This week on Bubbler Talk, we’re solving a great Wisconsin mystery: Where did the card game Sheepshead come from? And why is it called that, anyway?
When Jeff Williams moved back to Wisconsin after a decade away, he joined a men’s social group to make friends.
“The first thing that they asked me, one of the guys asked me, was ‘Do you play Sheepshead?’" Williams recalls. "And I said ‘no,’ and he said, 'Well ... what good are you?!’”
Williams grew up in southwestern Wisconsin, but he’d never learned to play our state’s unofficial official card game. That had to change. Williams quickly learned the game and has been playing ever since.
It got him thinking …
“Where did this game come from? Why were there so many different rules and variations?" Williams asked. "Why are so many people interested in Sheepshead in this part of Wisconsin?”
I jumped at the chance to answer his question. For me, Sheepshead stirs up warm memories of the adults throwing nickels around the kitchen table under the hazy light. But I never learned how to play the game myself!
So I rounded up the best Sheepshead players I knew — my parents and their friends. My mom took the lead in catching me up.
“You start with 32 cards, sevens and up. The idea is to take as many tricks and as many points as you can," she explained. "Points are more important than the number of tricks you take.”
I'm slow. And I still need a cheat sheet. But after about an hour, I got it!
Here’s my best attempt to explain Sheepshead: Players on two teams compete to win points by playing each of their cards in turns around the table. At the start of the game, the person who thinks they have the best hand takes the cards in the blind. That player, known as the picker, calls a card out, and the person who has that card is their partner. Only the partner knows they’re on the picker’s team.
The key to winning “tricks” or rounds around the table is to play cards that are highest in the trump order, which is its own suit of cards in Sheepshead. Sheepshead doesn’t necessarily assign points based on the traditional card order, so if you’re like me, you keep a cheat sheet to remember the points and trump suit as you play. The team that gets the most points, likely by winning the most number of tricks or turns around the table, wins the game.
If you’re lost, it’s OK. Go to the end of this story to learn how to play from a professional. You can also stop by Sheepshead tent at German Fest this summer for a much more thorough explanation.
Sheepshead has all sorts of strange rules and words. What do they mean?
Next, I needed to figure out what’s up with all the strange Sheepshead rules and lingo.
For that, I turned to Erich Gunther. He’s a first-generation German American who ran the Sheepshead tournament at Milwaukee’s German Fest for several years.
He explains that one challenge is that rules vary greatly based on where you’re playing and who you play with.
Gunther, the Sheepshead expert, says there are two major ways to choose a partner for your team. How you play may fall along geographical lines.
“We play, you know, Milwaukee Sheepshead. Milwaukee Sheepshead, you call an ace for a partner," he says. "A lot of places around the state, you play jack of diamonds is the partner. So whoever is holding the jack of diamonds, that’s the partner for that hand. So there are variations of that.”
Some other weird Sheepshead rules and words: If you’re the picker’s partner, you want to give as many points as possible to them in rounds you know your team will win. That’s called “schmearing” points.
Another one: The losing team gets “Schneider” if they get at least 30 points among the rounds they win. And a “leaster” is played when no one takes the cards in the blind. In a “leaster,” the teams compete for the smallest number of points instead of the largest.
Where did the Sheepshead card game come from?
Next came the most mysterious part of Williams’ question: Where did Sheepshead come from?
Gunther explains that the game originated in Germany and was brought to Wisconsin by immigrants. As for the name Sheepshead? There’s no livestock involved.
“It’s not really ‘Sheepshead,’ it’s Schafkopf, and it’s a Bavarian game. It’s a poor person’s game," he says. "You know, a Schaf, in German, can be a sheep. But the way it’s spelled, it’s the end of the barrel — the flat end of the barrel. So you stand a barrel up, you sit around it, and you play the game with four people on top of the barrel head. In the translation, Schaf became sheep, and it became Sheepshead.”
I brought all of this information back to Bubbler Talk question-asker Jeff Williams. Did I answer his question?
“Sure! It absolutely does. And that’s pretty cool. I like the idea of the inverted barrel as a place to play cards," Williams said. "That’s pretty cool. I like that a lot.”
So whether you play on a barrel or a kitchen table, you call an ace for your partner or a jack of diamonds, at the end of the day, it’s all the same. It’s Sheepshead.
“You sit and play a few games with people, and all of a sudden, every time you see them, it’s an instant ‘hello’ and kinship with them,” Gunther says of why he plays. “It’s a good way to hang out with people and meet new people.”
How to play Wisconsin's Sheepshead card game
Want to learn how to play Sheepshead? Here's a guide, courtesy of Brian Weis of Sheepshead.org:
Overview
Sheepshead is played with 32 cards, each with a different point value and strength. The object of the game is to get at least 61 points by taking a number of tricks.
Players
The most common and way to play Sheepshead is with five players. Six players may sit at the table and the dealer just sits out the hand they are dealing. There are variations of the game which can be played with as little as two and up to eight players.
The Deck
The deck consists of 32 of the 52 cards in a regular Poker-type deck of cards. The cards used in Sheepshead are all the suits of 7s, 8s, 9s 10s, Jacks, Queens, Kings, and Aces. The rest of the deck should be put aside, as it will not be used at all in the game of Sheepshead.
The Deal
Decide who will deal first. Shuffle the deck thoroughly, and the person to the right of the dealer should cut the deck. Deal six cards to every player, dealing the cards three at a time in a clockwise manner. After the first round of three cards each, two cards are placed in the middle of the table. These cards are called the "blind." The remaining cards are then dealt, three at a time. The person to the left of the dealer becomes the dealer in the next round.
Card Rankings
One of the most difficult parts of Sheepshead for new players to understand is the ranking of the cards. The order of power of the cards is a very important part of the game. Adding to the confusion is the fact that point values for the cards do not always coincide with the power rankings.
Instead of the usual, twos-through-aces ranking, the 14 Sheepshead trump cards rank as follows:
- Queen of clubs
- Queen of spades
- Queen of hearts
- Queen of diamonds
- Jack of clubs
- Jack of spades
- Jack of hearts
- Jack of diamonds
- Ace of diamonds
- Ten of diamonds
- King of diamonds
- Nine of diamonds
- Eight of diamonds
- Seven of diamonds
The fail cards rank as follows: Aces, tens, kings, nines, eights and sevens in the order clubs, spades, and hearts.
Note that any trump card will take any fail card. Also note that 10s take kings. With these basic rules, you are ready to start playing the game.
Basic play
The Picker
After dealing the cards, the person to the left of the dealer has the first chance to pick the blind. 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.
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 no one picks, the hand becomes a "leaster," or depending how you play, a doubler. After picking up the blind, the picker must discard two cards, face down in front of him. The picker then picks a partner.
Picking a Partner
Unless the picker has a very good hand (almost all high trump) they should pick a partner. This is done by naming an ace card from which the picker has a fail card of.
For example, if the picker has all trump and an 8 of hearts, they must call the Ace of Hearts as partner. If the picker had the 8 of hearts, the 7 of clubs, and the King of spades, they could call any of the three non-trump Aces as partner, as long as the Ace was not in the picker's hand or the blind.
So if the picker calls “Ace of hearts” the person with the Ace of hearts becomes the partner. The remaining three players are now on one team, opposing the picker and the partner. No one, except the partner, knows who the partner is at the beginning of the hand, and the partner cannot tell anyone. The picker must keep the fail card matching the suit of the partner’s Ace until the suit is led, then the picker must play the called suit/fail card. The fail card cannot be played in any other trick except when the called suit is played.
If all of the picker’s fail cards are aces after picking, they cannot call the suit of any ace he has in his blind. They must place any one of his cards face down and call any fail Ace they don't have in their hand or blind. The card in the hole must be played when the suit of the called Ace is led, as if the card was the failed suit called. Only the person who wins the trick is allowed to see the card in the hole, and this card cannot take the trick despite its ranking.
If the picker has all three non-trump Aces, a 10 of a fail suit can be called as partner. The same rules apply as if the picker called an Ace. Remember: The Ace and 10 of diamonds can never be called because they are trump.
In the event the picker has no fail, the picker can call a suit as an under. The trump is played face down and played face down when the called suit is played. The trump under card is not used to determine who won the trick.
Variation: Sheepshead is also played that the Jack of Diamonds is automatically the partner.
The Lead
The person directly to the dealer’s left leads, that is, plays the first card. The other players must follow suit in a clockwise manner. The player who wins the trick always leads the next trick.
Following Suit
A very important rule to remember is that you must always follow suit. Trump is a suit. On trump cards, the card’s suit doesn’t matter.
For example, the Queen of spades is a trump, not a spade. Only trump cards can beat the suit that is led. A nine of hearts will not beat a 7 of clubs if clubs was led. Only a higher club or a trump will take the trick away from the 7 of clubs.
If a spade is led, you must play a spade if you have it, and so must everyone else. If you don’t have a spade, then you can trump the trick or play any card in your hand, but no other card but a trump will win. You may wish to give points away if your partner is going to win.
If a trump card is led, then everyone must play a trump on that trick. Remember, the Ace must be played when the called Ace suit is led, even if you have other cards of the same suit in your hand. The person with the highest ranking card at the end of a trick, wins that trick and collects the points. The game is over when six tricks are played. The winner is determined by counting points.
Point Value of Cards
There is a total of 120 points in the Sheepshead Deck. 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.
Every suit of the following cards is worth the same, even trump suits:
- Aces: 11 points
- Tens: 10 points
- Kings: 4 points
- Queens: 3 points
- Jacks: 2 points
- Nines, eights and sevens: 0 points
Scoring Sheepshead
1. The picker and the partner win the game if they can collect 61 points from the six tricks played. The picker would then get two points for the win and the partner would get one. The other players would all lose one point from their score.
2. If the picking team gets 60 points or less, which also leaves 60 points or more for the opposition, the opposition wins. The picker would lose two points and the partner would lose one, while the three other players would all receive one point each. (It is more common and accepted at almost all tournaments to play “double on the bump” meaning the stakes double if the picking team loses. By doubling the stakes it discourages frivolous picking. The picker loses four and the pickers partner loses two).
3. If the picking team wins and the opposition fails to get 30 points, the picking team "Schneiders" the opposition and wins double the points they would have. The opposition would then lose two points each.
4. If the picking team does not get 31 points in a game, the opposition "Schneiders" them, and each player on the opposing team gets two points. The picker loses four points and the partner loses two. (Once again double on the bump applies here as well, if the picking team fails to make 31 points the stakes double. The picker loses a total of eight and the partner loses four).
5. If the picking team takes all the tricks, which would give them 120 points in that game, they no-trick the opposition and get three times the usual amount. Picker gets six points, partner gets three points, and each player on the opposition loses 3 points.
6. If the opposition gets all the tricks, even if they don’t get all 120 points, the picker loses nine points and each of the opposition players receive three points. The partner is not penalized in this case.
When scoring, remember that the total score from all player, including negatives, must always equal zero.
Reprinted with permission of Sheepshead.org
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