Whatever happened to …

2s and 3s?

I had previously talked about Euchre in one of these regular Sunday morning posts.

https://dougpete.wordpress.com/2022/05/22/whatever-happened-to-313/

It was a great part of my childhood. Please visit or revisit the original post above to see why. It was something that our family did quite often and I’ve played in a number of situations outside the family as well.

It was a love that we could never pass on to our kids. You’d think we could get a foursome easily but no. My wife and I and our youngest were players and that was it.

Until a couple of weeks ago when my oldest was over for an evening and after we’d played Taboo for a while, suggested that we play Euchre. It was only then that we realized that Euchre does have a strange set of rules like only playing with part of the deck, bowers from the other colour, ordering your partner, going alone, …

Photo by Aditya Chinchure on Unsplash

Now, my oldest is a stick-to-it type of person and after that first night downloaded an app to her phone to learn the game better. Love that little girl.

She was out last night and wanted to play and so we were off. She really had learned from the app and it was great. It was time to teach her how to keep score. There’s another twist!

Nobody we know counts with fives. Or, except for my inlaws, use those plastic can tops with the pointers or, gasp, score with pencil and paper.

It didn’t go well but she did well for a beginner!

For a Sunday, your thoughts?

• If you’re a Euchre player, do you count with fives or 2s and 3s?
• Do you count with something else?
• Did you know you can download an app to count? (I’d be more impressed if you wrote your own)
• If luck isn’t going your way, do you “sprout a point” by moving the card to show a bit of the next one? (that brought back a lovely memory because my mom did it all the time)
• Can you explain the logic of flipping the card to count once you hit five?
• Can you give a good explanation for how to count a nine?
• Isn’t it bizarre that the highest card isn’t the Ace? Can you name another game like this?

Help me out here. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

This is a regular Sunday morning post around here. They’re all available here.