How to Play Double Deck Bid Euchre: 4-Player & 6-Player Rules

If you've looked up the rules for Double Deck Bid Euchre and found two pages describing what seem like completely different games, neither one is necessarily wrong.

Double Deck Bid Euchre isn't one standardized game. Four-player and six-player versions are both well documented, and even two four-player games using the same 48-card deck and twelve-card hands can disagree about the auction, scoring and going alone. This guide covers both four-player and six-player Double Deck Bid Euchre, including the deck, bidding, scoring and special contracts used in documented versions.

This article focuses on the versions that are most useful for experienced Euchre players trying to sort that out. We'll look closely at two documented four-player 48-card games—Indiana Double Deck and the Craig Powers Midwestern version—and then a six-player Bloomington, Indiana game that is closely related to the Pigs & Hogs variation my group plays.

If you're new to numerical bidding, contracts or No Trump, start with How to Play Bid Euchre. Here we're going to assume you already know your way around a Euchre table.

Double Deck Bid Euchre at a Glance

A very common structure is to use a full doubled Euchre deck: two copies of every 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King and Ace in all four suits. That's 48 cards total.

With four players, all 48 cards can be dealt as twelve-card hands. With six players, the same deck produces eight-card hands.

Four-Player 48-Card Game Six-Player 48-Card Game
Players 4 6
Teams 2 vs. 2 3 vs. 3
Cards per player 12 8
Tricks per hand 12 8
Undealt cards Usually none Usually none
Documented examples Indiana, Craig Powers Bloomington, Racehorse, Pigs & Hogs

Those are documented examples, not universal rules. Double-deck Bid Euchre games also exist with 32, 40, 44 and 50 cards.

One distinction is especially important: Double Deck Bid Euchre is not the same thing as ordinary Double Deck Euchre. Bid Euchre uses an auction based on the number of tricks a player expects to take. Non-bid Double Deck Euchre uses a more traditional Euchre-style process for making trump.

If your game uses traditional trump calling instead of an auction, see How to Play Double Deck Euchre.

How Four-Player Double Deck Bid Euchre Works

Two of the best-documented four-player versions come from the American Midwest. The Indiana/Indianapolis game and the version attributed to Craig Powers both use 48 cards, twelve-card hands and fixed partnerships.

At first glance they look like the same game. They aren't.

The easiest way to understand four-player Double Deck Bid Euchre is to first learn the parts these two versions share, then look at the rules that separate them.

Players, Teams and Deck

Four players form two teams of two, with partners seated opposite one another.

Use a 48-card double Euchre deck containing:

  • two 9s of every suit

  • two 10s of every suit

  • two Jacks of every suit

  • two Queens of every suit

  • two Kings of every suit

  • two Aces of every suit

Deal the entire deck. Each player receives 12 cards, so there is no kitty.

Card Rankings

In a suit contract, trump ranks the same way it does in traditional Euchre:

Right Bower → Left Bower → Ace → King → Queen → 10 → 9

The difference is that there are two copies of every rank. If Hearts are trump, for example, there are:

  • two J♥ Right Bowers

  • two J♦ Left Bowers

  • two A♥

  • two K♥

  • two Q♥

  • two 10♥

  • two 9♥

The left bowers count as Hearts for the entire hand.

In the documented four-player double-deck rules emphasized here, when two identical cards would otherwise tie for the trick, the first one played wins.

In the Craig Powers version, No Trump is Ace-high. There are no bowers and no trump suit, and each suit ranks:

Ace → King → Queen → Jack → 10 → 9

The Jacks remain in their printed suits. Unlike some other Double Deck Bid Euchre variations, the documented Craig Powers rules do notinclude a separate Low No Trump contract.

That duplicate-card rule matters a lot more than it sounds. We'll come back to it in the strategy section.

A Complete Four-Player Game: Craig Powers' Midwestern Rules

If you want one coherent four-player rule set that you can sit down and play, the Craig Powers version is a good place to start because its auction, scoring and special contract are all well documented.

The Auction

Bidding begins with the player to the dealer's left.

Normal bids range from 1 through 12 and include a suit or No Trump. A bid therefore represents both theminimum number of tricks the team expects to take and the contract the bidder wants to play.

For example:

  • 5 Hearts

  • 7 Clubs

  • 8 No Trump

  • 10 Spades

A new bid must raise the number of tricks.

The auction is continuing rather than one trip around the table. Players keep getting opportunities to raise until nobody raises the current high bid, someone reaches 12, or the special Go Alone contract is bid.

Most importantly, passing does not eliminate you from the auction.

Suppose the bidding goes:

Player 1: 5 Hearts

Player 2: Pass

Player 3: 7 Clubs

Player 4: Pass

Player 1: Pass

Player 2: 8 No Trump

Player 2 is allowed to come back into the auction even after passing earlier.

That makes a pass very different from a one-round Bid Euchre game. It can simply mean, "I don't want to bid yet."

Playing the Hand

The winning bidder leads the first trick.

Players must follow suit when able. The left bower belongs to trump, just as it does in ordinary Euchre. A player who is void in the suit led may trump or discard.

If trump is played, the highest trump wins. Otherwise the highest card of the suit led wins. If two identical cards would both be the highest card, the copy played first wins the trick. The winner of each trick leads the next one. Play continues until all twelve tricks are complete.

Scoring a Normal Contract

Under the Craig Powers rules, a bidding team that makes its contract scores the actual number of tricks it takes, not merely the amount it bid.

Suppose you bid 7 Hearts and your team takes 9 tricks. Your team scores 9 points. The defenders score the three tricks they captured.

If the bidding team fails to make its contract, it loses the amount of the bid. The defenders still score the tricks they took. So if your team bids 7 but takes only six:

  • bidding team: −7

  • defenders: +6

The research I did does not establish a universal game target for this version, so if you're adopting these rules from scratch, agree on a winning score before the first hand.

Going Alone

Above an ordinary 12-trick contract is a Go Alone bid.

The bidder must take all twelve tricks.

Before receiving any help from the partner, the bidder chooses up to three cards to discard face down. Atthe same time, the partner independently chooses the same number of cards from their own hand to give the bidder.

Neither player gets to see what the other selected before choosing their cards. The cards are exchanged face down, so the bidder cannot look at the partner's help and then decide what to discard.

After receiving the replacement cards, the bidder is back to a twelve-card hand. The partner sits out, leaving the bidder to play alone against both opponents.

A Go Alone contract is worth ±24 points. The bidder must win all twelve tricks; losing even one trick means the contract fails.

That exchange makes Go Alone considerably more attainable than an unassisted twelve-trick sweep, but there is still uncertainty. The partner is trying to send useful cards without knowing exactly which weaknesses the bidder chose to discard.

Indiana vs. Midwestern Double Deck Rules

Indiana Double Deck Bid Euchre uses the same basic four-player setup:

  • four players

  • two fixed partnerships

  • 48 cards

  • twelve cards each

  • twelve tricks

  • no kitty

  • first identical card played wins

But the auction and scoring change.

The Indiana Auction

The player to the dealer's left is required to open the auction with a bid of at least three.

From there, bidding continues around the table. Unlike a one-round auction, players who pass may later re-enter.

The auction ends after three consecutive passes.

That means an auction might look like this:

Player left of dealer: 3

Player 2: 5

Player 3: Pass

Dealer: Pass

Opening player: 6

Player 2: Pass

Player 3: Pass

Dealer: Pass

The 6 bid wins because it is followed by three consecutive passes.

The Indiana rules documented in the research fit the normal Bid Euchre contract framework, but the Indiana-specific source material does not establish Low No Trump as a defining rule. If your group uses a no-trump option, make sure everyone agrees on exactly which one before dealing rather than importing another regional variation automatically.

The named Indiana implementation also does not use a Call or Moon contract above 12.

The Biggest Difference: Indiana Scores the Bid

This is where the two games really separate.

Under Indiana/Indianapolis scoring, a successful bidding team scores the amount bid, not the number of tricks it actually takes.

Suppose your team bids 7 and takes 10 tricks.

Under Craig Powers' rules:

You score 10.

Under Indiana rules:

You score 7.

Those extra three tricks don't increase the bidding team's score.

If the bidding team gets set, it loses the amount bid under the normal set-scoring framework.

Indiana Double Deck is played to 50 points. The documented rules also give the bidding team priority ifboth teams reach the winning threshold on the same hand.

That scoring difference affects how you should bid. Under tricks-taken scoring, bidding seven when you could probably take nine gives you some protection against being set without costing you the extra successful-hand points. Under contract-only scoring, that same conservative seven bid leaves two points onthe table.

These are both documented four-player 48-card Double Deck Bid Euchre games. They simply do not reward the auction the same way.

Rule Craig Powers / Midwestern Indiana / Indianapolis
Players 4 4
Deck 48 48
Cards each 12 12
Kitty None None
Auction Continuing Continuing
Re-enter after passing Yes Yes
Forced opening bid Not documented Left of dealer must bid 3+
Auction ending Nobody raises / 12 / Alone Three consecutive passes
Successful score Tricks actually taken Amount bid
Failed bid Lose bid Lose bid
Duplicate tie First copy wins First copy wins
Special top bid Go Alone ±24 No Call/Moon in documented preset
Game target Not specified in research 50

6-Player Double Deck Bid Euchre Rules

In the 6-player Double Deck Bid Euchre rules covered here, six players form two teams of three, use a 48-card double deck, and receive eight cards each.

A particularly useful documented example comes from Bloomington, Indiana. It also happens to look a lot like the Pigs & Hogs version my group plays—until you get to the highest bid and the scoring.

Players, Teams and Deal

Six players divide into two teams of three. Teammates alternate seats around the table, so every player has opponents on both sides.

Use the same 48-card doubled 9-through-Ace Euchre deck. Deal all the cards, giving each player eight cards. There is no kitty. A documented Bloomington implementation deals the cards in groups of 3, 3 and 2, although the important part is simply that all six players finish with eight cards.

Eight cards means eight tricks will be played.

How the Bloomington Auction Works

Bidding begins to the dealer's left and goes around the table once. Each player gets one opportunity to bid or pass. Unlike the four-player Craig and Indiana auctions, a pass is final. Normal bids range from 1 through 8, and the bidder names the contract as part of the bid.

Available contracts are:

  • one of the four trump suits

  • High No Trump

  • Low No Trump

Examples include:

  • 4 Hearts

  • 5 Spades

  • 6 High No Trump

  • 7 Low No Trump

Each new bid must increase the number of tricks. Above an ordinary bid of 8 is the special Best contract.

One edge case needs to be settled by your table: the Bloomington source used for this article does not specify what happens if all six players pass. If you're adopting the game from scratch, decide before play whether an all-pass hand is redealt or whether the dealer must bid.

Trump, High No Trump and Low No Trump

In a trump contract, the ranking is:

Right Bower → Left Bower → Ace → King → Queen → 10 → 9

There are two copies of every card.

In High No Trump, there are no bowers and no trump suit. Cards rank:

Ace → King → Queen → Jack → 10 → 9

In Low No Trump, there is again no trump suit, but the ranking reverses:

9 → 10 → Jack → Queen → King → Ace

The Jacks have no special bower status in either No Trump contract.

Playing the Hand

The winning bidder leads the first trick.

Players must follow suit whenever possible. If they cannot follow, they may play any card. The first copy of two identical cards wins when both would otherwise tie for the trick. For example, if Hearts are trump and the first J♥ is played, a second J♥ later in that same trick does not overtake it. The first Right Bower stays high.

The winner of the trick leads next. Continue until all eight tricks have been played.

Bloomington Scoring

For a normal numerical bid, a successful bidding team scores the actual number of tricks it takes, not justthe number bid.

The defending team always scores the tricks it captures, even when the bidding team makes its contract. If Team A bids 5 Hearts and wins six tricks:

Team A scores +6

Team B scores +2

If Team A bids 5 but wins only four tricks, Team A is euchred:

Team A scores −5

Team B scores +4

Bloomington plays to 54 points. A team that reaches −54 loses automatically. If both teams reach 54 on thes ame hand, the bidding team wins.

How the Best Bid Works

Bestranks above every ordinary bid, including 8.

The bidder names the contract and receives one card from each of the bidder's two partners. Both partners then sit out, leaving the bidder to try to win all eight tricks alone against the other team's three players.

There's one frustrating gap in the published Bloomington rules: they don't explain the discard procedure that accompanies those two partner cards.

The bidder starts with eight cards and receives two more. Comparable Partner's Best and partner-assisted solo games treat those incoming cards as replacements rather than giving the bidder a larger playing hand, so two cards need to be removed to return the bidder to eight cards before play.

What the Bloomington source does not establish is when those two cards are chosen.

It doesn't say whether:

  • the bidder chooses two discards before seeing the partners' cards, or

  • the bidder receives the two partner cards first and then chooses two cards to discard.

Both procedures occur in related Bid Euchre games, so it would be misleading to quietly choose one andcall it the Bloomington rule.

If you're adopting the Bloomington rules for your own table, agree on the exchange procedure before play. Either approach leaves the bidder with eight cards for the eight-trick solo attempt; the difference is whether the bidder gets to use the partner cards to help decide what to throw away.

How Best Is Scored

Best scoring sounds more complicated than it is.

Start with the normal Bloomington scoring rule: a successful bidder scores the number of tricks taken. Since making Best requires a sweep, a successful Best produces 8 trick points.

Best then adds an additional 8-point bonus.

So:

Successful Best = 8 trick points + 8 Best bonus = +16 points

The defenders took no tricks, so they score zero.

If the bidder loses even one trick, Best fails. The normal penalty for failing an eight-trick contract is −8, and Best adds another −8 penalty.

So:

Failed Best = −8 contract penalty − 8 Best penalty = −16 points

The defending team still scores however many tricks it captured.

For example:

Best Result Bidding Team Defending Team
Wins all 8 tricks +16 0
Wins 7, loses 1 −16 +1
Wins 6, loses 2 −16 +2

The simple way to remember it is:

Make Best: +16. Get set on Best: −16, and the defenders also score their tricks.

Bloomington Best vs. Pigs & Hogs

If you've played our Pigs & Hogs version, Bloomington Best will look familiar.

Both games use:

48 cards → six players → teams of three → eight cards each → eight tricks → High and Low No Trump→ first identical card wins

Both also have an all-eight solo contract involving one card from each partner.

But the exchange procedure, special-bid ladder and scoring differ.

Bloomington Best Pig Hog
Must win all 8 Yes Yes Yes
Card from partner 1 Yes Yes No
Card from partner 2 Yes Yes No
Two cards removed Yes, to return to 8 Yes No exchange
Discard timing Not specified in Bloomington source Before receiving partner cards
Cards played by bidder 8 8 8
Partners sit out Yes Yes Yes
Separate higher unaided bid No Hog above Pig Highest bid
If made +16 +12 +24
If set −16; defenders score tricks −12 −24

That distinction is worth remembering: Pig and Hog are not universal six-player Double Deck Bid Euchre bids.

Bloomington Best and Pig look very similar when summarized as "one card from each partner," but the published rules don't establish the same exchange procedure.

With Pig, the bidder commits to two discards before seeing either partner card.

With Bloomington Best, we know the bidder receives one card from each partner and ultimately needs an eight-card playing hand, but the published rules don't tell us whether the bidder makes those two discards before or after seeing the help.

For the exact Pig and Hog contracts my group plays, see How to Play Pigs and Hogs Bid Euchre.

The Rules That Change From Table to Table

Calling a game "Double Deck Bid Euchre" doesn't tell you enough to know exactly how it works.

These are the rules I'd settle before the first deal:

Rule Documented Possibilities
Deck 32, 40, 44, 48 or 50 cards
Players Four and six are both well documented
Cards per player Commonly 8, 10, 11 or 12
Kitty None, 2 cards or 4 cards
Auction One round or continuing
Can a passer return? Yes or no
Forced bid Varies by game
Trump choice Named during bidding or after the auction
High No Trump Used in some versions
Low No Trump Used in some versions
Duplicate-card rule First copy wins in the Bid Euchre games emphasized here
Successful scoring Tricks taken or contract value only
Set penalty Usually amount bid, but not universal
All-trick contract Alone, Moon, Shooter, Best, Pig, Hog, Call 1/2 and others
Partner help None to as many as three replacement cards

This is why the game's name is often less useful than its actual rules.

Two tables can both say they're playing Double Deck Bid Euchre while one deals twelve cards, lets players re-enter after passing and scores only the contract, while the other deals eight, gives every player one bid and allows Low No Trump.

Both can be legitimate regional versions.

How a Double Deck Changes Bidding Strategy

The obvious difference between single-deck and double-deck Euchre is that there are two copies of every card.

The more useful question is: What should that do to your bid?

You Have to Count Copies, Not Just Ranks

Suppose Hearts are trump and one J♥ has already been played.

In ordinary Euchre you might think:

The Right is gone.

In Double Deck Bid Euchre, the better thought is:

One Right is gone.

Another J♥ is still somewhere.

That changes how you judge a hand before the auction as well.

Suppose you're looking at:

J♥, J♦, A♥, K♥

plus several apparent side-suit winners.

In ordinary Euchre, Right-Left-A-K gives you nearly complete control of the top of trump.

Not here.

The other J♥, J♦, A♥ and K♥ can all still be held by other players. Your cards are strong, but they aren't four consecutive unbeatable trump cards.

A hand that looks like an automatic monster through single-deck eyes can be several controls short of a twelve-trick contract.

First-Card-Wins Makes the Lead More Valuable

The identical-card rule also creates a positional advantage that doesn't exist in ordinary Euchre.

Suppose Hearts are trump and you hold one J♥. The other J♥ is still out.

If you lead your J♥, nobody can play an equal Right Bower later in the trick and beat it. Your copy was played first.

But suppose an opponent leads the other J♥ first. If your J♥ is then played on the same trick, theirs remains higher.

Same cards. Different leader. Different result.

That's why "first identical card wins" isn't just a housekeeping rule for resolving ties. It can make control of the lead genuinely valuable.

A Kitty Changes What You Can Count

The four-player Craig and Indiana games, Bloomington and Pigs & Hogs all deal the relevant deck completely.

That gives you a useful piece of information: every card you haven't seen is still held by somebody.

Not every Double Deck Bid Euchre game works that way.

In the Kokomo variation, four players receive eleven cards and four cards go into a kitty. The bidder picks up those four cards and discards four.

Now an unseen second Right Bower might be in someone's hand—or it might have disappeared into the bidder's face-down discards.

A kitty therefore changes more than hand improvement. It reduces the certainty of your card counting.

One-Round and Continuing Auctions Reward Different Behavior

Bloomington gives each player exactly one chance. Pass and you're done.

Craig and Indiana allow players to pass and later re-enter. That means the information contained in a pass changes.

In a one-round game, a pass tells you a player decided not to compete at the only opportunity available.

In a re-entry game, the same pass may mean: Not yet.

A player can wait, hear more information from teammates and opponents, then return at a higher level.

Contract-Only Scoring Changes the Price of Playing It Safe

Imagine your partnership expects to take around nine tricks.

You bid seven.

You actually take nine.

Under Craig-style actual-trick scoring, you still score nine.

Under Indiana contract-only scoring, you score seven.

That changes the risk calculation.

A conservative bid in Craig's game can protect you from getting set without necessarily costing you scoring upside.

A conservative bid in Indiana protects you from being set, but it also caps your reward.

How your table scores overtricks isn't book keeping trivia. It can change the auction.

“Going Alone” Doesn't Tell You Enough

The term sounds simple until you compare the rules. Craig Powers lets the bidder replace up to three cards from a partner before trying to take all twelve. Bloomington Best receives one card from each of two partners, but its published rules don't establish whether the bidder discards before or after seeing those cards. Our Pig requires the bidder to discard two cards before receiving one card from each partner. Our Hog gives the bidder no help. Hoosier Moon Alone is also unassisted. Other documented versions use one-card or two-card exchanges.

So if someone tells you, "We allow going alone," there are still obvious follow-up questions:

How much help does the bidder get—and when does the bidder have to discard?

Other Double Deck Bid Euchre Variations

The four-player Craig and Indiana games and six-player Bloomington rules are only part of the family.

A few other documented versions show just how wide the range gets.

Variation What Makes It Different
Hoosier Bid Euchre Four players, 40 cards, ten tricks, with 10 as Shoot the Moon and a higher Moon Alone
Kokomo Bid Euchre Four players, 48 cards, eleven cards each plus a four-card kitty
Barrie Bid Euchre 32-card double deck using only J through Ace, with Call 2, Call 1 and Moon
Scott Alber's Double Deck 40 cards, ten tricks, High and Low No Trump, Moon with partner-card help
Shawn's Bid Euchre 32 cards with different minimum bids for suit and No Trump and separate 7-Alone/8-Alone bids
Racehorse / Six-Card Euchre Six-player 48-card form where players bid numbers first and choose the contract afterward
Widebeard Pepper Six players, 50 cards including two Jokers, plus a two-card kitty
Rob Johnston Ontario Pepper 44-card four-player game with a four-card exposed kitty

The point isn't to memorize all of those names.

It's to recognize that double deck doesn't even guarantee the same deck size, much less the same bidding and scoring.

A Brief History of Double Deck Bid Euchre

Double-deck auction Euchre isn't something that appeared with modern card-game websites.

Albert A. Ostrow's The Complete Card Player, first published in 1945, documented Double Hasenpfeffer using a 48-card doubled 9-through-Ace deck. The same rules explicitly allowed either four or six players: four players formed two teams of two and received twelve cards each, while six players formed two teamsof three and received eight.

That older game used a numerical auction beginning at six, dealt the whole deck and specified that the first of two identical cards wins.

That doesn't prove that Indiana Double Deck, Craig Powers' rules, Bloomington Bid Euchre or Pigs & Hogs descended directly from Ostrow's exact game. Regional Euchre games are rarely that tidy. What it does show is that a 48-card bidding game supporting both four- and six-player teams was documented decades ago.

Double Deck Bid Euchre variation flow chart Flow chart showing Traditional Euchre leading to the Auction and Bid Euchre family, then branching into early Hasenpfeffer and Pepper traditions and later regional Double Deck Bid Euchre. Later branches include four-player and six-player groups with related variations such as Barrie, Hoosier, Craig Powers, Indiana, Kokomo, Rob Johnston Pepper, Racehorse, Bloomington and Widebeard Pepper. Traditional Euchre Auction / Bid Euchre family Early Hasenpfeffer / Pepper traditions Later regional double-deck Bid Euchre Double Hasenpfeffer 48 cards 4 or 6 players Four-player branches Six-player branches Barrie 32 cards Hoosier / Scott Alber 40 cards Craig Powers / Indiana 48 cards Kokomo 48 + kitty Rob Johnston Pepper 44 + kitty Racehorse 48 cards Bloomington / Ratliff 48 cards Widebeard Pepper 50 cards + jokers
Double Deck Bid Euchre developed as a family of related games rather than one standardized ruleset. The diagram shows structural relationships, not proven direct descent between every later regional variation.

Double Deck Bid Euchre FAQ

Is Double Deck Bid Euchre always played with four players?

No. Four-player and six-player games are both well documented.

A 48-card deck naturally produces twelve-card hands with four players and eight-card hands with six players.

Does Double Deck Bid Euchre always use 48 cards?

No. Documented versions use 32, 40, 44, 48 and even 50 cards. The 48-card doubled 9-through-Ace deck is especially important in the Midwestern four- and six-player games covered in this article.

Which identical card wins?

In the documented Double Deck Bid Euchre versions emphasized here, the first identical card played wins.

That's worth confirming before the game starts, because other forms of double-deck Euchre use different conventions. In particular, documented non-bid Double Deck Euchre includes a second-identical-card-wins tradition.

Does the dealer have to bid?

It depends on the version.

Indiana Double Deck doesn't wait for an all-pass auction—the player to the dealer's left is required to open at three or higher.

Other versions stick the dealer if everyone else passes. Bloomington's documented rules don't specify the all-pass procedure, so a group adopting those rules should decide that point before playing.

Can you bid again after passing?

Sometimes.

Craig Powers and Indiana Double Deck allow re-entry after a pass.

Bloomington, Pigs & Hogs and several other games use a one-round auction where passing ends your participation for that hand.

Do overtricks count?

That depends on one of the most important scoring choices in the game. Craig Powers' version scores the tricks actually taken. Indiana Double Deck scores only the amount bid. So a team that bids seven and takes ten scores ten under Craig rules and seven under Indiana rules.

How much is a Bloomington Best worth?

A successful Best is worth 16 points to the bidding team: eight points for taking all eight tricks plus an eight-point Best bonus. A failed Best costs the bidding team 16 points: the eight-point penalty for failing the eight-trick contract plus the additional eight-point Best penalty. The defenders also score however many tricks they take on a failed Best.

Does the Bloomington Best bidder discard before receiving partnercards?

The published Bloomington rules don't answer that question. They say that each partner gives the bidder one card, but they don't specify the accompanying two-card discard procedure. Comparable Partner's Best versions treat the partner cards as replacements, which returns the bidder to an eight-card playing hand.

What isn't established is whether the Bloomington bidder chooses those two discards before or after seeing the partners' cards.

If you're adopting the rules, agree on that detail before the game.

Is Pigs & Hogs (Pig It Hog It) the same as six-player Double Deck Bid Euchre?

Pigs & Hogs is a six-player Double Deck Bid Euchre variation, not the universal six-player version. It shares much of its structure with Bloomington Bid Euchre, but Pig and Hog are specific special contracts, their card-exchange procedure differs from the incomplete Bloomington Best description, and the scoring is different.

There Isn't One Double Deck Bid Euchre Rulebook

If someone tells you they play Double Deck Bid Euchre, you still don't know exactly what game they play. They could have four players or six. They might deal 48 cards or remove some ranks. Passing might eliminate you from the auction or mean nothing more than "not yet." A successful seven bid might score seven points or ten. And "going alone" might mean no help at all—or several replacement cards frompartners.

That's part of the game rather than a problem that needs to be fixed.

Before playing with a new group, settle the rules that actually matter:

deck → auction → No Trump options → duplicate-card rule → scoring → special all-trick contract

Once those are clear, the rest will feel very familiar to an experienced Euchre player.

Our What's Trump? app supports four- and six-player Bid Euchre games, including double-deck play and configurable No Trump options, so it can follow the version your group actually plays instead of forcing everyone into one set of house rules.

Brian Smith

Brian Smith is a longtime Euchre and Bid Euchre player and the developer of What’s Trump?, an iPhone app for tracking Euchre scores, dealer rotation, trump, and player statistics.

https://www.desperadoapps.com/about-us
Previous
Previous

Three-Handed Euchre: How to Play and Keep Score

Next
Next

How to Play Double Deck Six-Person Euchre