Euchre QOD: “You’re not getting older, you’re getting longer”Euchre Haiku:
Look at the five cards
Find the suit that’s the long one
Hopefully, it’s trump
Euchre Palaver
“Long suit” – A suit in which you have two or more cards.
Savvy Strategies
There will be times when you have a hand that contains a long suit (e.g. two or more cards in a suit). If that suit is a non-trump suit and includes the Ace and King there are a variety of ways you might play it since the chances are high that someone is void your long suit. Somehow I figured out that a doubleton Ace in a green suit will win 52% of the time. (I’ll have to go back and remember how I did that). The following tips are useful when playing your long suits.
1. If you have Ace, King, and another card in a suit, lead the King. Your partner might trump it but that’s ok. The chances that someone is void in that suit is pretty good (as are the chances that two people are void in the suit).
2. If you have Ace, King in a suit, lead the Ace if you want to win the trick. If your partner is following standard euchre conventions, she will not trump your ace.
3. If you have Ace, King in a suit, lead the King if you want your partner to win the trick. Sometimes you don’t really want the lead and you’d like to give your partner a chance to win a trick. In these cases, lead a King from your long suit. Your partner will trump if she can.
4. If you have Ace, King in a suit and ordered weak trump, lead a different suit. You don’t want to lead trump because you are weak and you don’t want to lead your long suit because it might get trumped. Lead a card from a short suit and hope that partner covers or one of the opponents wins it and leads back your long suit.
5. If you have Ace, King in a suit and ordered strong trump, lead trump. What are you saving them for? Leading strong trump makes your long suits more valuable.
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1 comment:
#1 and #3 are almost identical - basically you are saying it doesn't matter if you have the third in the long suit, you should play it the exact same way - so #3 is redundant.
#5 is good strategy whether you ordered strong OR weak trump - leading trump makes your off A K better regardless of the trump ordered - and that caveat makes #4 a non occurence - why are you ordering a trump if and have an A K in an off suit and another short suit anyways? I only see that happening if you have right, so the right is the logical lead. If you don't have right in that situation, you are likely euchred no matter what, but should lead trump anyways to have a hope of taking tricks with your A K
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