The Handbook
Everything we have written down, in one place. Start at the top if you have never played; the rest is here for when a hand goes sideways and the table needs a ruling.
Learning the game
- Learn to play A beginner's walkthrough. The deck, the trump order, and one hand played out.
- How to play sheepshead The rules in plain English: picking, burying, partners, and how a hand is scored.
- Glossary Schmear, schneider, schwarz, mauer, blitz, crack, leaster. What the table is saying.
- How to teach it A plan for somebody else's first night, and what to leave out of it.
Playing better
- Strategy When to pick, what to bury, how to play the picker's hand and how to beat it.
- The coach How it decides, what it costs you to ignore it, and what it refuses to say.
Variants and formats
- All variants Three to six handed, both partner rules, cracks, blitzes and leasters in one table.
- Jack of diamonds The partner rule where the jack finds you, whether you wanted it or not.
- Call an ace The picker names a fail ace, and the rules that come with calling it. Also calling a ten, and going under.
- Five-handed The standard game: a two-card blind and one hidden partner.
- Three-handed (cutthroat) One picker alone against two defenders. No partners, nowhere to hide.
- Leasters, doublers and schwanzers What happens when everybody passes, and why your table probably does it differently.
- Running a tournament Seating, rounds, scoring by net, and the calls you need to settle before the first deal.
At the table
- Badges A field guide to every marker on a seat: dealer, picker, partner and the rest.
- What counts as a ranked hand Which tables rank, why easy bots do not, and how hands are weighted.
- Provably fair deals Every shuffle is committed before the cards come out. Here is how to check one yourself.
- Score tracker Keep score for a live table, in a browser, with no account.
- Printable score sheet A blank score sheet, with a cheat sheet on the facing page. Free, and made to be photocopied.
The club
- Where sheepshead comes from German Schafkopf, the crossing, and how it ended up in Wisconsin taverns.
- What's new Everything that has changed here lately, in the order it changed.
- Privacy What we collect, what we keep, and how to have it deleted.
Club Night runs Wednesdays at 7:00 PM Central. Come sit down.