Card Games Similar to Euchre

Euchre is one of the most beloved card games, but even if you’re one of its biggest fans, you may want to try something different. Spades is very similar to Euchre, and can provide similar challenges with a twist.

This article will go over the basics of Euchre and how to play Spades. For additional variety, you can also check out playing Hearts online!

Euchre

Setup

Before you start to play Euchre, you have to prepare the deck. Take a standard fifty-two-card deck, and remove every card of a rank below nine. This leaves you with a twenty-four-card deck.

The highest trump card is the Jack of the trump suit. The second highest-ranking trump card is the Jack of the other suit of the same color. The remaining cards rank with Aces high, down to nine.

Euchre is played by two teams of two, with partners facing each other.

Gameplay

Shuffle the deck and deal each player five cards. The remaining four cards are kept face-down in a stack by the dealer, and the top card of that stack is flipped face-up in the middle of the table.

Each round of Euchre has a different trump suit. This face-up card is the first possible trump. Starting with the player to the left of the dealer, each player can either agree to that suit being the trump for the round or pass.

If any player agrees (doesn’t pass), that suit is the trump for the round, and the dealer puts that card in their hand and places another card from their hand face-down on the stack. If every player passes, the player to the dealer’s left names a suit to be the trump suit for the round.

The player to the dealer’s left plays any card face-up. The following players must play a card in the same suit if they have one. If they have no cards of that suit, they may play any card.

Once all players have gone, the player who played the highest-ranking card in the leading suit wins the trick and keeps the four played cards. If any cards from the trump suit were played, the highest-ranking card of that suit wins the trick.

The player that wins the trick leads the next one.

Scoring

The team that chose the trump suit gets one point for every trick they won if they won three to four tricks. If they won five tricks, they get two points for each trick.

The other team is awarded two points for each trick they won if they won three to four tricks, and four points for each trick if they won five tricks. If the team that chose the trump suit doesn’t win at least three tricks, the other team gets an extra two points.

How to Win

Euchre is usually played until a team reaches ten points.

Spades

Spades is very similar to Euchre in that it is a trick-taking game. However, bidding plays an important role.

Setup

Spades is played with a standard deck. Each player is dealt thirteen cards, and Spades is always the trump suit. As in Euchre, Spades is played by two two-person teams, and partners sit across from each other.

Gameplay

Starting with the player to the left of the dealer, each player studies their hand and predicts how many tricks they believe they can win this round.

The player to the left of the dealer starts by playing a card of any suit except Spades. Then, one by one, each following player plays a card of that suit. If they have no card of that suit, they may play a card of any suit.

The highest-ranking card wins, and that player leads the next round. If any Spades were played, the highest-ranking Spade wins. This means that a two of Spades beats an Ace of any other suit.

Only once a player has played a Spade-suited card can players lead with Spades.

Scoring

Scoring in Spades is a bit complicated, but in essence, players are awarded no points if they win fewer tricks than they bid, ten tricks for each they bid, and one point (a bag) for each extra. If a player bid six tricks and wins eight, they’re awarded sixty-two points.

Each player keeps track of the single points they are awarded. Once a player accumulates ten bags, they are penalized one hundred points.

How to Win

Spades is played until a team reaches a predetermined score, which is usually 500.

Heart of the Cards

Another trick-taking game that’s similar to Euchre is Hearts. Hearts is the opposite of Spades and Euchre, however, in that the goal is to avoid scoring points. Hearts also has a unique aspect of passing cards. Mastering the art of passing cards in Hearts is one of the endless practices enjoyed by players.

Mixing It Up

Once you’ve mastered one trick-taking game, it’s easy to expand your horizons and enjoy all the others. If you want to expand your world of card games even further, check out our post on inspiring quotes about playing cards!