Sheepshead is an American trick-taking card game. It is derived from Bavaria's national card game, Schafkopf (lit. 'sheep's head'), hence it is sometimes called American Schafkopf. Sheepshead is a game for five players.
One of Sheepshead's distinguishing features, compared to other popular trick-taking card games like Bridge, Hearts, Spades, or Euchre, is a hidden-partnership structure. The picker's partner is determined at the beginning of each game, but their identity is unknown to the picker and the defenders. This creates an element of asymmetric information, as players must deduce the partner's identity through gameplay as in a Social deduction game. Each game, a "picker" and a "partner" compete against the other three players, and at the beginning of the game, only the partner knows their identity as the partner. In 1983, it was declared the official card game of the city of Milwaukee. It is also common among German counties in Southern Indiana, which has large German-American populations, and on the Internet.
Numerous tournaments are held throughout Wisconsin during the year, with the largest tournament being the "Nationals", held annually in the Wisconsin Dells during a weekend in September, October or November, and mini-tournaments held hourly throughout German Fest in Milwaukee during the last weekend of each July. National 3-Hand Sheepshead Tournament has been held annually in Wisconsin since 1970 in the month of March. 48-hand sessions are held at locations around the state, offering players an opportunity to play in as many of the 100 plus sessions as they wish.
Etymology
Schafkopf literally means "sheep's head" and may refer to the practice going back over a century of recording the score by drawing a stylised head of a sheep with nine lines. However, some sources argue that the term was probably derived and translated incorrectly from Middle High German and referred to playing cards on a barrel head (from kopf, meaning head, and Schaff, meaning a barrel).
Rules
Preparation
Sheepshead is played with 7-8-9-10-J-Q-K-A in four suits, for a total of 32 cards. This is also known as a Piquet pack, as opposed to the 52 or 54 present in a full French deck (also known as a Poker deck, or a regular deck of playing cards). A sheepshead deck is made by removing all of the jokers, sixes, fives, fours, threes, and twos from a standard deck.
Card strength
Card strength in sheepshead is different from in most other games. It is one of the most difficult things for some beginners to grasp.