Sheepshead strategy for beginners

When to pick

Count your trump first. In the five-handed game, a common rule of thumb is to pick with four or more trump when at least two of them are queens or jacks. With fewer trump, or only low diamonds, passing is usually safer.

Watch who passed before you. If everybody else passed, nobody has a big hand, and the trump is spread around, which makes a borderline hand a little safer to pick.

What to bury

• Bury points you can't protect. A fail ten or king without its ace is likely to be lost. Buried, its points count for you.
• Get short in a suit. Burying both cards of a short fail suit lets you trump in when that suit is led.
• Keep your hold card. When you call an ace, you must keep a card of that suit, so plan your bury around it.

Calling your partner

Call the ace of a suit where you hold a single low card. When that suit is led, your partner takes the trick with the ace, and you lose only the low card. If you hold all three fail aces, you call a ten instead.

Playing as the picker

• Lead trump. Pulling the defenders' trump early protects your fail cards later in the hand.
• Count trump. There are fourteen. Knowing how many are still out tells you when your low trump become winners.
• Count your points. With the buried cards, your side needs 61. Once you're there, play it safe.

Playing as the partner

• Help the picker. When you get the lead, leading trump helps the picker the same way the picker's own trump leads do.
• Schmear the picker. When the picker is winning a trick and you can't follow suit, throw your points on it.
• Play the ace when its suit is led. You have to, and it's the moment everybody learns who you are.

Playing as a defender

• Lead the called suit. It brings out the partner's ace and shows everybody who the partner is.
• Lead fail, not trump. The picker usually holds the most trump; make them spend it on your fail suits.
• Schmear your fellow defenders. When another defender is winning a trick, throw your aces and tens on it.
• Save your high trump for tricks with points in them.

For everybody

• Remember what has been played, above all the aces and tens, and which trumps are gone.
• Read the table's rules. Jack of diamonds partner, doublers, and three- or four-handed games all change the math.
• Practice against the computer players. When you're the only person at the table, there's no clock, so you can think every play through.

When nobody picks, the game turns upside down: see how to win a leaster.