Euchre Freaks Strategy Contest

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  #1  Protect Your Left Bower  Important!  If you have the left guarded with another trump, do not unguard it unless forced to do so.  If trump is lead out, throw your smallest trump and save the left bower (unless you are the last person to play on that hand and can take the trick with the left bower).  The only time you should use your left bower is when you can overtrump your opponents trump!


   #2  The 'Lead' An advanced strategy that has significant bearing on the game outcome is "lead". You need to pay careful attention to where the lead is, who is likely to win a particular trick, and in doing so, where the lead will then be. Aggressive players will often attempt to set a caller by taking one or both of the first two tricks. This can often leave their hands depleted allowing the calling team to easily make the bid. If your opponent's team is aggressive, it can be to your advantage to allow the opponent on your left to take a trick. This puts them into the lead for the next trick. This will also often allow you to throw away a useless card that could force you to follow suit later. Then, you the caller have the last look at the next trick. It also allows your partner to act before you do. Making it very easy to take a trick without utilizing a powerful card. Don't be afraid to loose a trick if it puts the lead in a better position for your team. Lead is often more powerful than 1 trick. A good example of this is when you have 2 high trump cards left. If you need to make both of these cards work to take a trick, it's very easy to do so with the lead on your left.


  #3  Loners-Forcing Higher Trump  Opponent has called trump alone. Your partner leads an off suit ace. I don't have that suit but I have the ace of trump. I will trump my partners ace incase the opponent does not have the suit then the opponent is stuck having to throw a left or right. Maybe the opponent only has the right and my p has the left. If this is the case then we have a guaranteed stopper. If I throw off-suit then the opponent can use a nine to take it then lead with the right. My partners left is no good unless of course he/she has a second trump.


  #4  The Opening Lead-Save Your Ace!  Getting a hand off to a good start when you have the opening lead can be the crucial difference between success and failure of the hand, and should definitely not be a random selection. If your partner has ordered up trump, it is general knowledge that you should lead trump (the bigger the better) to draw out the competitor's trump. Conversely, if the opponents have made trump, you should generally not lead trump. Other than these considerations, many players like to lead an off-suit Ace; however, that is something that I will avoid if possible. Presuming I have not called trump (in which case a right bower lead is usually prudent if available), I would much rather lead a lower off-suit card: that way, if the opponent on the left cannot follow suit, they don't know if they should trump it or not - therefore they might end up trumping their partner's Ace, or sloughing off when they could have taken the trick. With the Ace led, the choice is clear... if they are not following suit, they will automatically trump your Ace. Better to give them a chance to make a mistake, and save your Ace for later, when it may be more likely to take a trick after trump is pulled.
 

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The monthly winning strategy is placed in the 'Euchre Hall Of Fame'.  You will find the best strategies there from our previous newsletter, dating back to 2001!