What counts as a ranked hand
Ranked hands are the ones that move the leaderboard and decide the weekly event prize. Everything else still plays exactly the same, it just does not score. Nothing here costs anything: a free account is the only requirement.
The short version
The three conditions
| Condition | Why |
|---|---|
| A public table | Any room listed in the lobby. That includes the permanent ones and any room somebody opened with a Play button, which is listed for as long as anyone is sitting in it. Rooms you build yourself in Custom table are invite-only and never rank, and neither do club tables, because a room a stranger cannot walk into is a room where people could simply agree on the result. |
| No easy bots | Easy bots are beatable on purpose, which makes them farmable. A score you got by beating the practice opponent is not a score. Hard and Tournament both count, and what decides it is the bots that actually sat in the hand, not the setting: flipping the switch mid-hand cannot rescue a hand easy bots played. Public tables are locked to Tournament during an event. |
| A free account | A guest has no name to put on a board. Signing up costs nothing and takes one field. |
How many people have to be there
Normally a ranked hand needs at least one other real player at the table. During an event window that drops to one: a lone player on an event table still scores, because the window locks those tables to Tournament bots and that is a real test, and waiting for a fifth is how a quiet night ends with an empty board.
Hands are weighted
An all-human hand is worth full weight. A hand with bots filling empty seats counts for less, so playing people always beats playing the computer, while a short-handed table with three or four humans still counts for something rather than nothing.
What does not rank
- Invite-only rooms from Custom table, and club tables, at any size.
- Three and four-handed tables. The board compares like with like, and that is the five-handed game.
- Any hand where the bots were on easy.
- Hands played as a guest, without an account.
- The coached lessons. Those are practice and are not recorded at all.
Winning the weekly event
Best net over the night wins, and ties go to whoever played more hands. To take the prize you need ten ranked hands and a positive net, so there is no prize for the smallest loss, and at least three players have to qualify or no prize is awarded that night.
No purchase necessary. 18+, US only, void where prohibited. One account per player; multi-accounting or collusion forfeits the prize. Winners are contacted only from events@sheepsheadclub.com, and we will only ask for your Venmo handle, never a password or payment details. Highpass Studio's decision on standings is final. Sponsor: Highpass Studio.
Running a tournament of your own? The decisions an organizer has to make, and what each one costs, are on the tournament rules page.