The next strategy in Euchre

By Marya · Updated by Holger in September 2026

I hadn't heard of the Euchre "next" strategy until I partnered with a mischievous squirrel at World of Card Games. Before the game started, he asked, "Have you heard of the 'next' strategy, partner?" I hadn't, so he explained it.

When the dealer passes on the up card, they usually want the other color. So first seat can call the same color, the "next" suit, with a weaker hand, counting on third seat to help.

Let's use the screenshot above as an example. "First seat" is the player to the left of the dealer. That's "marya" in the screenshot. First seat is the first to choose trump and the first to play. The up card is a heart, so the "next" suit is diamonds. The squirrel was telling me that if everyone passed on the up card here, the dealer's team probably wanted clubs or spades as trump. So I'd be wise to call diamonds if I could. I thought about this.

When the dealer passes on the up card, every player has had a chance to give the up card to the dealer, but no one did. What does this mean?

If one of the dealer's opponents orders up, the up card goes into the dealer's hand. That gives their foe an extra weapon. So an opponent who orders up probably has a strong enough hand in that suit to make up for it. If they pass, they probably don't have a strong hand in that suit.

And if the dealer's team doesn't order up, they're passing up the chance to get an extra trump. So it probably means neither of them has good cards in that suit either.

When everyone passes on the up card, it suggests that everyone is weak in that suit. Each player may have a stronger suit they'd like to make trump.

This all made sense. The part of the squirrel's strategy that jarred for me was the statement that "when the dealer passes [on the up card] they usually want the other color". I thought of times I had passed on the up card because I had a perfect loner in the "next" suit, not the other color. For example, the up card was a heart and I had a loner in diamonds. In those cases, if first seat called next, they'd be euchred. I wondered just how good this strategy was in practice.

I searched online and found the "next" strategy described on the Vegas Euchre and Ohio Euchre websites. It's known to work, but I didn't have any hard evidence. So I decided to run a test.

Experimenting with the bots

I programmed the Euchre bots at World of Card Games to use the "next" strategy in the best possible case:

• The up card is a Jack.
• All 4 players turned down the up card.
• First seat has a void in at least 1 suit.
• First seat has an Ace in a suit other than the "next" suit if they only have 2 cards in the "next" suit. With 3 or more cards in the "next" suit, they don't need the Ace.

If all of those conditions were met, the bot in first seat called the "next" suit.

Then I ran a large number of simulated games where one pair of bots used the "next" strategy and the other pair didn't. That was the only difference in strategy between the two teams.

The results came out overwhelmingly in favor of the "next" strategy. The conditions above were met in 2,373 hands. The bots using the "next" strategy won 1,924 of them. That's 81%.

Since this worked so well, I programmed the bots to use the "next" strategy when the up card was a 9, the weakest card. This worked about as well. The "next" strategy applied in 617 hands. The team using it won 82% of them.

Which card to play?

Using the "next" strategy sometimes means your team has to play defensively. Ohio Euchre advised, "In a hand where you hold two small cards in next, but no power, try leading an off suit that you think your partner may be able to trump." So if you call "next" with 2 small trumps, don't lead trump unless your hand is strong in a non-trump suit. If it isn't, lead a weak non-trump suit and hope your partner can trump it. If you can, don't lead a non-trump Ace either. Save it until the trumps are gone from every hand, so no one can trump it.

When you call "next", you and your partner need to think carefully about which card to play. The advice above is for a hand with 2 weak trumps. What about other hands? Ohio Euchre explained it in detail. Here's the gist:

• "The best first lead on a next call is a small trump, this is especially true if you hold an off suit Ace... you stand the best chance of hitting your partner's hand" (they probably hold a bower). They went on to say that this should clear the trumps out of your opponents' hands and make your team's Aces safe to play. So if your partner called "next" and you get the lead on the 2nd trick, lead back a non-trump Ace if you have one.
• If you hold the right bower, don't lead it unless the left bower was the up card.
  • If you hold the right bower and the Ace of trump, lead the Ace and hope the left bower is in your partner's hand.
• If your partner calls "next" and leads trump, don't lead trump back. Ohio Euchre warns that this "almost always results in being euchred".

Examples

Here's an example of the "next" strategy. The up card is the 9 of Spades. The dealer is strong in diamonds and will probably call diamonds if the second round of choosing gets to them. First seat doesn't have a very strong hand in the "next" suit (clubs), but he does have two of them. He also has a void in 2 suits, so he might be able to use both clubs to trump tricks his opponents would otherwise win. His side Ace may also take a trick if the trumps are all gone before he plays it. Luckily, his partner holds the Jack of Clubs. No one at the table has a strong enough hand to call spades, so when he gets the chance, he calls clubs. The screenshot below shows all four hands.

In another hand, the "next" strategy backfired. The dealer turned down the Jack of Clubs. Some would say this was a mistake, because he'd have had both bowers if he had taken it. Either way, he had a pretty strong hand in spades. Once first seat called spades as trump, the dealer held the two highest cards in play. This shows how the "next" strategy can lead to being euchred.

To be sure, the "next" strategy doesn't always work. But it works so often that you'd be unwise to ignore it.

Resources

Read more about the next strategy at Vegas Euchre.