How to Play Double Deck Six-Person Euchre
If you already know how to play Euchre, Double Deck Euchre sounds pretty straightforward: shuffle two Euchre decks together and start playing.
Mostly.
The problem is that there isn't one universally accepted version of Double Deck Euchre. The best-documented version comes from Cornwall, England, where six players use two decks and play in teams of three. A separate North American rules tradition also documents six-player Euchre with a doubled deck, but some important rules are different.
The biggest one is surprisingly simple: what happens when two identical cards are played in the same trick? In the Cornish game, the second identical card wins. In the documented North American version, the first one wins.
So rather than pretending there is one official ruleset, we'll look at how to play both. This guide gives you complete rules for documented six-player Double Deck Euchre versions and explains the major regional differences. If your game uses an auction where players bid a number of tricks, see our Double Deck Bid Euchre rules instead.
Table of Contents
- What Is Double Deck Euchre Without Bidding?
- English vs. North American Double Deck Euchre
- How to Play English Double Deck Euchre
- How Duplicate Cards Work in the English Game
- Going Alone and Scoring in the English Game
- How to Play North American Double Deck Euchre
- How Duplicate Cards Work in the North American Game
- Other Double Deck Euchre House Rules
- Double Deck Euchre Is Not Double Deck Bid Euchre
- Which Version Should You Play?
What Is Double Deck Euchre Without Bidding?
Double Deck Euchre is traditional Euchre played with duplicate cards. It still uses the familiar process of ordering up or calling trump rather than auctioning off a certain number of tricks.
Right and left bowers still matter. Players still follow suit. The makers still need three of the five tricks.
What changes is the deck-and once every card can appear twice, a few new rules are necessary.
The published rules are also surprisingly regional. Six-player Cornish Double-Pack Euchre is the most completely documented non-bid version I found. There is another documented six-player North American version, while current tournaments in south-central Wisconsin show that four-player Double Deck Euchre is also still being played in the United States. Unfortunately, those Wisconsin tournament pages don't publish enough rules to reconstruct exactly how their version works.
If you need a refresher on ordinary play before trying either version, start with our How to Play Euchre guide.
English vs. North American Double Deck Euchre
If you're already an experienced Euchre player, this table covers most of what you actually need to know.
| Rule | English / Cornish Double Deck | North American Double Deck |
|---|---|---|
| Players | 6 | 6 in the documented version; four-player versions also exist in Wisconsin |
| Teams | Two teams of 3, seated alternately | Two teams of 3, seated alternately |
| Deck | 50 cards: two each of 9, 10, J, Q, K, A in every suit plus 2 Jokers/Bennies | 48 or 50 cards: doubled 24-card deck, with Jokers optional |
| Cards dealt | 5 each | 5 each |
| Trump selection | Normal two-round Euchre procedure | Normal two-round Euchre procedure |
| Top trump | Benny/Joker, Right Bower, Left Bower, A, K, Q, 10, 9 | Right and Left Bowers under normal play; Jokers can be added in the 50-card version |
| Identical cards | Second identical high card played wins | First identical high card played wins |
| Two colored Jokers | Joker matching the color of trump ranks higher | Joker matching the color of trump ranks higher |
| Follow suit | Normal Euchre rules | Normal Euchre rules |
| 3 or 4 tricks | 1 point | Ordinary Euchre scoring |
| 5-trick march | 3 points | 2 points |
| Makers euchred | Defenders score 3 | Defenders score 2 |
| Lone sweep | 6 points | 4 points |
| Loner assistance | Loner may take one card from either partner and discard one | No special six-player exchange is specified |
| Everyone passes twice | Redeal under the British rules | Follow your normal local Euchre rule, such as redeal or Stick the Dealer |
The biggest lesson from that table is that these are still very recognizable Euchre games. You don't need to relearn Euchre-you mainly need to know how the doubled deck changes card ranking and how your table handles the regional rules.
How to Play English Double Deck Euchre
The Cornish version is the easiest version to teach confidently because its rules are documented in enough detail to play a complete game.
Players and Deck
Six players form two teams of three, with teammates alternating around the table.
The double-pack version uses 50 cards:
Two 9s of every suit
Two 10s
Two Jacks
Two Queens
Two Kings
Two Aces
Two Jokers, traditionally called Bennies
The trump ranking is:
Benny -> Right Bower -> Left Bower -> Ace -> King -> Queen -> 10 -> 9
If you're used to Midwestern US Euchre, the Benny is the only completely new card. Think of it as a super-bower sitting above the Right.
Each player gets five cards, so only 30 of the 50 cards are in players' hands on a given deal.
Calling Trump
Trump is made the same basic way it is in traditional Euchre.
In the first round, players may accept or order up the suit of the turned card. If everyone passes, the upcard is turned down and players get another chance to name a different suit.
Under the traditional British rules underlying this version, if everyone passes again, the hand is thrown in and redealt.
If your regular game uses Stick the Dealer, you can certainly use that instead. Just recognize it as your house rule rather than an inherent rule of Cornish Double Deck Euchre.
How Duplicate Cards Work in the English Game
This is the one rule you absolutely cannot leave undecided in a double-deck game.
In the Cornish version, when two identical cards are tied for highest in a trick, the second one played wins.
Suppose hearts are trump.
Player 2 plays the J♥, the Right Bower.
Later in the trick, Player 5 plays the other J♥.
Assuming neither Benny appears, Player 5 wins the trick because the second identical card takes priority.
That is a major adjustment if you're used to normal Euchre. Holding the Right Bower no longer means you own an unbeatable card. Somewhere in that 50-card deck is another Right Bower that can beat yours if it arrives later in the same trick.
The rule applies to other identical cards as well. If two identical Aces are competing for the trick, the later one wins.
What About the Two Bennies?
If the Jokers are distinguishable as red and black, the Benny matching the color of trump ranks higher.
With hearts or diamonds as trump, the red Benny is higher.
With spades or clubs as trump, the black Benny is higher.
If the two Bennies are otherwise equivalent, the normal Cornish duplicate rule applies.
Going Alone and Scoring in the English Game
Going alone changes more than you might expect in the six-player game.
Both of the maker's partners sit out, but the loner may choose either partner and ask for one card. The partner chooses which card to give without discussing the hand. The loner picks up the partner card, then discards one card face down and plays alone against the three defenders.
That makes the decision considerably different from a normal four-player loner. You don't know exactly what help you'll get, but you do get one chance to improve the hand before facing three opponents.
The Cornish scoring also increases the rewards and penalties:
| Result | Points |
|---|---|
| Makers take 3 or 4 tricks | 1 |
| Makers take all 5 | 3 |
| Makers take fewer than 3 | Defenders score 3 |
| Loner takes all 5 | 6 |
How to Play North American Double Deck Euchre
The documented North American version is less completely described, which is worth saying rather than filling in the missing rules ourselves.
John Hay's published rules say that six-handed Euchre can be played with a double 24-card or double 25-card pack and otherwise refer back to the normal Euchre rules. That gives us two clear deck choices.
48-Card Version
Use two copies of every card from 9 through Ace:Page 4
9, 10, J, Q, K, A x four suits x two copies = 48 cards
A standard pinochle deck happens to contain exactly those cards, although you should use Euchre ranking, not pinochle ranking.
50-Card Version
Use the same 48 cards and add two Jokers.
Trump is still selected through normal Euchre-style calling, not by bidding a number of tricks. The Right and Left Bowers work the way they normally do, players follow suit normally, and play remains fundamentally Euchre.
Where the source does not give a special six-player rule-such as a different scoring schedule or special loner exchange-it is safer to use your normal Euchre convention and agree on it before playing.
How Duplicate Cards Work in the North American Game
Here's where the North American rules clearly go in the opposite direction from Cornwall.
Under Hay's rules, the first identical high card played wins.
Use the same example.
Hearts are trump.
Player 2 plays the J♥.
Player 5 later plays the other J♥.
This time, Player 2's Right Bower stays high because it was played first.
Neither system is inherently the "correct" Double Deck Euchre rule. They're two documented traditions.
But you absolutely need to pick one before you start playing. Otherwise, eventually two Right Bowers will hit the same trick and your friendly card game will turn into a very traditional Euchre argument about the rules.
Other Double Deck Euchre House Rules
Once you've chosen which duplicate rule to use, most of the remaining differences are ordinary Euchre house-rule decisions.
Before the first deal, I would settle at least these four:
48 or 50 cards? Use 48 if you want the familiar North American 9-through-A deck. Use 50 if you want the Cornish Bennies.
First duplicate or second duplicate wins? North American Hay rules say first. Cornish rules say second.
Redeal or Stick the Dealer? Traditional British play redeals after everyone passes twice. Many Midwestern players will probably prefer Stick the Dealer.
How do loners work? Cornish six-player Euchre allows the maker to get one card from either partner before both partners sit out. A simpler North American house version would have the partners simply sit out with no card exchange.
The research also found active four-handed Double Deck Euchre tournaments in Baraboo and Reedsburg, Wisconsin, which makes that area the strongest current organized U.S. Double Deck Euchre cluster I found. The organizers distinguish Double Deck from Single Deck Euchre, but they don't publish enough rules to know whether they use 48 or 50 cards, which duplicate wins, or how they score.
Double Deck Euchre Is Not Double Deck Bid Euchre
This distinction matters because searching for Double Deck Euchre online produces a lot of results for an entirely different game.
Double Deck Euchre uses the familiar Euchre process of ordering up or calling trump.
Double Deck Bid Euchre uses an auction in which players bid a number of tricks. Depending on the variation, the winning bidder may then choose trump, call no-trump, exchange cards with a partner, or play under other contract rules.
They're related through Euchre, but they're not the same game.
If your game uses numerical bidding, see our How to Play Double Deck Bid Euchre: 4-Player & 6-Player Rules guide instead.
Which Version Should You Play?
If you want the most completely documented Double Deck Euchre ruleset, I'd start with the six-player Cornish game. The 50-card deck, Bennies, second-copy-wins rule, partner-assisted loner, and 1/3/3/6 scoring give you a complete game without having to invent missing rules.
If you want something that feels closer to familiar North American Euchre, use the 48-card deck and the first identical card wins convention. Then keep the rest of your usual Euchre rules unless your group already has a different tradition.
Either way, the doubled deck changes the way you think about cards that normally feel safe. A Right Bower may have a twin. An Ace may not be the only Ace. Card counting becomes less about knowing that a card is gone and more about remembering how many copies have gone.
And once your six-player game gets rolling, keeping track of whose deal it is and which team just earned three or six points can get messy. My What's Trump? app can handle the score, dealer and trump tracking so you can concentrate on figuring out whether that other Right Bower is still out there.