Sheepshead Games The computer program plays three different versions of Sheepshead; Four Handed - Cutthroat, Five Handed - Call an Ace Partner; Five Handed - Jack of Diamonds Partner

Four Handed - Cutthroat

Four players, one picks and plays against the other three. Seven cards are dealt to each player and four cards are placed into the blind. The cards are usually dealt as 2 cards to each player, 2 in the blind, 3 to each player, 2 in the blind and then 2 to each player. After the deal the players around the table, starting with the person to the immediate left of the dealer get to decide if they want to pick up the blind or pass. When someone picks up the blind they meld the four blind cards into their hand and discard four cards. The person immediately left of the dealer leads the first trick.

Dealing

Players agree on who will deal the first hand. The deal moves clockwise around the table after each game is played and continues to pass left for as many games as the players play. In four handed each player will receive seven(7) cards and four(4) will be placed into the blind. Deal two cards to each player, place two in the blind, then deal three to each player and then two to each player. If nobody picks, either play the hand as a leaster hand  or double the stakes of the next game (put up a "doubler"), gather up the cards and deal again. Keep track of how many "doublers" have been put up and play them off. If several hands have been dealt, and nobody picks, then several "doublers" have been added to the number of "doublers" to be played. Each of the next games played is played at double the stakes until the number of "doublers" has been played off (reduced to zero). Decide how many times a single person can deal,  with nobody picking, before they have to pass the deal to the next person. We usually played three(3). If a dealer deals the cards three times and nobody picks they pass the deal left and the next person deals. There is no penalty for passing the deal (other than the table talk that says your an inept dealer). Choosing to pick the blind begins with the player immediately left of the dealer and moves clockwise around the table with each player given the chance to either pick or pass. When a player passes the next player decides if they want to pick or pass. If all players pass, then play either a leaster hand or add another "doubler".  Decide before the first deal if the group will play leasters or doublers.

Playing the hand

Play begins with the person left of dealer leading a card followed by each player to the left playing a card.  Players are required to play a card in the suit lead, if they have one. If they do not have one they can play card they want. Trump always takes fail. If someone leads a heart, and you have none, you can play a trump to take the trick. If you have no trump, then your position in the trick becomes important. Remember that it's three players playing against one. If the picker leads, then the three players following the lead have the chance the to take the trick. Generally the best practice strategy is, "Smeer" or "take". If you can take the trick, then take it and expect that your partners who follow will "smeer" (put on as many point cards as they can, within the limits that they must follow suit). If you can't take the trick, and your partners follow you, then play a point card if you can hoping they will take the trick, but if the picker plays after you, then, playing a point card may mean that the picker will take it. Yes, the picker might take the trick, but on the other hand, they might not be able to (in which case you gotta ask, "why did they pick?")... and yes... it seems to be complicated. it's not. It's entirely dependent upon the distribution of the cards during the deal. Most of the time, the hand will play out as excpected, but there are always  hands where the cards are distrubuted unevenly and you'll get surprised. I've read the match, and the statistics, of the game, and yes there are millions of combinations and plays, that's the appeal of the game, it's never boring and you can't always figure it out. In four handed, if you pick, and you have a "bare Ace" (the only card in the fail suit you have is the ace) that means that there are five more fail cards in that card suit in the hands of the other players. Does every player have one?... most of the time, so If you have a "bare ace" it's usually possible to lead the ace and force the others to play their fail cards on that trick and you'll win the trick, and most likely capture the ten or the king in that suit. If you gather both the ten and king then you've collected 25 points on that trick, of course if you gather only the 7, 8 and 9 then you only get 11 points for the trick (the ace you played).

How do I know when to Pick?

Play more and you'll figure it out. Experience is the best teacher. Playing four handed, remember there are a total of 14 trump. Trump always takes fail, so you need some strong trump to pick, but... remember that most of the points lie in the fail suits, so those last two trick can have lots of points in them. Usually about four or five trump, a couple of aces and some points to burry will do the job. If your the picker, you want to lead, and you want to lead trump. The object is to take the trump away from the other players so they can't play it on a trick. If you have the two top queens, that's two guaranteed tricks and will probably take six trump away from the others players (provided the trump is equally distributed among the other three players, two players will have three and one player will have two). The trouble begins when one of the other players has four of the outstanding trump (that means that the other two players only have two), and if you only have the two largest queens, they will win at least two tricks (and if they can't follow a trump lead they can put smeer cards on the trick for their other player to take). if you have five trump, pick. You'd probably pick up one in the blind and with six trump to be played  on seven tricks you should win five tricks and that should be enough to win, especially if you had some tens or aces to burry in the blind. I've won with as few as two trump and 40 points to burry in the blind. I've also lost with the four queens in my hand when another player had six trump. I won four tricks, but the three tricks I lost had plenty of points in them.

Five Handed - Call an Ace

Five Handed - Jack of Diamonds Partner