A
zero-sum card game that is so
rustic that people who play
Euchre call it a
hick game. Most popular in
Wisconsin. I have seen it played with anywhere from 3 to 7 players, but 5 is the best.
The Deck
There are four suits: Hearts, clubs, spades, and trump. In hearts, clubs, and spades, the rank, in descending order, is ace, ten, king, 9,8,7. In trump, it is......
Qc,Qs,Qh,Qd,Jc,Js,Jh,Jd,Ad,10d,Kd,9d,8d,7d, where c=clubs,s=spades,h=hearts,d=diamonds.
In addition, each card has a specific point value attached to it:
A=11,10=10,K=4,Q=3,J=2
Note that point value does not correlate to strength.
Each player gets (32 div: n) cards, where n is the number of players. If n=4, then they actually only get 7 cards apiece. The remainder of the cards are called the
blind, and are placed face down in the middle of the table. Each player, starting with the player
left of the dealer, has the
option of either
picking up the blind and trying to
win the game, or of letting the blind sit and passing to the next player. If the
blind is not picked up by any player, then a
leaster is played.
Normal Play
The player that picked up the blind may
incoporate some of the cards that were picked up into the
hand, but must put down (
bury) a blind of the same size as the one picked up. A player may decide to get rid of
low cards from their hand, or they may decide to bury cards with a high
point value. The player to the left of the dealer always plays first.
3 or 4 players
The picker plays against the other players as normal: must
follow suit,
trump beats anything else. At the end of the round, the picker adds the point values of the
tricks he took to the point values of the cards in the blind.
If the picker takes 61-89 points, then the other players each give one dollar to the picker. If the picker takes 90-118 points, then the opponents each give two dollars to the picker. If the picker takes all the points, then the opponents each give three dollars to the picker. Losing is penalized: If only 30 to 60 points are taken, then the picker must give two dollars to each opponent. If 2-29 points are taken (Less than shneider), then four dollars is paid per person. If no points are taken, then six dollars is paid per person.
5 or more players
The picker is in a
partnership with whoever holds the
Jack of Diamonds. If the picker holds the Jd, he goes it alone. This can cause some wonderful
paranoia at the card table: The player to the right of you just
overtrumped the picker...do you toss your
ten on the hand to keep the points away from the picker, or are you
abetting the
enemy? At the end of the round, the score is tallied as before, but the
partner gets 1/3 of the winnings, or must shoulder 1/3 of the
debt to the opponents.
Leasters
If no one picked up the blind, then a leaster is played. The object of a leaster is to be the person who took the fewest number of
points, yet still took at least one
trick. The
blind is given to whoever takes the last trick (some people say the first trick). The winner collects one dollar from each of the other players. Generally, no one likes leasters.
Strategy
Don't ask me. I always seem to end up
losing to
toothless old farts and
rednecks from places like
Oshkosh or
Sheboygan Falls.
If you don't want to go to Wisconsin, you can always play Sheepshead in the game rooms on Yahoo!.