The Sheepshead Call
The sheepshead call is the picker showing all four queens. It quadruples the stakes, and the picking side must then take every trick. Lose a single trick and the hand is lost, however many points the picking side has taken.
Who may make it, and when
Only the picker, after the bury, holding all four queens among the cards they kept. Queens picked up from the blind count. It is not a blitz and is not affected by one: a blitz is a side bet on the stakes, while the sheepshead call is a promise about the whole hand, and that promise is the picker’s to make. It is optional. A picker with four queens who does not want to promise every trick simply plays the hand.
How it is scored
| The picking side | Result | Stakes |
|---|---|---|
| Takes every trick | Win, and every trick is schwarz | ×4 for the call, ×3 for schwarz: ×12 |
| Loses even one trick | Lose, whatever the points | ×4, scored as a plain loss on the points taken |
At a five-handed table with a partner, a made sheepshead call is 12 units from every defender: 24 to the picker and 12 to the partner. A missed one, with the points counting as a plain loss, costs the picker 8 and the partner 4. A crack or recrack multiplies either result. If the picking side somehow finished under 31 points as well, the usual schneider doubling still applies.
The points actually taken are still shown, so the score sheet can read 99 for the picking side next to a losing result. That is the call doing what it says.
How rare it is
A given player is dealt all four queens in their six cards about once in 2,400 hands. At a five-handed table, somebody is dealt all four about once in 480 deals, and a few more four-queen hands are completed from the blind.
Should you make it?
Four queens are the top four trump, but every trick means every trick. The call is worth making when the rest of the hand can follow the queens home: more trump behind them, so you can pull every trump out of the defense, and no loose fail card that a defender can win when you run out of leads. A picker with four queens and a stray king of spades can easily lose the trick that card gets played on. Four queens and nothing else is a strong hand and a poor sheepshead call.
A club variation: the double blitz
Some groups dislike the all-or-nothing call. A club here can set four queens to be a double blitz instead: shown on the pick, four times the stakes, and no promise to take every trick. With that set, the sheepshead call is not offered.
Related
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.