How to Play Buck Euchre

What you need

• Four players. Everyone for themselves. No partners. Four is this game. Two is not tonight's Buck Euchre. Three is not tonight's Buck Euchre.
• A 24-card pack: pull 2 through 8 from a 52, keep 9 through ace. Same pack as euchre. No jokers.
• Paper with a column per person. First to 15 wins. Going past 15 is fine — no exact-15.

Sit, pick a dealer, agree on the house

Sit where everyone can see the tricks. Cut for the first deal, or point at someone. After each hand, the deal moves clockwise.

Say these out loud before the first card:

1. 24 cards. 9 through ace. 5 each. 4-card buck. No partners. Four is this game. Nobody looks at the buck until the dealer does.
2. Stick the dealer. Dealer takes the buck, discards 4 face-down (back to 5), and must name trump — a suit, or no trump. No pass.
3. Bowers when a trump suit is named. Jack of trump is right bower (highest). Jack of the same color is left bower (second). Then A K Q 10 9 of trump. No trump: no bowers, ace high.
4. Take a trick or you get bucked. First to 15. Each trick +1. Take zero tricks: −5. That is the distinctive rule. Take all 5: +5. Only your column moves. Not euchre hash marks to 10. Not Bid Euchre to 21.

The 24-card pack and the buck

Shuffle a 52. Pull every 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. What remains is 9, 10, jack, queen, king, ace in four suits — 24 cards. Same pack as euchre. Different game.

Deal clockwise until each player has 5. The last 4 sit face-down in the middle. That is the buck. Nobody looks yet. If someone has 4 or 6, you misdealt. Throw it in and deal again.

Four people: 5 × 4 = 20, plus 4 in the buck = 24. Two is not this game. Two people: cribbage, gin, or the euchre trainer if they want partnership euchre with an upcard. From tonight. Three is not this game. Three people: cutthroat euchre or Bid Euchre from tonight.

Stick the dealer. Name trump.

There is no upcard. There is no ordering it up. There is no bid of 1–6. The dealer takes the buck — all four cards — and now holds 9. Choose 4 to throw face-down. Those four are out. The dealer is back to 5, like everyone else, and must name trump: any of the four suits, or no trump. No pass. That is stick the dealer.

The dealer does not lead. Left of the dealer leads trick 1.

This is not euchre — no maker sitting across from a partner. This is not Bid Euchre — nobody bid a number of tricks first. Dealer names trump after the buck.

Bowers, trump, and no trump

When a trump suit is named, the jack of that suit is the right bower — highest card. The jack of the same color is the left bower — second. Then ace, king, queen, 10, 9 of trump. The left bower has left its printed suit: it is trump, not diamonds if hearts are trump.

Off-suit, high to low: A K Q J 10 9, except the left bower is gone from that suit. Diamonds with hearts trump have no jack — it is the left bower.

No trump: no bowers. Ace high, then K Q J 10 9. Jacks are just jacks. Follow the led suit. Highest of that suit wins.

Play the tricks

Left of the dealer leads trick 1. After that, the winner of a trick leads the next. You play 5 tricks.

1. You must follow suit if you have a card of the suit that was led. Left bower counts as trump, not as its printed suit — if diamonds are led and hearts are trump, J♦ does not follow diamonds.
2. If you are void, you may trump or discard any card.
3. The highest trump in the trick wins. If nobody played trump, the highest card of the led suit wins.

There is no upcard and no partners across. That is not euchre. There is no bid of 1–6 and no Pepper. That is not Bid Euchre. There is no kitty of 9 and no table of three. That is not 3-hand cutthroat euchre. You do not score High, Low, Jack, Game. That is not Pitch.

Scoring, in the amount you need tonight

Count your tricks. Only your column moves. Everyone scores their own tricks. There is no maker, no bidder, no partnership total.

Each trick you take: +1. Take zero tricks: −5. You got bucked. Say it out loud before the first deal. Take all 5: +5 — no extra bonus tonight. First to 15 wins. Going past 15 is fine. You do not need exact-15. You do not hash-mark to 10. That is euchre. You do not race to 21. That is Bid Euchre.

Walk through one first-night hand

Four people. South dealt. You are East. West sits left of the dealer and will lead.

South takes the buck, discards 4 face-down, and names hearts.

You take 2 tricks. Write +2 in your column.

West takes zero. West got bucked. Write −5 in West's column. North and South write whatever they took — +1 each if the remaining three tricks split 1 and 2, or however the five fell. Only each person's own column moves. Deal again.

Night-one habits

• Dealer takes the buck, discards 4, names trump. There is no upcard and no bid. Left of dealer leads.
• Say the bowers out loud: jack of trump, jack of the same color, then A K Q 10 9.
• Left bower is trump. It does not follow its printed suit.
• Take a trick or you get bucked (−5). Only your column moves. First to 15.
• Four people is this game. Three people deal cutthroat euchre or Bid Euchre, not a made-up Buck Euchre.

You know enough to deal. Keep this page beside the pad. Four people is a tonight pick. There is no Buck Euchre trainer on CardPractice — this how-to is the product. If you wanted an upcard, partners across, and hash marks to 10, that is the euchre trainer — or euchre. If you wanted a bid of 1–6, then name trump, first to 21, that is Bid Euchre. If you wanted three people and a 9-card kitty, that is cutthroat euchre. Two people: cribbage, gin, or the euchre trainer for partnership euchre.