Sheepshead is played with a 32 card deck, which includes A, K, Q, 10, 9, 8, and 7 of all suits. Most often, it is played with 5 players however there are variants for different number of players.
The dealer is determined arbitrarily and after that, they deal 6 cards to the 4 other players and themselves and leave 2 in what is called the “blind.” It is common etiquette to make sure the last two cards are never the ones in the blind.
Once all cards are dealt, the “calling” phase begins with the person left of the dealer.
Each player gets a chance to pick up the 2 cards in the blind in the order from left of dealer to the dealer themselves. Only one person can pick up the cards. The one who picks up the card is called the “picker” and the person who has the Jack of Diamonds is always the “partner.” If the picker has the Jack of Diamonds, they are forced to “go alone”. Additionally the picker can always say they want to “go alone.” If the Jack of Diamonds is found in the blind, the picker can call up to next Jack in the trump order. This will be explained in the trump section in more detail. Throughout this game, the partner is never revealed until they play the Jack of Diamonds.
If everyone passes, a doubler is in effect. This means that the next deal will be worth twice the points. This doubler can be stacked for multiple rounds, for example if everyone passes 3 times in a row, the next 3 deals will be doubled.
Once someone picks, they get to bury two cards from their hand in front of them. These cards are a part of the picker’s points so long as their team gets at least one trick. Now, everyone after that player gets a chance to “crack” which means that the person believes they can do better than the picker and their partner. This means you must not be the partner, and therefore should wait till the picker calls up. After the crack, the attacking team (picker and partner) get a chance to “crack” back, which means that they don’t believe the player who cracked can win. Each crack doubles the point cost of the current game, so it is possible pay out 4x the base amount. Important to note that the dealer is the last to get the choice to pick so therefore no one can crack, since they are the last person. Whereas for the first player, everyone else is behind them, so it is more possible for them to be cracked.
Finally once picking and cracking are completed, the game starts with the person left to the dealer.
Trump in sheepshead is quite unique and difficult for beginners to understand usually. However the trump is always static. It will never change so therefore you will easily remember it the more you play.
One important phrase to remember is “Clubs, Spades, Hearts, Diamonds.” This is the order of the high trump. In sheepshead, we play with the 32 card deck including A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8 and 7. Out of these, the Queens and Jacks are always trump! And they are arranged in the order of the suits as above with Queens being higher than Jacks. After that, all the diamonds left are also trump. Below is depiction of this order.
In sheepshead, as you may seen, the 10 is stronger than a King, which means 10s beat Kings. These 14 trump cards are always trump no matter what happens. In the fail suits or non-trump suits, the highest to lowest is A, 10, K, 9, 8, 7.
Since each player was given 6 cards, the game is played over 6 rounds. The team (attacking vs defending) with the most points wins! However in cases of ties, the defending team always wins. As shown above, Aces are worth 11 points, tens are worth 10 points, Kings are worth 4, Queens are worth 3 and jacks are worth 2. For the entire game there are 120 possible points. As a rule of thumb, if you are able to get 6 pointers (Aces or tens) you should win the game. Keeping track of them is important.
The individual who wins a round of play takes all the cards played and places them face down in front of them and also accumulates all the points. Once 6 rounds are finished, the two teams count points, and the winner collects a number of points equal to what occurred. In the table below, you can see you points are counted, and how many chips you must pay out.
| Result (Picker - Defender) | Cost Per Player on Defender Team | Cost Per Player on Picker Team (Picker cost - Partner cost) |
|---|---|---|
| 120-0 | -3 | +6/+3 |
| 91-29 | -2 | +4/+2 |
| 61-59 | -1 | +2/+1 |
| 60-60 | +2 | -4/-2 |
| 30-90 | +4 | -8/-4 |
| 0-120 | +8 | -16/-8 |
Additionally if any doublers or “cracks” occurred in the bidding phase, all these values would be doubled by the number that exist. The payout is not as important to know since we will explain it for you in the club.
One important aspect to remember is if you are the picker and you get no tricks, you pay out both costs!!!!