The remaining three players are now on one team, opposing the picker and his partner. So if the picker calls “Ace of hearts” the person with the Ace of hearts becomes his partner. If he had the 8 of hearts, the 7 of clubs, and the King of spades, he could call any of the three non-trump Aces as partner, as long as the Ace was not in his hand or his blind. For example, if the picker has all trump except an 8 of hearts, he must call the Ace of Hearts as partner. (see going alone) This is done by naming an ace card from which he has a fail card of. Unless the picker has a very good hand (almost all high trump) he should pick a partner. After picking up the blind, the picker must discard two cards, face down in front of him. If no one picks, the hand becomes a leaster, or depending how you play, a doubler. If you don’t have much trump, you can pass, and the next person to the left has the option to pick, and so on, until the dealer has had a chance to pick. If you think that you have a good enough hand (basically a bunch of trump) to win, pick up the blind and put it in your hand. With these basic rules, you are ready to start playing the game.Īfter dealing the cards, the person to the left of the dealer has the first chance to pick the blind. Note that any trump card will take any fail card.

Every suit of the following cards is worth the same, even trump suits. In order to get 61 points (if you are the picker/partner the opposing team needs 60 or greater) and win the game, you must collect a combination of the following cards and the points associated with each. There is a total of 120 points in the Sheepshead Deck. Instead of the usual, twos-through-aces ranking, the 14 Sheepshead trump cards rank as follows: Adding to the confusion is the fact that point values for the cards do not always coincide with the power rankings. The order of power of the cards is a very important part of the game. One of the most difficult parts of Sheepshead for new players to understand is the ranking of the cards.

The person to the left of the dealer becomes the dealer in the next round. These cards are called the blind The remaining cards are then dealt, 3 at a time. After the first round of 3 cards each, 2 cards are placed in the middle of the table. Deal 6 cards to every player, dealing the cards 3 at a time in a clockwise manner. Shuffle the deck thoroughly, and the person to the right of the dealer should cut the deck. The rest of the deck should be put aside, as it will not be used at all in the game of Sheepshead.ĭecide who will deal first. The cards used in Sheepshead are all the suits of 7’s, 8’s, 9’s 10’s, Jacks, Queens, Kings, and Aces. The deck consists of 32 of the 52 cards in a regular Poker-type deck of cards. There are variations of the game which can be played with as little as 2 and up to 8 players. Six players may sit at the table and the dealer just sits out the hand he is dealing. The most common and way to play Sheepshead is with 5 players. The object of the game is to get at least 61 points by taking a number of tricks. Sheepshead is played with 32 cards, each with a different point value and strength.

Hearts for three players