Gamehelpsheepshead

Game Overview

Sheepshead (American Schafkopf) is a trick based card game from the 1830's played with 5 players using a Piquet deck (32 cards: 7 - A in 4 suits). Each hand, the players will be on varying teams and attempting to collect the most points based on the cards they win. The team with the most points wins the round.

The game is played for a predetermined number of rounds where each player has a chance to be the dealer for a hand. Each hand has a bidding phase and a play phase (similar to Spades or Bridge). 6 cards are dealt to each player with the 2 leftover cards being set aside in the blind.

Bidding

At the start of each hand, the players with determine the teams (picking vs opposing) with a simple bidding process. Bidding starts with the player left of the dealer and continues around the table with each player choosing to pick or pass on receiving the 2 cards in the blind. If a player picks, they are on the picking team along with the player who has the partner card in their hand (default is the J♦). This partner is not revealed until they play that card. The picking player must bury 2 of their cards who's points will be counted towards the picking team's point total at the end of the hand. The remaining players are part of the opposing team. If no player picks, the dealer is forced to pick by default. Details regarding the partner card, going alone, no-bid rules, and doubling are described in the sections below.

Play

Play starts with the player left of the dealer who may lead any card in their hand. The lead suit must be followed for each trick with any trump card counting as a diamond lead. If a player doesn't have the lead suit, they may play any card they want including trump. The player with the strongest played card wins the trick and leads the next card (see "card strength").

Point Tallying

Once all of the cards have been played, the points are tallied (see "card point values"). The team with the most points wins the round with larger point differentials resulting in a higher score (see "scoring"). The scores are always a net 0 meaning that the winning team gets positive points while the losing team gets negative points. After the predetermined number of rounds have been played, the player with the highest score wins. In the event of a tie, the player who won the most hands wins.

Bidding Rules

Partner Cards and Going Alone

Jack of Diamonds Partner

The default rule for Sheepshead is that the player with the J♦ is the partner to the picking player. If the picking player has the J♦ in their hand, they may either choose another jack that they do not have to be the partner card or choose to go alone.

By default, the picking player does not have to declare that they are going alone and the partner card remains the J♦. There is an option to make the picking player state that they are going alone before play begins.

Called Ace Partner

In this game variant, the picking player chooses to either go alone or choose a non-trump A for the partner card. By default the picking player must have at least one card in that suit and may not have that A, and if the picking player has all of the As, they may choose a 10. If the picking player cannot choose a partner card, they must go alone.

If the picking player chooses to go alone, they must declare this before play begins.

No-Bid

Dealer Must Pick

In the event that each player passes on picking, the dealer must pick by default (known as "stick the dealer"). Play continues as normal with the normal partner and going alone rules.

Re-deal

In this variant, deal passes to the next player and a new hand is played. This is recommended for beginner players.

Re-deal and Double Points

In this variant, deal shifts to the next player and points are doubled for the hand. This is known as a "doubler" hand.

Play a Leaster hand

In this variant, the hand is played out with each player trying to take the least number of points. The blind card points will be given to the player who wins the last trick. The player who takes at least one trick and the least number of points is the winner and will get +4 to their score while the remaining players get -1.

Doubling

Not implemented yet.

Cracking

Once a player picks, any player after the picker (who didn't have the option to pick) may "crack" meaning that they think the opposing team will win the hand and the points are doubled for the round. If someone cracks, the picker or partner may "re-crack" which will redouble the points (×4).

Blitzing

If the picking player (and only the picking player) has both black queens, they may declare a "blitz" before looking at the blind, If any player (including the picker) has both red queens they may also declare a blitz (known as a "red blitz"). They must do this before the picker looks at the blind. In both cases, a blitz will double the points and the doubling is cumulative.

Play and Scoring Rules

Card Strength

There are 14 cards in the trump suit: all four queens, all four jacks, and all of the diamonds. The order of strength for the trump cards from highest to lowest is: Q♣ Q♠ Q♥ Q♦ J♣ J♠ J♥ J♦ A♦ 10♦ K♦ 9♦ 8♦ 7♦ Note that the Qs and Js follow the same suit order (​♣ ​♠ ​♥ ​♦) and that the 10 has a higher rank than a K.

The remaining suits (​♣ ​♠ ​♥, called "fail suits"), contain 6 cards. The order of strength for the fail suits from highest to lowest is: A 10 K 9 8 7 Note again that Ks have a lower rank than 10s.

Card Point Values

There are 120 points for each hand with each card having a specific point value regardless of suit:

Card Rank	Points
A	11
10	10
K	4
Q	3
J	2
9, 8, 7	0

Note that the Qs and Js have low point values even though they are the strongest cards. In the event of a tie (60 to 60), the opposing team will win the hand.

Scoring

After the points have been tallied, the score is calculated for both teams:

Picking team point total	Picker	Partner	Opponents
120	+6	+3	-3
91 to 119	+4	+2	-2
61 to 90	+2	+1	-1
31 to 60	-2	-1	+1
1 to 30	-4	-2	+2
0	-6	-3	+3

If the picker goes alone, they get both the picker and partner scores. Each hand will have a net zero score.