Euchre Card Rankings & Trump Order
In Euchre the order of the cards changes every hand. Here is the full ranking for all four trump suits, how the other suits rank, and the one card that switches sides.
Updated
The 24-card deck
Euchre is played with the 9, 10, jack, queen, king and ace of each suit — 24 cards. Strip the 2s through 8s out of a standard deck and you have one. Unlike Sheepshead or pinochle, the cards carry no point values: a hand is decided purely by how many tricks each side takes, so the ranking below is all that matters.
Trump order for each suit
The two jacks of trump’s color jump to the top. Highest on the left; the highlighted cards are the bowers.
Hearts trump ♥right bower J♥ · left bower J♦
Diamonds trump ♦right bower J♦ · left bower J♥
Spades trump ♠right bower J♠ · left bower J♣
Clubs trump ♣right bower J♣ · left bower J♠
How the other suits rank
The three suits that are not trump rank A, K, Q, J, 10, 9. A card from one of them can only win a trick if its suit was led and nobody trumped.
One of those suits is short a card. When hearts are trump, the jack of diamonds has become the left bower, so diamonds that hand run:
That missing jack makes the same-color suit run out faster than the other two — and it is the idea behind “calling next” in the second round of bidding (see when to order up).
How many cards each suit has
| Suit (hearts trump) | Cards | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Trump — hearts | 7 | Six hearts plus the J♦ |
| Same color — diamonds | 5 | Lost its jack to trump |
| Spades, clubs | 6 each | Untouched |
Only 20 of the 24 cards are dealt. The other four sit in the kitty, so you can never be certain every trump is in play — often one of the seven is sitting unseen under the up-card.
Who wins a trick
- If anyone played a trump, the highest trump wins.
- If nobody did, the highest card of the suit that was led wins.
- A card of any other suit can never win, however high it is. An ace of clubs discarded on a spade lead is just a discard.
Why the left bower catches everyone
The left bower is trump for the whole hand. With hearts trump, the J♦ is a heart:
- If diamonds are led and your only diamond is the J♦, you are void in diamonds — you can trump in or throw anything else.
- If hearts are led and the J♦ is your only trump, you must play it.
- If you lead the J♦, you have led trump.
On our tables the game enforces this for you — cards you can’t legally play are dimmed and won’t play — but at a kitchen table it is one of the easiest ways to renege by accident. See reneging and misdeals.
Common questions
What is the highest card in Euchre?
The right bower — the jack of whichever suit is trump. It beats every other card in the deck. (In the joker variant, the joker ranks above it.)
Is the left bower higher than the ace of trump?
Yes. The left bower, the jack of the other suit of the same color, is the second-highest trump. Only the right bower beats it.
What suit is the left bower?
For the whole hand, the left bower belongs to the trump suit, not the suit printed on it. With hearts trump, the jack of diamonds is a heart: it follows heart leads, and it cannot be used to follow a diamond lead.
How many trump cards are there in Euchre?
Seven: the right bower, the left bower, and the ace, king, queen, 10 and 9 of the trump suit. Only 20 of the 24 cards are dealt, so one or more of them can sit unseen in the kitty.
Playing with a joker? It ranks above the right bower — see Euchre variations.
PULL UP A CHAIR
Play a hand of Euchre
Free in your browser — no download, no signup. Partner with the computer and play right now, or open a table in the lobby and deal in your friends.