How Picking Works
After the deal, each player in turn, starting on the dealer’s left, either picks up the two-card blind or passes. The first player to pick becomes the picker: they add the blind to their hand, bury two cards, and their side must take 61 of the 120 points. Each player gets one chance, and the dealer decides last.
There is no bidding
Sheepshead has no auction. Nobody names a contract or outbids anybody: the first player willing to take the blind simply takes it, and the players after them never get asked. A player who passes is done deciding for that hand. That makes your seat part of your hand. The same six cards can be a pass in the first seat and a pick from the dealer’s chair, because by then four players have looked at their cards and declined.
What the picker commits to
- Reaching 61. The picker leads the picking side and needs 61 points from the tricks and the bury.
- Double shares. With a partner, the picker wins or pays two shares and the partner one; alone, every share. See scoring.
- A partner by the table’s rule. At jack of diamonds the holder of the J♦ is the partner. At call an ace the picker names a fail ace, or goes alone.
The order of a hand, from the pick
- The seat on the dealer’s left looks at six cards and picks or passes. A pass moves the choice one seat left.
- The first player to pick takes the two blind cards into hand. At Sheepshead Club a picker dealt both black queens, both red queens or three jacks may blitz in the same moment, shown from the six dealt cards before the blind is seen.
- At call an ace the picker now calls a suit, or goes alone.
- The picker buries two cards (four at a four-handed table).
- Doubling: defenders who never had the chance to pick may crack, and a sheepshead call or a partner’s blitz comes here too.
- Play begins, with the first lead from the dealer’s left.
Who has passed, and why it matters later
Where the pick stops splits the table in two. Seats before the picker were offered the blind and passed; seats after the picker were never asked. Only those later seats, the non-passing players, may crack or join a recrack. An example with the dealer in seat E:
| Seat | Decision | May crack if a defender? |
|---|---|---|
| A (dealer’s left) | Passes | No |
| B | Passes | No |
| C | Picks | (the picker) |
| D | Never asked | Yes |
| E (dealer) | Never asked | Yes |
If the first seat picks, all four others are non-passing. If the dealer picks, everyone has already passed, so nobody may crack at all.
When everyone passes
If the blind goes all the way round, the table falls back on its all-pass rule: a doubler (the default here), a leaster, dealer stuck (the dealer must take the blind and play it), or a schwanzer. A player who passes hand after hand gets called a mauer.
Related
- When to pick: the hands worth taking, by seat
- When to pass
- The bury
- Cracking and recracking
- When nobody picks
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.