Dealing and ordering up
Five cards each, in packets of three and two, and one card turned face up. Then each player in turn may take its suit as trump.
Who deals first?
pagat.com gives a common North American way: deal the cards round until a black jack appears; that player deals. Bicycle: everyone draws a card, and the lowest deals. The Semi-Official page: a player chosen at random. After each hand the deal passes to the left.
Who shuffles and cuts?
The dealer shuffles. Bicycle: the player on the dealer’s right cuts, leaving at least four cards in each part. The Semi-Official page: the dealer offers the cut to that player. pagat.com: in Canada the cards are usually not cut.
How are the cards dealt?
Clockwise, starting with the player on the dealer’s left, five cards each in two rounds: three then two, or two then three, each player getting one packet of each size. The Semi-Official page’s way: three to the left, two to your partner, three to the right and two to yourself, then the other way round. Bicycle: the dealer keeps to the pattern started with. pagat.com: many Canadian groups deal one card at a time.
What is the kitty?
The four cards left after the deal (the Semi-Official page’s word). The dealer turns the top one face up; the other three are not used.
What does ordering it up mean?
Taking the turned card’s suit as trump. From the dealer’s left each player in turn passes or accepts. Bicycle’s words: an opponent of the dealer says “I order it up”, the dealer’s partner says “I assist”, and the dealer accepts by discarding, “taking it up”.
What does the dealer do with the turned card?
Once anyone accepts, the turned card goes to the dealer, who puts one card face down. Bicycle adds that in practice the dealer leaves the card on the pack until it is played and puts the discard under the pack.
What does turning it down mean?
The dealer passing in round one: the turned card is turned down, and its suit cannot be named in round two. Bicycle: naming the other suit of the same color is making it next; naming a suit of the other color is crossing it.
Do you need a trump to order it up?
Not in the base rules of pagat.com, Bicycle or the Semi-Official page, and Ohio’s tournament rules allow ordering with no trump. The World Euchre Championship and the Ontario Senior Games require one, the left bower counting. pagat.com mentions tables where the dealer may take it up only holding a trump, the left bower not counting.
In the app
The app deals every hand from a sealed shuffle, and the first dealer is the first black jack of the deal, so both can be checked after the game. Ontario asks for a trump in hand to order up; the other rule sets do not. The first hand walks you through ordering up with the coach.
Sources: pagat.com, The Deal, Making trump and North American Euchre; Bicycle, The Draw, The Shuffle and Cut, The Deal and Making the Trump; the Semi-Official Euchre Home Page, The Deal and Calling Trump; Ohio’s tournament rules, the World Euchre Championship, the Ontario Senior Games.