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Euchre or eucre () is a trick-taking card game commonly played in Australia, Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand, and the Midwestern United States. It is played with a deck of 24, 25, 28, or 32 standard playing cards. There are normally four players, two on each team, although there are variations for two to nine players. Euchre emerged in the United States in the early 19th century. There are several theories regarding its origin, but the most likely is that it is derived from an old Alsatian game called Jucker or Juckerspiel. Euchre was responsible for introducing the joker into the modern deck of cards, first appearing in Euchre packs in the 1850s. Euchre has a large number of variants and has been described as "an excellent social game." Origins and popularity Eucre is briefly mentioned as early as 1810, being played in a gaming house alongside all fours, loo, cribbage, and whist. In 1829, uker was being played with bowers on a steamboat in the American Midwest. However, the earliest rules do not appear until 1844. The mode of play and terminology of Euchre have resulted in several theories which suggest that it has an origin in Spanish Trionfo, French Ecarté or Triomphe, or Alsatian Jucker. An early American theory was that Euchre was brought into the United States by the German settlers of Pennsylvania, and from that region it was disseminated throughout the nation. The 1864 edition of The American Hoyle disputes its alleged German heritage, tracing the game's origin to Pennsylvania itself in the 1820s. It goes on to surmise that a "rich German farmer's daughter" had visited Philadelphia and carried home a confused memory of Écarté, which then developed into Euchre. Yet another theory is that Euchre may have been introduced to America by immigrants from the counties of Cornwall or Devon in southwest England, where it remains a hugely popular game. Euchre was introduced into Devon in turn by French prisoners of The Napoleonic Wars, imprisoned in Dartmoor Prison between 1805 and 1816. American prisoners were also housed there after the War of 1812. Card game historian David Parlett believes that Euchre is derived from an eighteenth-century Alsatian card game named Jucker or Juckerspiel, pronounced "yooker". Clues to a possible German origin are the names of the trump Jacks; bower is phonetically identical with the German word Bauer which normally means farmer, but also refers to the Jack in playing cards. Another word probably derived from German is "march", which is the literal translation of Marsch, itself an abbreviation of Durchmarsch and the German for a slam in many card games. Other words or phrases that reflect a German origin are: "maker" from Macher, short for Spielmacher i.e. "game maker", the person who determines the type of game to be played; "euchred" from gejuckert; "having a dog from every county" from aus jedem Dorf ein Köter i.e. "a mongrel from every village", a common expression in German card games; "cards away" from Karten weg or Kart' ab, an expression in games from the Palatinate/Saarland region for the same announcement, "bridge" possibly from Pritsche, a plank bed (hence place of safety). The earliest known treatise is a lost book called Game of Euchre and Its Laws published in 1839 by an unknown author. However, the earliest surviving rules appeared in 1844, in which there is no Joker; instead 32 cards are used and the Right Bower, the trump Jack, is the "commanding card" with the Left Bower, the Jack of the same color, as the second-highest card. According to Parlett, the Joker was added to a 32-card pack in the 1850s specifically for the game of Euchre and is first mentioned in a set of rules in 1868 where it turns out to be a blank specimen card not intended for actual play. This gave rise to a variant called "Euchre with the Joker" in which the blank card ranked above all the rest. It must have been in use even earlier, however, since the term "Best Bower" appears in a satirical 1861 piece about the American Civil War. Later, the Joker was embellished with a motif and specifically intended for use as the top trump. It was later transferred to the game of Poker and initially called the Mistigris. In the late 19th century, Euchre was regarded as the national card game of the United States. It has since declined in popularity, although it retains a strong following in regions such as the Midwest. Euchre has also been described as Canada's national card game. However, with the rise of 20th century games such as Contract Bridge and Spades, Euchre has declined in popularity, though it is still played as a social game in the Midwest, Ontario, Australia, New Zealand, and Great Britain, especially Cornwall. Earliest rules (1844) The earliest surviving rules were published in America by Thomas Mathews in his 1844 work, The Whist Player's Hand-book, in which a four-hand version of Euchre is described right at the end. The following is a summary: Players and cards Euchre is played by two to five persons, but most often by two or four. A 32-card French-suited Piquet pack is used and cards rank in the trump suit as follows: Right Bower (trump knave), Left Bower (knave of same color), A > K > Q > 10 > 9 > 8 > 7. The side suits rank in their natural order. Deal and play are clockwise. Deal The pack is shuffled and four cards distributed; the players with two higher cards become partners and play the other two. The dealer deals five cards each in packets of two and three and turns the next for trump. Making trump Eldest hand (to the left of the dealer) opens the auction and may either 'order it up' (= accept the turnup as trump) or 'turn it down' (= pass), in which case the next player in turn has the same options and so on. The team that order it up are the 'makers'. If all pass, the dealer does not exchange, and another round of bidding begins with eldest who may make trump of any other suit. If all pass again and dealer does not want to make trump, the cards are thrown in and the next dealer deals. If anyone orders up, the dealer picks up the upcard and discards a card in return. The dealer's partner may bid "assist" in which case the dealer takes up trump and they become the makers. A player confident of taking 5 tricks single-handed may say "cards away" to the partner and play alone against the opponents. Play Eldest leads to the first trick. Players must follow suit if able; otherwise may play any card. The highest trump takes the trick or the highest card of the led suit if no trumps were played. The trick winner leads to the next trick. Winning The makers must take at least 3 tricks to win and score 1 point; otherwise they are euchred, i.e. have lost and their opponents score 2 points. Winning all 5 tricks is a march which earns 2 points. Announcing "cards away" and winning all 5 tricks alone scores 4 points. Points are tallied using the unused Deuce and Trey cards, or counters. Game is 5 points. Terminology The .... Discover the Tim Ander popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Tim Ander books.