Defending a Lone Picker
When the picker goes alone, every other player at the table is on your side. Play like it: schmear onto any trick a fellow defender is winning once the picker has played, lead so the picker has to commit before most of your side does, and expect the picker to hold long, strong trump.
Knowing the picker is alone
- Call an ace: going alone is announced, so you know before the first card.
- Jack of diamonds: the picker holding the J♦ is alone, and you find out when the picker plays it. If the picker buried it, you never see it; as tricks go by and the jack never appears, the odds that the picker is alone climb.
- Three-handed: the picker is always alone.
What changes
Against a picker with a hidden partner, every defender has to be careful: the player winning a trick might be the partner, so throwing an ace on it might be a gift. Against a known lone picker that worry is gone. Any non-picker winning a trick is a teammate.
- Schmear freely onto any trick a fellow defender is winning, once the picker has already played to it or cannot take it.
- Do not take tricks off each other. If a teammate is winning and the picker has played, let it stand and add points, rather than overtaking with a trump you may need later.
- Sit behind the picker. Defenders who play after the picker see what the picker did before deciding. Leads that make the picker play early in the trick give the rest of you that view.
Our computer players used to defend a lone picker as if a hidden partner might be among the defenders. Teaching them that the other defenders are teammates made them measurably better, though the gain per deal is small simply because lone pickers are not that common.
What a lone hand usually holds
A sensible picker goes alone with long, high trump: seven or more trump with a black queen, six with both black queens, and similar shapes, usually with a fail ace or two kept back. So:
- Do not lead trump into it. You will be pulling your own side’s trump for the picker.
- Lead fail suits, especially ones the picker may have kept an ace in, and make the picker win them with trump or lose them.
- Save your best trump to overtake. One defender holding the trump that beats the picker’s last one can be the whole hand.
Counting to 60
The defense only needs 60 of the 120 points, and against a lone picker every point any defender takes counts toward it. A picker who loses even two well-schmeared tricks is often in trouble. Keep a running count; when your side is close, the last tricks are worth fighting for even with cards you would normally save.
Cracking a lone picker
A crack against a lone picker doubles a hand that already pays each defender one unit at a time. A picker going alone by choice is announcing a strong hand, so the bar for cracking should be high; see when to crack.
Related
Play a hand
Sheepshead Club is free, with no ads and no account needed. Play a first hand with the coach beside you (about three minutes), or sit down at a table with computer players or real people.