Euchre Anyone?

Euchre Anyone?

The game has declined in popularity since the 19th century, when it was widely regarded as the national card game..but I say it's BACK!

If you're confused, read-on...this morning I'm blogging about the card game Euchre.

Good Morning everyone, Dan Wells writing. I played (or watched my family play) Euchre frequently as a child. I was taught by my aunts, uncles and grandmother.

Now that I'm writing this...I actually remember family birthday parties and holidays morphing into everyone sitting around the kitchen table watching the game unfold with small amounts of money changing hands and most importantly lots of laughter. I can't imagine I'm alone.

I continued to play in highschool and college with buddies and fraternity brothers, but then I hit the real world moved to Cincinnati from Pennsylvania and heard nothing about one of my favorite games for more than 10 years.

Until now, twice in the last month, I've heard the game mentioned in public, "on the street" So what is up? My guess is Euchre is making a comeback.

Since not everyone grew-up in the Midwest or on the East Coast you may not know how to play, so I've included directions below. My hope is to ignite some fun for someone out there this weekend.

How you play the card game Euchre?

1 Form two teams with four players. The teammates will need to face each other by sitting on opposite sides of the table. This is so the cards can be played counter clockwise and then easily switch off between teammates.

2 Play using a deck of 24 cards, consisting of 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King and Ace in four suits, to play conventional Euchre. One player needs to deals the cards evenly to all the players with the cards faced up. The player who receives the first Jack card is the dealer of the first hand.

3 Deal five cards to each player if you are the dealer. The remaining four cards should be placed face down in front of the dealer. Turn over top card of the four cards. This card is know as the up card and is used for the bidding.

4 Ask each player if they'd like to pick up the top card if you are the dealer. Often, the dealer will ask if the player wants the card to be "trumped." If the player asks to pick it up then the dealer has to add the card to their hand and discard another card. A suit of cards is trump when the order in ranking of the cards is higher than the other players' cards. A Jack is the highest ranking of any card. Having Jacks of the same color will make your chances for trump even higher.

5 Call your suit trump when no other players have to ask for the dealers decks to be turned up. If no one claims to have a trump then it is a misdeal and the dealer then becomes who ever is to left of that player. One point is earned if the trump succeeds and two points are given if the team gets both or their suits to beat the other two players' suits.

The game ends when a team has earned 10 points. I hope this simple card game gives you half the joy its provided my family with over the years.

Have a great weekend.

Dan