| MSN Home | Hotmail | Web Search | Shopping | Money | People & Chat | |||||||||
| |
 |  |
|
0 Players Online
Take me to the game |
|
| Expert Euchre Tactics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Euchre is very much like Bridge -- it is a game of probabilities. You make bids and plays in the expectation that, more often than not, your play will work out to your advantage. Of course, this means that sometimes your plays will not work so you must have an understanding partner to adopt some of these strategies. The following tactics are designed for the 24-card game.
First Round of Bidding
The general principle in the first round is to count on your partner for 1 trick. If you have 2 sure tricks, preferably 2 sure trump tricks, order the dealer up. Note that if your side is not dealing the cards, Aces are not sure tricks since on ordering the dealer up, he may discard to a void in your Ace suit. If your side has dealt the cards, Aces are generally a sure trick, but 2 of them may not be 2 sure tricks. Turn Down a Bower -- Lose for an Hour As dealer, I always pick up a bower if I have at least 1 more trump in hand. Since the opponents will be reluctant to lead trump (more on this later), you can discard to create a void. You then count on making your bower a trick by ruffing the void suit and hopefully a trick from partner to make your point. First Hand Bidding After 4 Passes When all players have passed and dealer has turned down, then the First Hand player should attempt to call the other suit of the same color (if dealer turns down black you try to call the other black, if dealer turns down red, you try to call the other red). Almost any decent holding in the other colored suit will do -- singleton bower; doubleton Ace, doubleton King with a black suit void etc. This is almost mandatory when dealer has turned down a bower. An example:
After 5 passes, you should to call a suit of a different color than partner (dealer) has turned down; that is, if partner turned down black you prefer to call red; if partner turned down red, you prefer to call black. Again, almost any good excuse will do. Third Hand Bidding After 6 Passes Let's say dealer turned down red -- partner who will stretch to call the other red has passed -- second hand who will stretch to call a black has also passed. Now you are fairly safe taking a speculative black call since partner doesn't have the other red and Right Hand Opponent (RHO) does like either black. This is more dangerous than the other 2 seats however, since Dealer sits to your left and doesn't like red -- but it is sometimes worth a speculative call. Dealer's Bidding After 7 Passes Lets say you the dealer turned down red on the first round, and it has gone pass, pass, pass back to you. LHO doesn't have the other red, and partner didn't choose a black, so there's a decent chance partner has the other red. You can bid anything in this seat but given the choice between a black and the other red, I'd go for the red suit since that is the one partner is most likely to have help in. Going Alone To go alone, you should have 4-1/2 or 5 tricks in your own hand. Four top trumps and a side King is worth going alone. Four top trumps and a side Queen is not -- the odds favor the opponents winning your Queen trick if you go alone. Three top trumps and A-x in another suit is an excellent hand to go alone. Never go alone in a game to 10 when your side has only 8 tricks. Dealers Discard You pick up or have been ordered up and you must discard. Of course, you keep your trumps and your Aces and create a void in a suit. When you have a choice of suits to create a void in, choose the suit that is a different color than the trump suit; if trumps are Hearts, you prefer to have a void in Clubs or Spades than a void in Diamonds. The reason is the Jack of Diamonds is a trump, not a Diamond, so there are fewer of them. If you trump a Diamond, there is a greater chance you will be overtrumped than if you trump a Club or Spade. Opening Lead If your side has called the trump suit, it is frequently wise to lead the trump. The reason is the dealer will have created a void somewhere and leading trumps will remove his opportunity to ruff. If the opponents have called the trump suit, you would only lead trump if the dealer has picked up a bower. The dealer may have done this with the Jack and a little one, counting on scoring the little one with a ruff. You might also want to lead trump if you have three little ones -- for the same reason, to prevent the other side from scoring their trumps separately with ruffs. Leading trump is unusual however, and we normally lead our Aces. Let's suppose dealer has picked up a Heart, and you have A-x of Spades A-x of Diamonds and A of Clubs. Which Ace to lead? I would lead the Ace of Clubs. Since you have only one of them it is less likely to get trumped than either of the other 2 Aces. If everyone followed suit to that, I would next play the Ace of Spades. Since the Jack of Diamonds is a trump, the Ace of Diamonds is more likely to get ruffed than the Ace of Spades. If you don't have any Aces, the next best is the top card of a sequence like a King from K-Q. Never lead an unsupported King -- if you must lead from a suit headed by the King without the Queen, lead low, not the King. Tricks 2-5 Leading a second round of a suit is usually not a good tactic unless you know where the trumps are. It may happen that one opponent will ruff and the other discards a sure loser. It is usually better to try a new suit in this case. If you know RHO has no trumps, leading the second round of a suit can be a very good tactic. If you win the first trick and partner discards, it is usually correct to return the suit partner discarded, hoping for a ruff. If you win the first trick, you have a bower and partner has called the trumps, it is usually correct to lead your bower. Tricks from Trumps Suppose we are down to the last two cards. Hearts are trump.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A J
K 10
9
