These are the rules used in the variation of Euchre implemented in euchre-cli.
Euchre uses a non standard deck of 24 playing cards. It is composed of the Nine, Ten, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace of each suit.
The first dealer is chosen randomly by turning a card from the deck for each player until a black jack appears. For each subsequent hand, the player to the dealer's left becomes the new dealer.
To start each hand, five cards are dealt to each player and the top card of the remaining deck is turned face up.
After a hand is dealt, players must choose what the trump suit will be for that hand. The suit of the face up card is the candidate trump suit.
Starting with the player to the dealer's left, and proceeding clockwise, each player may elect to "pass", meaning they do not want the candidate to become trump, or they may call "pick up", meaning the candidate suit becomes trump and the calling round ends. The dealer then adds the face up card to their hand and discards a card to the deck. Trick play may begin.
In the event that all players "passed" on the candidate suit, there is another calling round. The face up card is turned over and added back to the deck. Then, starting with the player to the dealer's left, each player may again elect to "pass", meaning they do not want to call the trump suit. Or they may call any suit they have in their hand to be trump (except the suit passed on in the previous round) and the calling round ends. Trick play may begin.
If all players once again have "passed" in the second calling round, the dealer redeals the hand and the first calling round starts over.
Cards of the trump suit are weighted higher than all others, but within the trump suit the Jack (known as the Right Bower) is weighted highest. In addition, the Jack belonging to the other suit of the same color as the trump suit (known as the Left Bower) is considered the second best trump card. In fact, it is treated as if it were the trump suit.
For example: If trump were Spades, the trump cards would be weighted in the following order:
- Jack of Spades (Right Bower)
- Jack of Clubs (Left Bower)
- Ace of Spades
- King of Spades
- Queen of Spades
- Ten of Spades
- Nine of Spades
All other cards are weighted from high to low (Ace to Nine respectively), with trump always beating the lead suit, and the lead suit always beating the others.
Note: It is perfectly legal to play a trump card as the lead.
The player to the left of the dealer starts the first trick and they may lead with a card of any suit - this suit will be known as the lead suit. Play then proceeds clockwise with each player playing a card of the lead suit if they have one, otherwise they may play any card, including trump. Once each player has played a card, the player who played the card with the highest weight takes the trick and leads the next trick.
Tricks are played until all players are out of cards.
The team that takes the majority of the tricks in a hand (3 or more) wins that hand and is awarded points. The number of points awarded is as follows:
| The winning team... | Points |
|---|---|
| called trump and took 3 or 4 tricks | +1 |
| called trump and took all 5 tricks | +2 |
| did not call trump | +2 |
The first team to 10 points has won the game!