Loving the Spades/Hearts/Euchre series! I highly recommend playing with "stick the dealer" in Euchre. It makes the bidding more interesting if the upcard is passed around, since you can try for 2 points by passing with a strong but defensive hand and hoping the dealer has no good option.
First Hand: you actually misplayed the first lead. If you have one offsuit ace versus a loner, you should lead a different offsuit and hold your offsuit ace until the last trick. You wouldn't be allowed to choose spades in the second round, because it was passed as the suit on the kitty. That was also a great hand to go alone on. They had both bowers, the queen and their offsuit was the King and Queen of hearts. 3:45 Ordering up when you are four suited and only have one trump is a really bad call. It also makes little sense to draw a round of Trump when you no longer have offsuit aces. Your partner saved you, that is the type of call you would get euchred on more often than not.
First hand I think RHO actually had a great hand for playing alone. Top two trump, another trump, and offsuit KQ. If and only if their partner has the offsuit A or the offsuit A is buried (no one has it), they will likely make 5 tricks whether they go it alone or not. Either way, they are almost guaranteed to make at least 3 tricks whether they play it alone or not. Therefore there's no reason not to play it alone.
I agree. I was a little distracted at the start. The reason I said they didn't was they lost the first trick being a heart but then the final trick was the king of hearts and I forgot that was the same suit they started. I thought they were going it missing two suits they didn't have aces in instead of one. I do agree that it is a good hand for trying to go it alone.
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