When to call a loner in Euchre

By Marya · Updated by Holger in September 2026

During the "choosing" part of a Euchre hand, a player can name the trump suit. They can also decide to "go alone". This means their partner sits out the hand and the player tries to take all the tricks on their own.

At first glance, that seems crazy. Euchre is a team game and many tactics rely on team play. Why go it alone when you don't have to?

The reason is that a successful loner gets you 4 points, while you can normally only win 1 or 2 points in a hand. That many points can make the difference between winning and losing! If you go alone and only take 3 or 4 tricks, your team gets just 1 point. But that's the same 1 point you'd get for 3 or 4 tricks with your partner playing. Because of the high reward, many people will take the risk of a failed loner. Usually, the worst that can happen is that your team only wins 1 point for that hand. However, sometimes a risky loner gets euchred, which gives the other team 2 points. This is something you want to avoid!

It's very rare to get a loner that's sure to win every trick. This type of hand is called a "laydown loner" and it looks like this:

This loner has all the highest cards of the trump suit, including the left and right bowers (both red Jacks). No matter what cards the opponents play or who leads the first trick, a player holding this hand will take every trick.

When should you risk a loner?

Let's take a look at this hand:

I had an off-suit Ace (the spade) and a handful of diamonds (the Jack of Hearts counts as a diamond when diamonds are trump). Importantly, I didn't have the Jack of Diamonds, the right bower! Without it, I couldn't be sure of taking every trick. But it was just too tempting, so I called a loner.

The video below shows how my loner went.

It turned out that the right bower was in my partner's hand, so it sat out with them. That's how I won. At worst, I would only have won a single point.

If you watch the video, you'll see that my loner might have failed if the opponent to my right had led a club. I might have trumped with my 9 of Diamonds and been over-trumped by the 10 of Diamonds in my left-hand opponent's hand. So my right-hand opponent would probably have been wiser to lead the trick with a long suit (clubs, here), which sometimes stops a loner.

Playing as a team in Euchre

You'll find that people disagree about when it's worth going alone. Some think it's rude to go alone with anything but the best hands. Since Euchre is a team game, they think that going alone throws away the chance to win 2 points with your partner's help.

Other people are at the other end of the risk scale. They'll call even risky loners that might get them euchred and give the other team 2 points.

I think most people see the value of a pretty good hand and are happy when their partner goes alone at the right time. I also think one of the most important things in Euchre is that partners agree on strategy. Otherwise, it's not much fun. Partners start to bicker over whether this or that hand was a good loner. Then the partnership turns sour. Hopefully, everyone understands that both partners are trying to win the game and are doing it with their best judgment!