Euchre Terms Explained: Bowers, Next, March and More

Most Euchre terms are about trump. The right bower is the jack of the trump suit and the left bower is the other jack of the same color; next is the suit of the same color as a card that was turned down; a team that chooses trump and takes fewer than three tricks is euchred, and one that takes all five has made a march. Below are the terms you're most likely to hear at a US table, grouped by when it comes up, with how often each thing actually happens.

The numbers come from two places. Card odds are exact: we counted all 42,504 possible five-card hands from the 24-card deck with the rules engine of Poozee's Euchre, so nothing there is sampled. Bidding and scoring numbers come from 10,000 games (106,569 hands) between four of its Medium computer players, which bid and play by the rules of thumb tested in our Euchre strategy guide. For the rules in order, with worked examples, see how to play Euchre.

Quick reference

Card terms

Trump

The suit chosen by bidding each hand. Any trump beats any card of another suit. In Euchre the trump suit has seven cards, because the left bower joins it, and the other suit of the same color drops to five.

Right bower

The jack of the trump suit, and the highest card in the hand: it wins every trick it's played to. Any one card is in your five-card hand exactly 5 times in 24, so you're dealt the right bower in 20.8% of hands, about 1 in 5, whichever suit becomes trump.

Left bower

The jack of the other suit of the same color as trump: the jack of diamonds when hearts are trump, the jack of clubs when spades are trump. It's the second-highest trump, and for the whole hand it belongs to the trump suit instead of its printed suit. You play it when trump is led, and you can't use it to follow its printed suit.

You're dealt the left bower in 20.8% of hands too, and both bowers in 3.6% (1,540 of 42,504 hands, about 1 in 28). Each jack is a bower for two of the four suits, so 63.5% of hands hold at least one jack that becomes a bower if trump lands in its color.

Pro tip: Once trump is set, move the left bower next to your trumps in your hand. Trying to follow its printed suit with it is an easy mistake to make, and at a real table it's a renege.

More card terms

• Bowers: the two jacks of trump's color together. "Both bowers" means the top two trumps.
• Best bower: a joker some tables add as a 25th card, ranking above both jacks. Poozee plays without it.
• Off-suit, or side suit: any suit that isn't trump. An off-suit ace ("off ace") is the top card of its suit, but any trump beats it.
• Boss: general card-game slang for the highest card still out in a suit. Once both bowers have been played, the ace of trump is boss.
• Void, or short-suited: holding no cards of a suit, so you can trump it when it's led. With a given suit as trump, 59.8% of hands are dealt void in at least one of the other three suits.

Deal and bidding terms

Kitty and upcard

The four cards left after the deal are the kitty. The top one is turned face up: that's the upcard (also called the turn-up or the turned card), and its suit is the only one that can become trump in round one. It's a jack exactly 1 time in 6, and then it's the right bower for whoever ends up with it. In our games a turned jack became trump 88.5% of the time (the dealer picked it up in 52.0%), while any other turned card became trump 76.2% of the time.

The upcard also tells you something about your own hand. One of its suit's seven trumps is face up, so only six are left among the other 23 cards, and you hold none of them in 18.4% of hands. That's more often than the 14.6% chance of holding no trumps in a suit before any card is turned.

Order up, pick up and assist

Ordering up means telling the dealer to take the upcard in round one, which makes its suit trump. Whoever orders it up, the dealer adds the card to their hand and discards one face down (some players call that burying a card). When the dealer takes it on their own turn, that's picking it up. Some players call the dealer's partner ordering up assisting, since the card goes to their own partner. The player who makes trump and their partner are the makers; the other team are the defenders.

Pass and turn down

Passing means declining to make trump. If all four players pass in round one, the dealer turns it down: the upcard goes face down, and its suit can't be named in round two. That happened in 21.8% of our hands.

Next

Next is the other suit of the same color as the turned-down card: diamonds after hearts, hearts after diamonds, spades after clubs, clubs after spades. Calling next means naming it as trump in round two. Next's left bower is the jack of the turned-down suit, so if the turned-down card was that jack, next has only six trumps in play. In our games the card turned down was a jack in 8.7% of the hands that reached round two.

Here's who called next, out of the hands where each seat named trump in round two:

Our Medium players count next as stronger for the dealer's opponents and weaker for the dealer's own team, because that's what paid off in the strategy guide's tests. Overall, next was the suit named in 52.0% of round-two hands. Teams that called next were euchred 19.3% of the time, and teams that called cross 22.0%.

Cross

Either suit of the other color from the turned-down card. After hearts are turned down, clubs and spades are the cross suits.

Stick the dealer

If everyone passes in round two as well, the dealer can't pass and must name one of the three other suits. Some groups call it screw the dealer; many others throw the hand in and redeal instead. Poozee always sticks the dealer. In our games the dealer was stuck in 0.24% of hands (259 of 106,569, about 1 in 410), and stuck dealers were euchred in 39 of those 259 hands (15.1%), no worse than the 18.6% for all hands.

Going alone, or a loner

The player who makes trump can go alone: their partner lays their cards down and sits the hand out, and each trick has three cards. That hand is a loner. Only a march pays extra (4 points instead of 2). Three or four tricks still score 1, and a euchred loner gives up the usual 2.

The strategy guide found that going alone paid off when every card in the hand is a trump or an off-suit ace. Here are the exact odds of being dealt that:

• For one particular suit as trump: 252 of 42,504 hands, 0.59%, about 1 in 169.
• For at least one of the four suits: 996 hands, 2.34%, about 1 in 43.

Whenever one of our players made trump with a hand like that (the dealer's counted after picking up), we played it alone. Over 20,000 deals that came up 1,409 times: the loner took all five tricks 50.2% of the time, three or four tricks 46.0%, and was euchred 3.8%.

Playing terms

• Trick: one card from each player in the hand. There are five tricks per hand, of four cards each (three in a loner).
• Lead: play the first card of a trick. The player on the dealer's left leads the first trick (or the next player, if that one sits out), and whoever wins a trick leads the next.
• Follow suit: play a card of the suit that was led if you have one, counting the left bower as a trump.
• Renege: not following suit when you could. At a real table it costs you when it's caught, often 2 points to the other team, though groups vary. Poozee won't let you renege: it dims the cards you can't play.
• Trump (as a verb), or trump in: play a trump on a side-suit lead because you have none of that suit. Overtrump: play a higher trump than one already on the trick.
• Slough, or sluff: throw away a low card of another suit when you can't follow suit and don't want to trump.
• Pull trump, or draw trump: lead trump so the other players have to spend theirs. The strategy guide found it pays when you made trump, and costs points when the defenders do it.
• Cash: play a sure winner, usually an off-suit ace, before someone runs out of that suit and can trump it.

Scoring terms

Point and game

Makers who take three or four tricks score 1 point, and the first team to 10 points wins the game. At a real table, each team often keeps score with two of the low cards left out of the deck, such as a 6 and a 4, sliding one over the other to show its points.

Euchred

The makers are euchred (they "get euchred," or the defenders "euchre them") when they take fewer than three tricks, and the defenders score 2 points. It's the same 2 points against a loner. In our games, 18.6% of hands ended in a euchre. In other trick-taking games, such as Spades, the same idea is called being set.

March

A march is the makers taking all five tricks: 2 points, or 4 if the maker went alone. Poozee announces it as "took all five!" In our games 18.7% of hands were marches, loners included, almost exactly as often as a euchre.

Slang and house rules

• Farmer's hand: usually a hand with nothing above a 10, only 9s and 10s. Some groups let you throw it in for a redeal or swap cards with the kitty, but they don't all define it the same way. Poozee has no such rule, and you'd be dealt one in exactly 1 hand in 759.
• Laydown: general card slang for a hand that will take every trick however the others play, so you can lay it face up instead of playing it out.
• Defending alone: a house rule that lets a defender play without their partner too. Poozee doesn't offer it; the house rules table in our rules guide lists the common variations.

How often each one happens

Keep playing

• Play Euchre against three computer levels, with a Hint button for bids and cards
• How to play Euchre, the full rules with worked examples
• Euchre strategy, tested over 20,000 computer hands
• How to play Spades, another partnership game where trump decides the tricks