Doublers
A doubler is one of the usual answers when everyone passes: nobody plays the hand, the cards are thrown in, and the next hand is played for double stakes. It is Sheepshead Club’s default all-pass rule.
When several hands pass out in a row
A single doubler is simple. The question every table eventually has to answer is what happens when the next hand passes out too. There are two ways to handle it, and at Sheepshead Club a table or club chooses between them:
- Fold together (the default). Each pass-out doubles the stake carried forward: two in a row make the next hand worth four times, three make it eight times. Here the carry is capped: a pass-out at eight times rolls over to two times rather than climbing to sixteen. Once a hand is played, the stake goes back to normal for the hand after it.
- One at a time (a queue). Each pass-out adds one doubled hand to a queue, and every hand played works one off. Three pass-outs make the next three hands worth double each, rather than one hand worth eight times. The queue holds up to four.
| Hand | What happens | Fold together | One at a time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Passed out | next hand ×2 | 1 doubled hand waiting |
| 2 | Passed out | next hand ×4 | 2 waiting |
| 3 | Passed out | next hand ×8 | 3 waiting |
| 4 | Played | played at ×8 | played at ×2 |
| 5 | Played | ×1 | ×2 |
| 6 | Played | ×1 | ×2 |
| 7 | Played | ×1 | ×1 |
Folding together lands everything on one hand at eight times, on whoever happens to pick it. The queue spreads three doublings over the next three hands at twice each, so far less rides on any single hand.
A doubled hand doubles everything
The carried stake multiplies the whole hand. A crack on a doubled hand makes it four times; a recrack, eight; a schneider on top, sixteen. That is why tables that play cracks and blitzes often want the cap or the queue: without them, one carried hand can outweigh a whole evening of careful play. The tournament page has more on keeping that swing in proportion.
Does a doubler change what you should pick?
Not by itself. Doubling every result of a hand doubles the value of picking and of passing alike, so the better choice stays the better choice; there is simply more riding on it. What a doubler table does punish is a table that passes too much, because the stakes pile up behind it. When our computer players used a very strict picking line, five of them passed out about 35% of deals; letting the last two seats pick a little lighter brought that down to about 24% without costing anything in points.
Not the same as double on the bump
Double on the bump is a separate house rule: when the picking side loses a hand, the whole settlement is doubled. It is off by default here and can be switched on for a private table. A doubler, by contrast, is about hands nobody picked.
The other all-pass rules
Instead of a doubler, a table can play a leaster (lowest points wins), make the dealer pick (dealer stuck), or score a schwanzer. All four can be set on a private table.
Related
- Leasters, doublers and schwanzers: the all-pass page
- Schwanzer
- House rules and defaults
- How sheepshead is scored
- When to pass
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.