The power of seat 2

Euchre QOD: “Stealin? No, I was just shufflin’ for ya.”

Euchre Haiku
Thieves placidly wait
Spent cards splashed on the table
Gather them quickly

Euchre Palaver
“Steal the deal” – A common ploy in which a player attempts to deal when it’s their opponent’s turn. In most euchre circles this is a perfectly acceptable form of cheating. And the advantage is HUGE!! The dealing team wins the round about 70% of the time. So get your opponents chatting and gather up the cards for yourself.

SEAT 2 – The Power Seat
By far this is my favorite seat. When my partner is the dealer there is no better place to be. I order her up on next to nothing! Now, this flies in the face of the advice given here but this is just what I’ve found works out. For example, he says that being a “silent” partner is usually best. Forget that!! You’re in the Power Seat. You and your partner have the best chance to win. Go ahead and tell your partner to pick it up.

If you have 11 card points or more, then just order it up already. Euchre is a game won by the more aggressive team. Be that team!

Some caveats however.

1. Don’t order it up if you have only 1 trump. You could conceivably have a hand with over 11 card points but still have only 1 trump. Don’t bother ordering in these cases. The chances of you making it are not good enough to warrant the call.

2. Don’t order it up if a bower is turned up and your score is 6 or 7 points. This could kill your partner’s try to get a loner for the win. But when you have scored less than 6 points or more than 7, loners are not as valuable.

3. Tighten up if your opponents have scored 8 points. You should increase your bidding requirements in this case because getting set (or euchred) will lose you the game. In these cases, you should have at least 16 cards points or 3 trump to bid.

The nice thing about having such loose ordering requirements for this seat is that if you do pass, your partner will know something about your hand. Specifically, you have less than 2 trump or you don’t have 11 card points. Either way she can use that info when considering whether to pick it up or not.