Lead trump to your partner in Euchre

By Marya · Updated by Holger in September 2026

Suppose you're playing a hand of Euchre and the dealer is to your right. Now imagine that your partner, across from you, has called trump. Maybe they ordered the up card into the dealer's hand. Or maybe they called trump after everyone else had passed. Since you're left of the dealer, you lead the first trick. Which card should you play? If you hold a trump card, you should lead the trick with it.

Here's a video with a replay of a Euchre hand that shows you why.

In this example, I'm right of the dealer. Everyone has passed. I have two black Jacks, the Jack of Clubs and the Jack of Spades. I also have the Queen of Clubs. If I call clubs as trump, I'll have 3 trumps and the Ace of Diamonds. That's a pretty strong hand. So I call clubs.

My partner must play the first card. What should they do? As you can see, my partner has a strong hand too, with 2 clubs (trumps) and the Ace of Hearts. It might be tempting for them to lead the Ace. It seems like a sure winner. But it's not. If you look at our hands in the video, you'll see that my right-hand opponent is void in hearts. That means if my partner plays a heart, that opponent doesn't have to follow suit. They can trump this trick! Because I do have a heart, I'll have to follow suit. So my partner's Ace, which might have taken a trick, is lost.

Fortunately for my team, my partner saw that since I called clubs as trump, I probably have a strong hand with several clubs. I very probably have the right bower (the Jack of Clubs), which is the strongest trump card. Otherwise, as third seat (sometimes called "third chair"), I would have passed and forced the choice of trump onto the dealer. With this logic in mind, my partner leads a low trump. This move will strip trump from our opponents' hands. In fact, it's likely that the opponents won't have any trumps left after this play. Then, as you see, any Aces we have can be played without fear that they'll be trumped.