Euchre – the game of life?

The euchre smackdown game.

I had forgotten how much I like euchre until we pulled out the cards on our mini-vacation to Chicago.  I hadn’t played in years – but all it took was one practice round to feel ready to jump in again.

We decided it would be girls against the guys.  I’m not sure what the actual level of experience was at the table – but here’s my read on it anyway.  Team Girl appeared to have some experience – I used to play a lot in highschool/college, and my partner seemed to have played before – but maybe not as regularly as I once had.  At least one of Team Guy had some euchre experience, while the other has made pinochle his game of choice – and routinely referred to the bowers as brewers (which I may adopt).

We played 2 games – and in summary, Team Girl kicked butt.

Euchre psychology

Maybe I can dig deeper into this game. Of course I can… I’ll take a stab at why Team Girl dominated.

Here’s what I observed. My partner is a risk taker, in life and in game. Of all of the hands we played, she’s the only one who risked it all to go it alone – twice – and successfully.  In life – she’s started her own business venture, and she’s a doer – she makes things happen.  No doubt these traits carry into her euchre game.  After all, it’s just a game, right?  What do you have to lose?  And me? I called trump many times during the game – whether or not the hand that I was dealt was a powerful one.  I took a chance that my partner could help me out – but I never went it alone.  I think that mirrors my life pretty well too.  I’ve started my own business venture – but I split the risk with my business partner.  Together, we’re pretty strong – but I rely heavily on him for support.

I’ll make a blanket euchre statement here.  This applies to all of the games that I’ve been party to… more often than not, if you call trump, you win the hand.  Take a risk and it pays off in the game.

Now, Team Guy won their fair share of tricks (just not enough!).  One half of Team Guy never once called trump – he didn’t feel that he was ever dealt a winning hand – or that his partner could support him in any way.  I’m trying to relate this to his life now – which is difficult (because I’m his real partner you see).  But perhaps this is rooted in his former career – a not-very-satisfying-no-matter-how-hard-you-work-at-it job.  He was even told how to dress at this job – because you can’t be respected if you are wearing jeans you know.  I think it sucked the life out of him… and in the end – he was just going with the flow.

Or maybe it’s because he’s never really played euchre before.  Could be.

And maybe Team Girl had the upper hand because of my partner’s wicked case of euchre tourette’s…

I’ve never laughed so hard in my life.

Northeast or Midwest?

I know that euchre is a popular game in the Northeast, where I’m from, and Midwest – where I live now.  The game is fundamentally played the same, but the score cards are very different.  Here is the Northeast version of keeping track of your euchre score – done the 2′s and 3′s.

1, 2, 3, & 4 are self explanatory.  Five looks like the roman numeral for five, or “V”.  6, 7, 8, & 9 are 5 + the number of dots showing, and 10 is the roman numeral for 10, or “X”.

I didn’t realize that there were alternative methods for keeping track until I moved to Madison in 1996.  Here is the 6 and 4 method outlined, directly from eHow.

When I was digging around the google-tubes, I found this other 2′s and 3′s method.

To each his own I guess…. we had to use A’s and 9′s in Chicago – because we only had a pinochle deck.

I suspect that any euchre player has a strong opinion about this.  Does your euchre playing mimic your life too?

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