User Guide
Blindfold Euchre is a fully accessible Euchre card game for both sighted and visually impaired people, designed for rapid audio play.
To learn the rules of the Euchre game, refer to the How To Play guide.
This game is based on the contributed work of Einar Egilsson, who I would like to thank.
If you want to thank him, his email is admin at cardgames dot I O.
You control this game using iPhone gestures.
First, in the main menu, select one of the Euchre games, and tap it.
This game is a no-bid version of Euchre, so it’s similar to a knock Euchre.
Euchre is a trick taking game with a trump, played by four players in teams of two.
The basic play is similar to Whist, in other words, each player plays one card, the highest card of the suit led wins the trick, unless someone has played a card of the trump suit.
An important difference from Whist is that one of the teams names the trump and must then win the majority of the tricks in that hand.
The game is played over several rounds until one team has gotten 10 points.
Five cards are dealt to all four players and then the top card of the deck is turned over.
Each player has a chance to pick that card as trump; to pick a card as trump, swipe up. To pass, swipe down.
If all four players pass, one player can pick a suit to be trump. Otherwise the game begins.
To pick a suit to be trump, swipe left and right through your cards to find the suit you want, then tap twice. To pass, swipe down.
If all four players pass, the cards are placed back in the deck and a new hand is dealt, and the trump selection starts over again.
If someone selected a trump suit, the game begins.
Playing the game
The first player plays a card, and then everyone must follow suit. Based on the ranking of trump cards, the highest card takes the trick. If you cannot follow trump, you can play any suit you want.
This is repeated for all five cards, then the winner is determined.
Now remember that the team that picked trumps are the “Makers” and the other team is the “Defenders”.
A team that wins 3 or more tricks wins the hand and gets points, the losing team gets no points.
Teams can also gain more points if the player who called trump goes alone.
Scoring
If the Makers win 3 or 4 tricks, the makers get 1 point.
If the Makers win 5 tricks, the makers get 2 points.
If the Maker goes alone and wins 3 or 4 tricks, the maker gets 1 point.
If the Maker goes alone and wins 5 tricks, the maker gets 4 points.
If the Defenders win 3 or more tricks, the defenders get 2 points.
Winning the game
A team wins once it has gotten 10 points and is at least two points above the other team.
So, if a team would get 10 and the other team had 9 the game would continue until the score was 11 to 9 or 12 to 10, and so on.
Resuming the game
If you exit the game, and then restart it, you can resume the game.
The game resumes with a new hand, but the scores and players should remain the same.
Gestures
To move through cards, swipe left and right.
To pick the first card as trump, swipe up. To pass, swipe down.
To pick a suit to be trump, swipe left and right. To pass, swipe down.
To select a card to play, swipe left and right, then double tap.
To hear the trump suit again, and the discard cards, swipe up with 2 fingers.
To hear your hand, swipe down with 2 fingers.
To hear how many tricks were earned by each player in the current round, swipe down with 3 fingers.
How to use Coins
To play one game of Euchre, you will use one coin.
This game comes with 5 coins, so you can play 5 games of Euchre.
If you purchase the STARTER PACK, coins are not needed.
Playing against the computer
When playing against the computer, you can change the name and skill of the other players.
Normally one computer player is good, one is average, and one is very good.
To find out more about each of the computer players, in the SETTINGS screen, tap CUSTOMIZE COMPETITOR.
To change a competitor’s name, or their skill level, tap on the INFO button.
Customizing your competitors requires an in-app upgrade.
Introduction
Euchre is a trick taking game with a trump, played by four players in teams of two.
The basic play is similar to Whist, in other words, each player plays one card, the highest card of the suit led wins the trick, unless someone has played a card of the trump suit.
An important difference from Whist is that one of the teams names the trump and must then win the majority of the tricks in that hand.
The game is played over several rounds until one team has gotten 10 points.
Dealing
Euchre uses a non standard deck of 24 cards. It’s made up of the 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King and Ace of each suit.
Some variations also use the Joker, but this version does not.
The initial dealer is chosen randomly, in the next round the player to the dealer’s left is the new dealer and so on.
Five cards are dealt to each player, then the top card of the deck is turned face up, so it’s ready for the next phase, naming the trump.
Naming the Trump
After the cards are dealt, the players must pick what will be the trump suit.
At this point there is one face up card on the table, the suit of that card is the potential trump suit.
Going clockwise around the table, starting with the player to the dealer’s left, each player can either “Pass”, meaning they don’t want the suit to become trump, or they can “Order it up” in which case the suit of the card becomes trump and the calling round ends immediately.
The face up card on the table goes to the dealer which takes it and discards one of the cards from his hand and then the game is ready to begin.
The team that picked the trump are known as the “Makers” and the other team are known as the “Defenders”.
If all players pass on the trump card then there’s another round of naming trumps, where a player may simply pick which suit he wants to be trump (although he may not pick the suit everyone just passed on), or pass. If all players pass on this round as well then the deal is ruined and a new hand is dealt.
In some variations of Euchre the dealer’s partner can’t name trump and play with a partner, he must play alone. That’s not done in this game.
Going alone
The player who orders up trumps, or names trump, is allowed to play alone. You cannot go alone on the first hand in each round.
If a player chooses this his partner will put down his cards and not participate in the rest of that round.
Playing alone can help you to score more points, more about that in the Scoring section below.
Ranking of trump cards
The trump ranking in Euchre is quite different from most other trump taking games.
The trump suit ranks higher than the other suits, but within the trump suit the Jack (known as the Right Bower) is the highest card.
Then, in a weird twist, the Jack in the other suit that’s the same color as the trump is the next best trump card.
For example, if spades are trump then the Jack of clubs would be the next best card, known as the Left Bower).
After that the rest of the trump cards follow in order from high to low, Ace, King, Queen, 10, 9.
The Left Bower is considered for all purposes as a member of the trump suit.
Just to make this more clear, if trump suit was Hearts, which is red, the ranking of trump cards would be:
Jack of Hearts, known as the Right Bower,
Jack of Diamonds, known as the Left Bower,
Ace of Hearts,
King of Hearts,
Queen of Hearts,
10 of Hearts,
9 of Hearts.
Playing
Play is similar to most trick taking games.
A player leads with a suit, other players must follow suit if they have it, but are otherwise free to play any card if they have nothing in the lead suit.
Cards are ranked from high to low, trump beats lead suit, lead suit beats other suits.
The person who takes a trick leads in the next trick.
Scoring
Now remember that the team that picked trumps are the “Makers” and the other team is the “Defenders”.
A team that wins 3 or more tricks wins the hand and gets points, the losing team gets no points.
Teams can also gain more points if the player who called trump goes alone.
If the Makers win 3 or 4 tricks, the makers get 1 point.
If the Makers win 5 tricks, the makers get 2 points.
If the Maker goes alone and wins 3 or 4 tricks, the maker gets 1 point.
If the Maker goes alone and wins 5 tricks, the maker gets 4 points.
If the Defenders win 3 or more tricks, the defenders get 2 points.
Winning the game
A team wins once it has gotten 10 points and is at least two points above the other team.
So, if a team would get 10 and the other team had 9 the game would continue until the score was 11 to 9 or 12 to 10, and so on.