Sheepshead

Queens, jacks and diamonds are trump. Pick up the blind, call an ace for a secret partner, and take 61 points. 3–5 players.

Also known as Schafkopf.

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How to play Sheepshead

  1. 1Sheepshead uses 32 cards: 7 through ace in each suit (with four players the black sevens come out). With three players everyone gets ten cards, with four seven, with five six. Two cards go face down in the middle as the blind.
  2. 2Fourteen cards are trump, highest first: the queens (clubs, spades, hearts, diamonds), the jacks in the same order, then the ace, ten, king, 9, 8 and 7 of diamonds. In clubs, spades and hearts the order is ace, ten, king, 9, 8, 7. Queens and jacks belong to trump, not to their printed suit.
  3. 3Starting left of the dealer, each player may pick up the blind or pass. The picker takes the two cards and buries any two face down; buried points count for the picker.
  4. 4With four or five players the picker then calls an ace of clubs, spades or hearts that they don't hold, keeping at least one card of that suit. Whoever has that ace is the secret partner, revealed only when it is played. Holding all three of those aces, the picker calls a ten instead. The picker can also choose to play alone, and always does with three players.
  5. 5The player left of the dealer leads. Follow suit if you can (trump counts as one suit); otherwise play anything. The highest trump wins the trick, or else the highest card of the suit led. The partner must play the called ace the first time its suit is led, can't lead that suit with anything else, and can't throw the ace away on another suit until the last trick.
  6. 6Aces are worth 11, tens 10, kings 4, queens 3 and jacks 2: 120 points in all. The picker's side needs 61 to win one unit, 91 for two, every trick for three. At 60 or below they lose one unit, at 30 or below two, with no tricks three. Each other player pays or collects one unit each; the partner gets one, the picker the rest.
  7. 7If everyone passes, it's a Leaster: each for themselves, the blind goes to whoever takes the last trick, and the player who takes the fewest points (with at least one trick) collects one from everyone else.
  8. 8The deal passes to the left. Everyone deals the same number of times, about ten deals in all, and the highest score wins.

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