Players:
Four people in teams of two. Your partner should sit across from you.
Materials:
A pinochle deck or the Ace, King, Queen, Jack, Ten and Nine in all four suits from two regular decks of cards. This means each card will have a duplicate of itself. If you are already confused perhaps you should play Memory with them instead. You also need a pen and paper for scorekeeping purposes.
Helpful Terms:
Bid: Amount of tricks that must be taken. A bid is a number in a particular suit or no-trump [high or low].
Trick: Four cards, one from each player’s hand.
Trump: The most powerful suit for a particular hand. Trump is determined by bidding before each hand is played.
No-trump: A bid of High or Low means that the highest card that follows suit in a trick takes the trick.
Bowers [right, left]: In a Trump bid, bowers are the jacks of color. the Right Bower is the Jack of the suit bid, the Left Bower is the jack of the other suit in the same color. Ex: If Spades are Trump, the Jack of Spades is the Right Bower and the Jack of Clubs is the Left Bower. There are two Right Bowers and Two Left Bowers in Double Bid Euchre.
Reneg: Failure to follow suit.
Euchre: When the team without the bid prevents the team with the bid from getting the number of tricks they bid upon. This is also called ‘going set.’
Object:
To score 52 tricks.
Rules:
- A player must always follow suit. Failure to do so results in a reneg and loss of the hand.
- A team wins if and only if they score 52 tricks or more by winning their bid or by euchreing the opponent.
- The person who wins the bid has the lead.
- The person who takes the trick has the lead.
- The last trick may be looked at by any player; provided that no cards have been played since it was taken.
- The first instance of any card takes precedence over the other instance. Ex: If both Right Bowers are played in the same trick, the first one played takes precedence.
- Play proceeds clockwise beginning with the person who has the lead.
Gameplay:
The dealer offers a cut to the person on their right and then deals card three at a time clockwise around the table. When each player has twelve cards, the player to the left of the dealer offers an initial bid. Bidding also proceeds clockwise until it comes to the dealer who has the last bid. The highest bid is then marked down and the person who made the bid leads.
Trump rank is determined in this way: If Trump is Spades the Jack of Spades [Right Bower] is the highest card, the Jack of Clubs [Left Bower] is the second highest and in descending order of importance Ace, King, Queen, Ten, Nine. Trump beats any card in a non-trump suit. Thus a nine of Spades beats any off-suit Ace. If no trump cards are played in the trick, the highest card in the led suit takes the trick.
Scoring:
The number of tricks each team has taken at the end of the hand is added to previous hands. If a team is euchred they lose points in the amount that they bid. The score can be negative.
Tomorrow: How to Play Double Bid Euchre Part II: Strategy
How to Play Double Bid Euchre Part III: How to Really Play Double Bid Euchre