hist-games: euchre dealing question

[Jane & Mark Waks]

Wolfersberger, Nicole A wrote:
> Just a quick question, I'm wondering if anyone knows where I can find 
> more information about the convention of dealing out euchre hands in 
> combinations of 1 and 4 or 2 and 3 cards.  I have found many sources 
> that mention this convention but nowhere can I find an explanation as 
> to why.  Any insight is appreciated!

Don't know about Euchre per se, but variations of this convention seem 
to be pretty common in the 17th century. For instance, Willoughby 
specifies for most games how many you deal out at a time, which might be 
anywhere from 1 to 4; La Bete has the 2-then-3 convention.

So I suspect that it's not so much a matter of Euchre being strange, as 
that it's a holdover from older practice...

				-- Justin