Sheepshead (card game)
card game
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. Variants exist, some allowing for two to eight players; many slang terms are used with the game.
Sheepshead is most commonly played in Wisconsin, where it is sometimes called the "unofficial" state card game.
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