Overview
Cutthroat is what you play when a fourth person does not turn up. Also called three-handed euchre, and both names are in use. The trick-taking is ordinary euchre; what goes is the fixed partnership. Each hand, whoever calls trump becomes the maker and plays alone, the other two defend together for that hand only, and everyone keeps their own score.
That one change reaches further than it looks. No partner to cover a thin call, no signalling worth the name, no convention to fall back on. The two defenders want the same thing for five tricks and opposite things over the course of the game, which is where the name comes from.
One warning about the name. Some rule sets use "cutthroat euchre" to mean Buck Euchre, a different game where everyone plays for themselves instead of two against one, scores start at 25 and count down toward zero, and taking all five tricks wins the game outright. If the rules you are reading count downward, they are describing that game, not this one.
The Deal and Bidding
The same 24-card deck, five cards each dealt in packets of three and two, and the nine left over are the kitty with the top one turned face up. Bidding runs as it does at a full table: order up the face-up card or pass, and if it goes round untaken the card is turned down and a second round opens on the other three suits.
Two details carry over from the four-player game and matter more here. The first is that ordering up gives the card to the dealer, who takes it in and discards, exactly as in partnership euchre. Maker and dealer are usually different people in Cutthroat, so ordering up can hand an opponent a free upgrade, and sitting as dealer works the other way: someone else's call improves your hand, and your own calls are cheaper than anyone else's at the table.
The second is Stick the Dealer, on by default, which leaves the dealer no pass to make if the second round reaches them untaken. Turn it off and an all-pass second round throws the hand in.
There is no going alone. The maker is already alone, so the option does not exist and no loner bonus applies.
Play of the Hand
Tricks work exactly as they do at four, with the bowers unchanged. Three cards to a trick, five tricks to a hand, and the player to the dealer's left leads the first one whoever called. Nobody gets a short hand or a dummy: five cards to the maker, five to each defender, and the maker simply faces two of them.
Scoring
The maker needs three tricks. Falling short is a euchre, and in Cutthroat it pays both defenders rather than a team.
| Result | Points |
|---|---|
| Maker takes three or four tricks | 1 to the maker |
| Maker takes all five (a march, called a sweep in game) | 3 to the maker |
| Maker takes fewer than three | 2 to each defender |
Tables argue about the march bonus and the euchre payout: some score a march at 2, some give the defenders 2 points to split rather than 2 apiece. The table above is what runs here. Note what the third row does to the arithmetic. A euchre moves four points around the table in one hand, against the single point a made call is worth, which makes it much the largest swing in the game.
Games run to 10 points by default. The lobby also offers 5 and 11.
Strategy
Bidding
Three tricks, no help. A hand worth ordering at a full table because your partner covers a trick is not worth ordering here, because nobody covers it. The right bower and one small trump is not a call whatever it looks like: it takes about two tricks and you need three.
Call on three trump with a bower, on both bowers, or on four trump with an off-suit ace. The bots here use roughly that bar, with one adjustment worth stealing: they rate the dealer's seat a full trump better than anyone else's, because the dealer is the one taking the up-card in. Three trump and no high cards is the hand that gets people. It looks like a call and it takes one trick against two defenders who both still hold trump.
Defending
Both defenders score 2 on a euchre, so for five tricks your interests are identical and you should play like it. Overtaking a trick your co-defender has already wrapped up costs you a card and gains nothing.
Lead off-suit rather than trump. Trump leads promote a lone maker's small trump, and the maker is the one player who wants the trump gone. Leading from your longest off-suit makes them choose between spending trump early and letting your co-defender take the trick, and either answer helps you. Expect less from the bidding than you are used to: your co-defender passed, which tells you what they do not hold and almost nothing about what they do.
Playing the Score
Euchring the maker pays your co-defender exactly what it pays you. At eight points each against a leader on nine, setting the maker keeps the game alive for both of you and hands your rival the same two points it hands you. There is no way to euchre someone alone.
That makes passing tempting when a rival is close to out, and Stick the Dealer is the answer to it. Everyone can decline right up until the deal comes round, at which point somebody has to name a suit on whatever they were dealt. Passing does not make the problem go away, it decides who inherits it.
See Also
The euchre rules page covers the four-player game this is cut down from. Ace No Face and Farmer's Hand can both be turned on for a three-handed game, and Learning Mode works here if you want the reasoning narrated while you learn it.