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Formats

How to run a bracketed euchre tournament

In a bracketed tournament, teams play head to head and the loser goes out, until one team is left. There's no single standard way to do it, so decide your rules in advance.

The common shapes

• Straight knockout. Everyone starts in the bracket. It's quick, but one bad game ends a team's day.
• Qualifying rounds, then a cut. Everyone plays ordinary rounds, and the top of the standings goes into the bracket. This is the most common shape.
• Qualifying rounds, then a final. The top two play for the title.

What to decide first

• How many teams go through
• Which tiebreaks order the players after points
• How players become teams, if partners were rotating
• Whether seeds follow the standings or are drawn
• How many games make up a match
• Whether there's a third-place game

Bracket sizes

Brackets follow the NCAA format. Each round cuts the field in half, so a bracket holds 512, 256, 128, 64, 32, 16, 8 or 4 teams. Pick the largest size your field can fill.

Keep the bracket apart from the rounds

Don't add playoff games to the round totals. Otherwise, the teams that played an extra hour would pass everyone on points, and the standings and season totals would stop being fair. If the playoff pays a prize, record it as a prize.