Euchre Dealer Strategy: Picking Up & Discarding

• The up-card joins your hand whenever it’s taken in round one, whether you pick it up or your partner or an opponent orders it up. You know exactly which card you’re getting, and nobody else can have it.
• You discard. You hold six cards and keep the best five, which often means emptying a suit so you can trump it the first time it’s led.
• You play last to the first trick. The player on your left leads, so in a normal hand you see the other three cards before you choose yours.

The cost: you bid last in each round, so under stick the dealer, a hand nobody else wanted can land on you.

By the time round one reaches you, the other three have passed, and their passes don’t all mean the same thing:

• Your partner’s pass says the most. They could have ordered the card to your own side and didn’t, so don’t count on much help in this suit.
• The opponents’ passes say less. Ordering up would have handed you a trump, so they may be sitting on decent trump and happy to defend.

Then judge your hand with the up-card in it and your worst card gone. The baseline in when to order up, about three trumps including a bower plus a winner outside trump, is easier to reach from this seat: the up-card is one of your trumps, and the discard can give you a void. A high up-card helps most. Pick up a bower or the ace and you hold a high trump; pass it and it’s turned face down, out of play for the hand.

The dealer’s edge makes marginal hands playable, not weak ones. Two small trumps and nothing outside is still a pass.

Work down this list:

1. Never a trump. Trump is why you picked it up. The only time you discard one is when every card you hold is trump, and then it’s the lowest.
2. Check your jacks. The other jack of trump’s color is the left bower. With hearts trump, a lone J♦ isn’t a diamond; it’s your second-best trump.
3. Keep off-suit aces. An ace is your likeliest trick outside trump, and a lone ace is a void in waiting: once it’s played, you’re void anyway.
4. Make a void. Throw a lone off-suit card that isn’t an ace, and you can trump that suit the first time it’s led. With two to choose from, throw the one less likely to win, usually the lower.
5. No singleton to throw? Throw the lowest card of your weakest suit, ideally from a suit where you hold the ace, so the ace is left on its own.

Your discard is face down and out of play, and only you know what it is. Count it when you track trumps and aces later in the hand.

When the dealer’s partner orders it up, traditionally with “I assist,” your partner is the maker and is counting on the up-card being in your hand. Discard the same way: a void if you can make one, your aces kept. Later, whenever you get the lead, a trump lead helps your partner draw the defenders’ trump; more in leading and playing.

In Canada, Australia and England, a dealer’s partner who orders up must play alone, and the dealer’s cards go face down: the Canadian loner. At our tables it’s a setting, off unless the table turns it on; see variations and house rules.

You still take the card and still discard; that’s the standard rule, and ours. An opponent who orders it up from beside you has handed you a trump, so expect a strong hand and early trump leads. Discard with defense in mind: keep your aces, your likeliest tricks, and make a void only when it costs you nothing, because with one small trump a void helps only if you get to use it before the makers draw trump. Then use your seat: the makers lead the first trick and you play last to it, so you can win it as cheaply as possible or let your partner’s card ride. More in how to defend.

If all four pass twice and your table plays stick the dealer, as ours does by default, you must name a suit other than the turned-down one. You don’t get the up-card this time; you play the five cards you were dealt. Count each suit the Euchre way: a jack is trump in two suits, high trumps beat long low ones, and outside aces still count. The stick the dealer page works through an example.

Your partner passed twice, so don’t count on a big hand there, but they still hold five cards, and any aces help whichever suit you name. Both opponents passed twice too, so nobody at the table had an easy call. Name your best suit and play it, and expect a defender who holds trump to lead it at you, since a stuck dealer may be short.

The up-card and the discard can turn a strong hand into a loner, and the going-alone guide rates the dealer seat highly for one: you shape a void before a card is played. The catch is the lead. The player on your left leads the first trick, so you can’t start drawing trump until you’ve won a trick, though you do play last to that first one and see both defenders’ cards. A hand like example 1, both bowers with the K♠ and the A♥, is the kind that guide leans toward with the lead and against without it. If you do go alone, say so as you pick it up: a loner is declared at the moment you make trump.