Sheepshead and Euchre
Sheepshead and euchre are both Midwestern trick-taking card games, but they play very differently. Euchre is four players in fixed partnerships, five cards each, a trump suit chosen every hand, and scoring by tricks. Sheepshead is usually five players, a picker against the table with a hidden partner, the same fourteen trump every hand, and scoring by card points: 61 of 120 wins.
Side by side
| Sheepshead | Euchre | |
|---|---|---|
| Players | Usually five; three to six | Four, in two fixed partnerships |
| Deck | 32 cards, 7 through ace | Usually 24 cards, 9 through ace |
| Cards each | Six at five-handed, plus a two-card blind | Five, with one card turned up |
| Trump | Always the same 14: queens, jacks, diamonds | A suit chosen each hand by ordering up or naming it |
| Highest card | Queen of clubs, always | The jack of trump (right bower), then the other jack of the same color (left bower) |
| Partners | Hidden: jack of diamonds or a called ace | Fixed, sitting across from you |
| Winning a hand | 61 of 120 card points | Three or more of five tricks |
| Going alone | The picker plays against everyone | A player drops their partner for a bigger score |
| Game | A running tally, hand by hand | First team to 10 points |
What a euchre player will find familiar
- Jacks that leave their suit. In euchre the left bower plays as trump, not as its printed suit. In sheepshead every queen and every jack does.
- Ordering up. Deciding whether to take the blind feels like deciding whether to order up: a bet on your hand plus a card or two you have not seen.
- Going alone. Both games reward a strong hand for playing without a partner.
- Stick the dealer. Euchre’s stick-the-dealer has a sheepshead twin, dealer stuck, one of the options when everybody passes.
What will surprise a euchre player
- Points, not tricks. Winning four tricks of six can still lose if the other side took the aces and tens. Which tricks you win matters more than how many.
- Schmearing. Because points decide it, throwing an ace onto a trick your side is winning is the most important play in the game. Euchre has nothing like it. See schmearing.
- Not knowing your partner. At jack of diamonds the partner is hidden until the jack appears, and part of the skill is working out who is on your side. See who is the partner.
- The ten outranks the king. In the plain suits the order is ace, ten, king, nine, eight, seven.
- Doubling. Defenders can crack to double the stakes, and the picker can double back.
Which is harder?
Sheepshead has more to learn at first: a fixed trump order of fourteen cards, card points, and the partner rules. Euchre is quicker to pick up. Players who like euchre’s ordering-up decisions and going alone usually like sheepshead’s pick and its hidden partner, and the counting gives sheepshead a long tail of skill.
Where they are played
Euchre is strongest in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana; sheepshead in Wisconsin, with pockets across the Midwest. Plenty of players grew up with both.
Related
- Learn to play sheepshead
- The trump order
- Card points and counting to 61
- Sheepshead vs Schafkopf
- Going alone
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.