Public support sought in petition to ban funny dealing in Euchre

After launching a public campaign in November to ban funny dealing in Euchre, the AFRAID organization (Against Funny, Random And Inconsistent Dealing) is asking the public to keep that momentum going.

According to a media release issued by AFRAID on Jan. 30, spokesperson Steve Burritt said “tremendous support” has been received from Wonderboy competitors and dealers, and there’s now a change.org petition they can sign to further the cause.

“ … Our vision for Euchre is Hoyle-approved dealing to improve card flow, decrease confusion and allow for more consistent counting of cards,” he noted in the release.

Said Burritt, “According to Hoyle's Rules of Games, 3rd Revised and Updated Edition, 2001, pages 179 – 181, under the heading ‘The Deal’ it states that ‘Each player receives five cards, dealt in batches of 3-2 or 2-3. The dealer must adhere to whichever plan he commences.’  So it’s quite clear that you can’t alternate between clockwise then counterclockwise, or deal 2-3-2-3 then 3-2-3-2, or whatever other nonsense some dealers dream up.”

Communications co-ordinator Jill Sturdy said the only criteria needed to sign the petition is internet access. “It’s a good time to remind people that we need their support,” she said.

“We had very positive discussions with representatives from the Wonderboy Rules Committee and they included both Euchre Dealing sub-committee representatives as well as departmental bureaucrats,” she said. “They were quite intrigued actually by the community campaign when we told them about it and that we’ve got a whole community with a very diverse group of competitors and dealers who are aware of the need for consistent dealing and quite engaged in that effort.”

Once the petition is closed, the plan is to contact Haliburton - Kawartha Lakes - Brock MP Jamie Schmale, so he can submit the comments for official record. “He could also stand up in the House of Commons and read it (petition) out loud,” Sturdy stated. “That would be another part of the strategy, that we request he do that.”