For example, when spades are trump, J♠ is the right bower and J♣ is the left bower. Trump ranks from low to high as follows.

9♠, 10♠, Q♠, K♠, A♠, J♣, and J♠.

Scoring

After all tricks have been played, the makers' number of tricks determines the hand score.

• If the makers take 3 or 4 tricks, they score 1 point.
• If both makers play and take all 5 tricks, they score 2 points. Taking every trick is called a march.
• If a maker plays alone and takes all 5 tricks, the maker's team scores 4 points.
• If the makers take 2 or fewer tricks, they are euchred, and the defenders score 2 points.

The hand score is added to the appropriate team's game score. If neither team has reached 10 points, the deal rotates and another hand begins.

Euchre Terminology

• Makers. The team of the player who chooses trump.
• Defenders. The team that did not choose trump.
• Right bower. The jack of the trump suit and the highest trump.
• Left bower. The jack of the same color as trump and the second-highest trump.
• Benny. An optional joker or 2♠ added to the deck as the highest trump.
• Loner. A hand in which the maker plays alone while their partner sits out.
• March. Taking all the tricks in a hand.
• Euchred. The makers failed to take the number of tricks required.

Web Links

Many websites discuss Euchre and its regional variations. Here are a few we found helpful.

• Wikipedia
• Bicycle Cards
• Pagat.com

Preset Game Rules

NeuralPlay includes the following ready-to-play rules. You may start with any preset and then adjust the settings described in Rule Options.

• Standard. The 24-card game described in the Euchre Rules section.
• Standard with a Joker. The standard rules with 1 joker added to the deck. The joker, also called the Benny, is the highest trump. If the Benny is turned face up, the dealer chooses the trump suit.
• 32-card Euchre. The standard rules with the 7s and 8s added, creating a 32-card deck. Each player is still dealt 5 cards.

Learning Features

NeuralPlay Euchre offers many features to help you learn and improve your play. These features may be enabled, disabled, or adjusted in Settings. The features include the following.

• Hints. By default, the AI shows a hint when you ask for one. In Settings, you may ask the AI to always show a hint, or ask it to check your bid, discard, call for best, or play and show a hint only when its choice differs from yours.
• AI tricks taken estimate. When enabled, each play hint shows the estimated number of tricks that will be taken for each legal play. The estimate is an average across many simulations. The AI-suggested play may differ from the play with the highest estimate because of strategy or simulation noise.
• Card counter. When enabled, a counter shows which cards have been played.
• Analyze bid. When enabled, an "Analyze" button appears during bidding. Select a proposed bid to estimate its chance of making and its chance of taking every trick.
• Competitive mode. Enable competitive mode to play without assistance. Hints, undo, viewing all hands, analyze bid, and other learning aids are disabled.

Rule Options

NeuralPlay Euchre offers many popular rule options so you can customize the game to your liking. The current custom rule settings and choices are described below.

Dealing

• Deck size. Choose one of the following decks.
  • 24 cards. The 9 through A of each suit.
  • 28 cards. The 8 through A of each suit.
  • 32 cards. The 7 through A of each suit.
• Joker. Choose whether to add a joker or the 2♠ to the selected deck. The added card is known as the Benny and is always the highest trump. If the Benny is turned face up, the dealer chooses a trump suit and becomes the maker without an alone bid. Notrump bids are unavailable when a Benny is used.
• Number of cards to deal. Deal 5 cards, or deal 7 cards when using the 32-card deck.

Bidding

• Need suit to call it. During the first round, choose whether a player may order up the face-up suit without holding it.
  • No. A player does not need to hold the face-up suit.
  • Yes, natural suit. A player must hold a naturally printed card of the face-up suit; the left bower does not count.
  • Yes, natural suit or left bower. The left bower may satisfy the requirement.
• Canadian loner. If the dealer's partner orders up the face-up suit during the first round, require that player to play alone.
• Stick the dealer. If the first 7 bids are passes, require the dealer to name a suit during the second round.
• Going under. During the first round, a player holding at least 3 cards among the lowest 2 ranks may go under instead of bidding. The qualifying ranks are 9s and 10s with 24 cards, 8s and 9s with 28 cards, and 7s and 8s with 32 cards. The player selects exactly 3 qualifying cards and exchanges them for 3 unseen face-down kitty cards.
• Notrump bids. Allow notrump to be named during the second round. There is no trump suit, and cards rank from low to high in their printed suits with aces high.
• Alone bids. Allow or disallow a maker from choosing to play alone.
• Misdeal. Before ordinary bidding begins, allow an eligible player to declare a misdeal. The hand ends without play or points. Choose one of the following eligibility rules.
  • Disabled. Misdeals cannot be declared.
  • Ace no face. Exactly 1 ace and no jacks, queens, or kings.
  • No ace no face. No aces, jacks, queens, or kings.
  • No face maybe ace. No jacks, queens, or kings and no more than 1 ace.
  • No face maybe aces. No jacks, queens, or kings; any number of aces is allowed.

Playing

• Face up card. For a first-round contract, choose who receives the face-up card and discards 1 card to the kitty: the dealer, the maker, or the maker only when playing alone.
• Call for best. This rule is also known as partner's best or alone with help. Before playing alone, the maker may ask for the sitting partner's best card. The partner gives 1 card to the maker, and the maker returns 1 card before the partner sits out.
• First lead when alone. Choose the first active player to the dealer's left or the first active player to the maker's left.
• Lead trump. Allow trump to be led anytime, only after trump has been broken, or only after the first trick. Trump is broken when a player who cannot follow the suit led plays a trump card.
• Finish hand early when determined. End play when the remaining tricks cannot change the hand score.

Scoring

• Maker needs. With 5-card hands, require the makers to take 3 or 4 tricks. With 7-card hands, require 4, 5, or 6 tricks.
• Alone march score. Award 4, 3, or 2 points when a lone maker takes every trick. When playing with call for best, two additional choices award 4 points for an unassisted loner and either 3 or 2 points when the maker calls for the partner's best card.
• Alone must take all tricks. Choose one of the following.
  • No. A lone maker needs only the number selected under Maker needs.
  • Yes. A lone maker must take every trick or is euchred.
  • Only when calling for best. Require every trick only when the maker called for the partner's best card.
• Super Euchre. Award the defenders 4 points instead of 2 when they take every trick and euchre the makers.

Game Over

• Game over at. End the game at a selected number of points or after a selected number of hands.
• Points to game over. Choose the point target.
• Hands to game over. Choose the number of hands to play. The team with the higher score after the final hand wins.

Computer Players

NeuralPlay computer players offer six levels of play. Level 1 is reasonably easy and good for beginners. Level 3 should be fun for most players. Level 6 is the most challenging.

The computer players employ different AI methods depending on the level. Levels 1 and 2 use simple methods to provide an introduction for beginners. We will not describe them in detail here.

Level 3 uses a rule-based AI. The AI follows rules such as: "In third seat, do not trump partner's high card" and "In fourth seat, play just high enough to take the trick when an opponent is winning." We find that the rules work quite well and provide good play.

Levels 4 through 6 use Monte Carlo simulation to determine the best play. The AI deals out the unknown cards randomly. It then tries each legal play and plays the deal to the end to get a result. This is repeated for many deals of the unknown cards. The average result for each legal play is computed, and the play with the best average result is chosen.

Levels 4 through 6 differ in how many times the unknown cards are dealt out. In general, the more deals considered, the more accurate the simulation and the better the quality of play. The trade-off is that more deals take more time, so level 6 may play more slowly than level 4 depending on the device.

Since levels 4 through 6 do not use rules for card play, you may observe surprisingly good plays or odd mistakes that do not seem to follow a logical rule. Overall, our tests show that these levels play better than the rule-based level 3. We also find that the randomness makes the computer feel more human-like and fun.

If you prefer a more consistent, logical, and predictable partner or opponent, level 3 may be best.

Whichever level you choose, you may adjust bidding aggressiveness. For individual control, choose Custom, which provides separate settings for North, East, South, and West. For each seat, you may adjust play thinking, bid thinking, and bidding aggressiveness. South's custom settings control the strength of the hints you receive.

We are continuing to research improvements and new computer AI algorithms. We continue to update the computer players as we develop improved algorithms.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I change the hand sorting?

In Settings, choose Hand Sorting. You can change the rank order and suit order and choose whether to alternate red and black suits.

How do I reset the game settings?

On the main screen, open the menu and choose Reset.

What are North, South, East, and West?

You are always South, and your partner is North. East and West are the opposing team. The letters N, S, E, and W are abbreviations for these seats.

Why did the left bower appear to change suits?

The left bower belongs to the trump suit for the entire hand. For example, when hearts are trump, J♦ is a heart trump, not a diamond. It must be played when hearts are led if you have no other trump, and it cannot be used to follow a diamond lead.

What does claim mean?

A claim means the player expects to take all the remaining tricks. The app checks the claim before ending the hand. If the claim succeeds, the claiming team receives those tricks and the hand is scored.

How do I contact NeuralPlay with suggestions and feedback?

Please email support@neuralplay.com.