Euchre
How to Play Euchre with 3 Players
Three people, a 24-card pack, no teams. That is cutthroat euchre. Deal five each, leave nine in the kitty, turn the top card, and play. Whoever names trump is already alone against the other two. First player to 10 wins.
This page is the deal-tonight sheet: kit, the one scoring change, and two house calls. Bowers, follow-suit, and the two bidding rounds are the four-player how-to. Open tonight with 3 players if you still need a pick.
What you need
- Three players. Nobody has a standing partner.
- The 24-card euchre pack: 9 through ace in all four suits.
- Paper with three names. First to 10. The phone keeper is Us/Them, so paper is better.
Deal and the kitty
Shuffle. Deal clockwise until each player has five cards. Nine cards remain. That leftover packet is the kitty. Turn the top card face up. The other eight stay face down. Nobody looks at them. They are out of the hand.
5 + 5 + 5 + 9 = 24. If you have four cards left, you dealt the four-player game by mistake.
Calling trump
Same two rounds as four-player: order the upcard up, or pass; then name a different suit. Stick the dealer is a house rule — say it before the first deal. If you use it and the first two pass in round 2, the dealer names a suit.
Whoever calls is the maker and already plays alone. The other two are temporary defenders for that hand only. There is no extra going-alone call. The maker is already there.
Scoring
Each person keeps their own total. No teams.
| What happened | Who scores |
|---|---|
| Maker takes 3 or 4 tricks | Maker +1 |
| Maker takes all 5 (a march) | Maker +3 |
| Maker takes 0, 1, or 2 (euchred) | +2 to each defender |
First to 10 wins. The march is 3 here, not 2, because the maker is already alone. Trump rank and follow-suit are unchanged: euchre scoring for the four-player chart, this table for tonight.
Dummy-hand is a house variant
Some tables deal a fourth hand face down and assign it as a designated defender. That is a house variant, not the default. If someone wants it, agree before you shuffle. Cutthroat — three hands, nine-card kitty — is what this page deals.