Coming from get61?
get61.com has been where a lot of people learned to play sheepshead online. It has been online since 2017, with 2.5 million hands played by its own count, and it was running normally when we checked on 2026-10-11. Plenty of people play at more than one site, and this page is for anybody from get61 who wants to try a table here: what will feel familiar, what is different, and how to bring your group.
What will feel familiar
- The five-handed game. A two-card blind, a picker, one hidden partner and three defenders, with the same deck, trump order and scoring. The rules page has it all in one place.
- Both partner rules. Jack of diamonds partner, and call an ace. Play Now deals the jack of diamonds game; call an ace is one tap beside it.
- The table options you know. Double on the bump, cracks and recracks, and blitzes. When nobody picks: leasters, doublers or schwanzers, or dealer stuck if your table plays that.
- Leaster ties are shared. Each player tied for fewest points collects from everyone who did not win.
- Answering a crack. The picker or a non-passing partner can recrack, including the four-times blitz recrack.
- Recent hands, read the familiar way. Players down the side and tricks across, with the blind, the bury and what everybody scored. You can also replay any hand trick by trick.
- A leaderboard and your stats. With a free account, ranked hands count toward the board.
What is different here
- You never wait for a fifth. Computer players fill any empty seat, at three strengths: Easy for learning, Hard, and Tournament. A person can take over a computer player’s seat between hands.
- No account needed to try it. Sit down as a guest. Make a free account, by email or Sign in with Google, when you want your hands to count.
- More than five-handed. Three, four and six handed as well. Six-handed is the tavern format: the dealer sits out each hand.
- More house rules. Call a ten and card under in a call-an-ace game, the sheepshead call, blitz cracks, how doublers stack, and a turn clock you can switch off in your own room. A set of rules can be saved and shared as a link. Every one is on the variants page.
- Deals you can check. Every shuffle is locked in before the cards come out and revealed after the hand, and one click checks it. See how it works, and how your own deals compare with the odds.
- A coach, if you want one. After a hand, a short note about your pick or a card, only when the difference is clear. It has an off switch. What it will and will not say.
- What ranks. A ranked hand is played signed in, at a public table, with at least one other person there and any computer players on Hard or Tournament. Five- and six-handed tables rank; three- and four-handed do not. The details are on the ranked hands page.
- Club Night. A weekly event on Wednesdays, 7 to 9 PM Central. Best net over the night takes the prize, currently $25, if enough players qualify.
- No ads, no chips. It is free. Optional supporter badges are cosmetic and change nothing about the game.
- Browser only. It runs in any current browser, on a computer or a phone. There is nothing to download and no app store app.
Start in a minute
- Go to sheepsheadclub.com and press Play Now. You are seated at the busiest open table, or a new one with computer players filling the seats.
- When you want your hands on the leaderboard, make a free account with an email or Sign in with Google. It takes one field.
- For a real game against the computer, set the computer players to Hard or Tournament. Easy is for learning and never ranks.
Want to see the screens before you play? Play one coached hand: about three minutes, no account.
Bring your group
For one night: a private table. Press Custom table, name the room, and choose the player count (three to six), the partner rule, what happens when everybody passes, and your house rules. Then send the invite link. Anybody who has not shown up yet is covered by a computer player, so four of you can still play a five-handed game. Save the rules as a preset and you never set them again.
For a regular game: a club. Sign in, choose Start a club, and send the invite link, or read out the club code. The club owner sets the rules once (“tonight we play”), and every time the club’s table opens, it plays them. A club keeps:
- its own table, with your house rules already set;
- its own standings, so the board is just your group;
- a season record, if the club keeps one, that any member can download as a spreadsheet by day, week, month, quarter or year;
- a club badge for its members once the club has five or more.
Club tables are private, so they do not count toward the public leaderboard. That is on purpose: a table strangers cannot sit at is not a fair test for a public board.
Playing in person some nights? The score tracker runs on a phone with no account, and the printable score sheet is free.
Other places to play
We put every site we could find side by side, with what each one is better at, on where to play sheepshead online. In short:
- PlaySheepshead.org: free, three to five handed, with an iPhone app and a large library of guides.
- Sheepshead Live: free five-handed tables in the browser, with computer players to fill seats.
- World of Card Games: four-handed call an ace, alongside many other card games.
Questions or something we got wrong about get61? support@sheepsheadclub.com.