The Cards


  • Sheepshead is played with a 32 card deck using the 7's upward through the Ace's.

  • Cards are divided into two categories: Trump and Fail.

  • Trump are more powerful than Fail.

Trump

Trump are the power cards in Sheepshead. There are 14 Trump Cards, they are (in power order):

The four Queens!!! Queens rule in Sheepshead. The power order is, Clubs, Spades, Hearts, and then Diamonds.

Next in power are the four Jacks with the same order of power: Clubs, Spades, Hearts, and then Diamonds.

Finishing the Trump are the other six Diamonds...the power order is: ACE, TEN, KING, 9, 8 and 7.

Here are all the trump cards in their power order. Just say to yourself "Queens, Jacks, and Diamonds" when you first learn the game.

Fail

There are three fail suits...Clubs, Hearts, and Spades. In terms of power, one fail suit is no better than another fail suit, but within each suit, there exists a power sequence. It is ACE, TEN, KING, 9, 8, and 7:

Fail suit - Clubs power order

Fail suit - Hearts power order

Fail Suit - Spades power order

Points

There are points associated with each card. The point values are:

  • ACE = 11 points

  • TEN = 10 points

  • KING = 4 points

  • QUEEN = 3 points

  • JACK = 2 points

  • 9, 8 and 7 = no points

If you add up all of the points, you would find that there are 120 points total in the deck. Consider aces and tens as "money cards" .... you want to capture them above all!