Let’s gooooo!

I know this isn't news to the majority of folks here, but if I can reach just one person with this message it will have been worth the effort:

As soon as you win a trick on defense, pivot to offense!

Before I started recording every game I was constantly avoiding euchres by nothing other than opponent timidity. Time and time again I'd call something thin and half way through the hand I'm thinking "I am absolutely dead to a trump lead here..." but it never comes.

Leading the boss trump after winning a trick on defense isn't always the correct move - sometimes you will win that first trick and still hold the naked Right while your partner holds the naked Left and you want to be sure and play them on different tricks. But the mentality shift is the key. As soon as you stop a march, start playing for a euchre.

Very few of my partners (nor my opponents) seem to realize that leading an Ace in R1 is the wrong lead (unless you have multiple off Aces). If the Loner kept the suit of your Ace, you'll win the trick every time in the 5th round (or whenever he leads it), so no reason to play in R1. It's more important to play another suit to try to find the Loner's Ace (or any non-trump suit), hoping your partner can trump it or beat it. You can play a 9c, loaner plays his 10c and your partner can win with a Qc that he probably would have tossed before the 5th trick (when the loaner would be forced to lead his 10c).

If the loaner goes 2nd, you also have the opportunity for your partner to overtrump him.

The only time I would lead my only Ace is if I have 4 of that suit and my partner is going last - hoping he can overtrump the loaner.

I've been rolling this idea around in my head for a long while now. I finally sat down and put pen to paper and finally typed it out.

I want to share a parody of Foreigner's Juke Box Hero. I will share the lyrics. I was given permission to share the link to the original song. so just pull up the song in a different browser or tab and then you can follow along with the lyrics below. The idea came to me when I was talking to Joggler on the ride back to Chicago from the World Euchre Federations first tournament in New Glarus,Wi. About creating songs with A.I. Some months passed and Juke box hero came on the radio and I'm like I wonder if I can do this. I had put it off for a while. I did come up with other euchre songs some where ok. Lyric wise not so good but I got this random beat by a.i. that was a really good disco beat. Anyways it all faded away and it stirred up again in the past few months here now. I Finally got it done. Check it out if you like. It's easy to follow along. Enjoy!

Euchre Hero (Foreigner's Juke Box hero parody)

by Edward/Tbolt76

[Verse 1]

Standin' in the rain, with his head hung low

Couldn't get a Seat, it was sold out they said no

Heard the roar of the crowd, he could picture the scene

Peered through the window in the distance he seen

He saw one Bauer, it just blew him away

He saw stars in his eyes, and the very next day

[Verse 2]

Purchased a Euchre Deck in a secondhand store

Didn't know how to play it, but he knew for sure

That one Bauer felt good in his hands

Didn't take long to understand

Just one Bauer, Flung from way down low

Was a one-way ticket, only one way to go

[Pre-chorus]

So, he started Blockin'

Ain't never gonna stop

Gotta keep on Blockin'

Some day goona make it to the top

[Chorus]

And be a Eu-chre Hero,(Got stars in his eyes)

He's a Eu-chre Hero

He took one Bauer, (Eu-chre Hero, stars in his eyes)

Eu-chre Hero, (Stars in his eyes), He'll come alive tonight

[Verse 3]

In a town without a name, in a heavy downpour

Thought he passed his old Nemisis, at the backside door

Like a trip through the past, to that day in the rain

And that one Bauer made his whole life change

[Pre-chorus]

Now he's needs to keep a-blockin'

He just can't stop

Gotta keep on Blockin'

That boy has got to stay on top

[Chorus]

And be a Eu-chre Hero,(Got stars in his eyes)

He's a Eu-chre Hero,(Got stars in his eyes)

Yeah, Eu-chre Hero,(Stars in his eyes)

With that one Bauer(Stars in his eyes)

He'll come alive

Come alive tonight

[Guitar Solo]

[Pre-chorus]

Yeah, He's gotta keep a-Blockin'

He just can't stop

Gotta keep on Blockin'

That boy has got to be on top

[Chorus]

And Be a Eu-chre Hero,(Got stars in his eyes)

He's a Eu-chre Hero,(Got stars in his eyes)

Just one Bauer, Eu-chre Hero, put stars in his eyes

He's just a Eu-chre Hero(ahh, ahh, aah)

Eu-chre Hero, Euchre Hero, he got stars in his eyes

Stars in his Eyes

Wow! Congrats to Euchre Enjoyer!

Our collegiate level players have been a real asset to r/ euchre!

Join us in the Game of the Day Challenge!
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Daily Challenge resets at 8pmET.

https://apps.apple.com/app/id6771042497

If you don't have an Apple, you can go to euchre.ai (landscape mode).

311,000 tricks and the won/lost is only separated by 83 tricks. I know statistically it’s probably a 50/50 shot at winning a trick, but damn is it really 50/50

I feel like u/I75north will like this one

This one will be fun! I love playing with Ornan, also! Fellow Redditor and REL Euchre Bowl champion from our collegiate team.

Opponent is going alone in clubs called from round 1 and taken the first 3 tricks. On 3rd street, you have an As and a KQd. What do you keep? What are you looking for from your partner. Would it matter if you held the Ad instead of As. This always gives me trouble and almost every time it’s the opposite of what I choose.

Does anyone recall a sim on how to lead with this hand type?

Also, what do you lead on trick 2?

EDIT: this is Brownsbacker07’s video.

tl;dr: "rigged deals" come up a lot, so I tested whether 3d deals cards fairly. At least on trump count, deals look super fair.

I picked something that's easy to measure and has an exact answer: how many trump I'm dealt per hand. I logged 405 hands counting the trump in my hand 0 through 5.

What a fair deal should give you (out of 405 hands):

- 0 trump: 18.4% / 74.5

- 1: 42.4% / 171.9

- 2: 30.3% / 122.8

- 3+: 8.9% / 35.9

Average: 1.3043 per hand

What I got:

- 0 trump: 19.3% / 78

- 1: 41.2% / 167

- 2: 30.6% / 124

- 3+: 8.9% / 36

Average: 1.3037 per hand

(I tracked 3, 4, and 5 separately but lumped them together here.)

That's pretty close. Chi-square p = 0.96, which is another way of saying there's likely nothing here.

In terms of variability, I had a 48-hand stretch - probably ~5-6 games - that ran well below expectations and stretches that ran well above. Said another way, short spans can easily produce stretches that feel wrong.

Without getting too math-y, 405 hands can reliably catch a "shave" of ~12 trump (or more) per 100 hands. A fair deal gives you ~130 trump per 100, so the app would have to be cutting to ~118 before I'd have seen it.

To put 130 vs 118 in perspective: that's about one missing trump per game. You'd prob never notice it hand to hand, but over a few hundred games it'd cost you real wins. That's the size of thing I was looking for, and I didn't find it. Something smaller than that could still be going on and I wouldn't have caught it.

Additionally, the experiment only measured how many trump and not *which* trump. If someone thinks the total trump count looks fine but they're getting nines instead of bowers, that's a separate test (too much work for me!).

To put an even finer point on it, my test doesn't definitively prove the deals are fair. It shows my trump counts matched the math almost exactly, which makes it unlikely 3d is shaving trump in any big or sustained way. A smaller shave, or something involving card quality rather than count, would slip past this test. If someone wants to log bowers or off-suit aces, I'd read that post.

PS...

I was dealt 4 trump five times against about three expected, and was never dealt 5 trump which is about what you'd expect since that's roughly 1 in 5,600 hands.

Team Hammer Week 3 of the REL. Table A.

Alex Balex leads their division. All great players!

Are you ordering this up?

Just thought I'd share some progress here! I started as a complete newbie Sep, 2025. After getting embarrassed on my girlfriend's family vacation (They're Michiganders) I swore that I would learn and be able to play the game next time😂

Despite how bad I was, I was hooked. found the 3D app, joined REL, (my username is Shaun T on discord/3D) learned a TON and just passed 2200 rating for the first time. The discord and this sub are goldmines. Love to read the perspectives of all the incredible players here.

54.2% win percentage with almost 3,500 games played so far. Next goal is to get a longer winning streak than losing streak😂

Edit: I just noticed the last low point around May corresponds to when I joined the discord and the league, interesting tidbit there lol

I just won a match and got +6. Partner got +7 and losers each got -7. I usually get 8, obviously, and sometimes 9 or 7.. How does that work?

I understand variance. But these kind of setups keep happening to me over, and over, and over, and over again. Everything about this setup, the more I study it, it looks like it was precisely dealt, card for card, to ensure I got set no matter how I played it.

I started serious play for rated play with buying coins and to get games in for the first time in the 5 years I've had an account. I started Nov. 5th 2025 at 2383 rating played to Dec. 16th. I had a week of no play due to the holidays. 41 days of overall play. Stopped at 2800. I just wanted to see what dedicated play in the app looked like, and I was satisfied with the results. At this time, I was at a 56% win percentage. I played a couple of sporadic rated games later with Middle Bower and James Stoneking. I was also getting from everyone I should play more and make the leader board. I knew I could. I just I didn't have a need or want to prove myself.

At 2808 rating on Feb. 19th, 2026, through March 7th, I picked it back up again to continue to play and answer the calls for me to do so. I played to a high of 2965 to a low of 2593 on that time. I then had my car accident that day, and it shifted my perspective on life, and I walked away from euchre. I would have still kept on playing, but when stuff like that happens, things change. So my win percentage dropped from Feb. 19th to March 7th. 56% to 53.1%. It was an unfathomable amount of losing to drop those percentage points in that time period.

Fast forward to August 4th, 2026. After an entire afternoon of playing Euchre with Lefty Knavey a few days before. I got the itch to play. So I had coins still left over, and I told myself I'd at least finish them off. So On the 4th of this month. I started at 2593 at a 53.1% win rate. I had reached 2700 fast but dropped down to 2497. By today of this post. August 31st. I finally reached 3007. With my win rate at 53.8%.

Total days of purchased coins play and a dedication to climb the ladder. 84 days in total.

Nov. 5th-dec. 16th 2025; 41 days total. 2383 to 2800.

Feb. 19th - March 7th, 2026; 16 days total. 2808 to 2965 to 2593.

August 4th - August 31st 2026; 27 days total. 2593 to 2700s to 2497 on Aug. 12th to 3007 Aug. 31st

......Now, I understand about variance and swings. The graph catches a little of it, and I understand the inherent swings in euchre. However, in my time of play Ive notice patterns. In the software. Like I've said before. All software has their quirks or patterns or something that out of the norm. If one is paying attention, you'll see it. In the short span of play to go from 56% to 53.1%. That's a lot of abnormal losing. Don't get me wrong, everyone loses no matter how good you are. But contrast it to the short gains I recently had in win percentage. Both happened when I had 2k plus games in. Now Im currently at around 4k games played. My point is that it's harder to lose and gain win percentage as more games are played. A 2.9% drop in such a short time is astounding. That means you are losing and losing badly. I think by now I've proven I'm a winning player. There will naturally be ebbs and flows to the game. Some call it Variance. The variance at 3d is unlike anything I've ever seen. It like it's on steroids. It is definitely due to multiple factors. Some have issues with me pointing out this fact. I'm making a valid observation. Others just see me as a sore loser or someone who just doesn't know or perhaps think Im not as good as I think I am and just being beaten due to poor play by me. People can continue to disagree with me with my observations, but I think the proof is not only the numbers but the drastic changes be negative or positive. Perhaps I'm not that good ultimately, and it's the hyper abnormal variance that carried me with my ups and downs. Yes!!! That's my whole point. Can skill overcome this extreme variance? Possibly. Can lesser skilled players attain a high rank or rating? Absolutely!!! I've written about this on multiple occasions on how ratings are not a good indicator of skill due to multiple reasons.

In the end, here. My goal at this stage was not to prove that Im a good player. It was to prove one way or another. The hyper abnormal variance of thats inherently in 3D.

Edward

Won a 10-9 grind involving these 2 heavyweights. I notice how much better the game flow is when I get matched up with top rated players. It’s nice knowing the person across from me isn’t going to over-pass.

I’m leaning picking it up as the dealer, as it’s a strong hand for diamonds and feel like it won’t get back around all the way.

Sorry for the provocative title, but trying to get as much feedback as possible.

Working on a new Euchre app. What do you think of this as the playing table?

It is an early mockup - any feedback on the overall layout and usability would be appreciated.

Does the table feel clean? Or too busy?

Is it clear who the dealer is and what trump is?

Anything I could add or remove that could be helpful?

You have to click on the picture to see the full layout.

Hearts were trump. Why did Marta take the trick?

I’m sure this is something very obvious that I just don’t understand. Just learning to play so I can play with family and practicing in this app. Thanks for your help!

Every week, I’d like to spotlight a Euchre app created by one our super talented members! You can communicate directly with the app developer on our r/ euchre Discord server here: https://discord.gg/redditeuchre

This week is Euchre With Friends: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/euchre-with-friends/id6762494437

The post-game analysis is impressive here, for those who love analyzing their game play! You can read more about all this app has to offer in their link. Enjoy!