The point system in action

Euchre QOD: Put your faith in providence, but always cut the deck.

The point system is great because it covers a lot of hands. But there is one overriding rule that I should’ve mentioned earlier.

*Never order it up if you have only 1 trump.

I didn’t mention it because it happens pretty rarely. The only way to get 21 points or more is to have the Right Bower (10), and three off aces (5,5,4). In this case you would have 24 points. You should pass this hand and either hope to set your opponent or call up the “next” suit in the second round. The “next” suit would be the suit of the same color that trump would’ve been if it was ordered up in the first round. For example, Hearts is the “next” suit to Diamonds. Clubs is the “next” suit to Spades.

Here’s an example hand of how the point system might work. I randomly dealt out the following hand…

If clubs were trump, the hand value would be 14.
5 for King of clubs
4 for Queen of clubs
4 for 10 of clubs
1 for King of spades.

If spades were trump, the hand would be worth 10 points.
If hearts were trump, the hand would be worth 2 points.
If diamonds were trump, the hand would be worth 2 points.

I'll leave it up to you to work out how I arrived at those numbers.

By strictly following the system, you would not order up this hand. However, the power of this hand is also dependent on where you are sitting relative to the dealer. Tomorrow, we’ll look at why this is so.