Busy couple of months. Went back to work, moved near family, and the kid is almost 8 months old.
In honor of returning to the Midwest, here are the rules I documented a few years ago for three-handed euchre:
The game starts with all 3 players at 20 points and is played over a sequence of rounds using a deck with 10,J,Q,K,A of every suit and the 9 of clubs. The goal of the game is to be the first to get to 0 points.
Each round is played as follows. The dealer deals 4 hands of 5 cards (1 to each player and 1 face down) and flips the remaining card face up. Starting left of the dealer and moving clockwise, players will decide if they want the dealer to pick it up and move the card into their hand and discard back down to 5 cards.
If a player chooses for the dealer to draw that card, that is now the trump suit for the hand. If no player calls it up, the card is flipped over and you go around the table in the same order picking one of the remaining 3 suits. The dealer will be the last to pick and is required to pick a suit (this is the screw the dealer variation in the original Euchre, that I've always played with in cutthroat).
Starting with the dealer and going clockwise, each player can decide if they want to stay , drop , or take the other hand (if the dealer did not take the extra hand). If they stay, they will play with their current hand. If they drop, they will not take part in the round. If they take the other hand, they must play the current round with the hand that was face down. Note that they are playing with that hand sight unseen; they can't look ahead of time.
All remaining players will play the hand with standard Euchre rules (Jack of the chosen trump suit is highest, Jack of the opposite suit but same color is second highest, trump beats nontrump, high beats low, etc). Each trick taken is worth -1 point to your score. Taking 0 tricks is worth +5 points. If you called a suit (or told the dealer to pick the card up) you must take at least 3 tricks, or the hand is worth +5 points (and you get no points for the tricks you took).
Scoring Example 1: 3 players are playing in the first round; Ari dealt the hand and Chad had Ari pick the 10 of clubs up. Ari and Greg both stayed and ended up taking 1 trick each, Chad took 3 tricks. So Ari and Greg are both at 19 and Chad is at 17
Scoring Example 2: 1 player is playing in the first round. Ari and Chad both dropped and Greg was the only one who stayed in. Greg takes all 5 tricks and is at 15.
Scoring Example 3: 2 players are playing in the first round. Ari called a suit, Chad stayed in, and Greg dropped. Ari only took 2 tricks, and Chad took the remaining 3, so Ari is now at 25 and Chad is at 17.
There are 3 remaining special rules:
9 of clubs round: When the 9 of clubs is the face up card on the table, the bidding is skipped. Nobody draws the 9 of clubs, nobody can switch hands, clubs are immediately the trump suit, everybody must play, and everybody needs to take 1 trick to avoid getting 5 points (nobody is required to take 3 tricks)
9 of clubs trump: 9 of clubs is always the lowest trump card, no matter which suit is trump.
5 points rule: At the start of the hand, if you're at 5 points or less, you may no longer drop.