Sheepshead
Experience one of the top-rated Free games on the App Store, Sheepshead! Developed by the innovative team at Derek Hoffmeister, this Card game provides a unique gaming experience like no other. With a content rating of 4+, it’s perfect for a wide range of players. Since its initial release on 12th June 2014, the game has seen numerous updates, with the latest version launched on 4th February 2023.
Are you a fan of Card, Entertainment, games? Then Sheepshead is right up your alley! You won’t be able to resist its appeal.
User Ratings of Sheepshead
Over 70 players have rated Sheepshead. Join them and share your thoughts!
How Much Does Sheepshead Cost?
Good news! You can download Sheepshead on your iOS device absolutely free!
Sheepshead Release Date
Eager to know when Sheepshead first graced the App Store? It was launched on 12th June 2014.
When Was Sheepshead Last Updated?
The latest version of Sheepshead was updated on 4th February 2023, ensuring a more enjoyable gaming experience for all players.
Where Can I Download Sheepshead?
To get started with Sheepshead, head over to the official Apple App Store.
A Glimpse into Sheepshead
Play Sheepshead at any time. Sheepshead is a trick-taking card game. This is a single player version with computer controlled opponents.
Sheepshead is played with 7-8-9-10-J-Q-K-A in four suits, for a total of 32 cards
*** Game Features ***
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Supports five handed, four handed, and three handed play modes
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Tournaments: The player with the highest score will be delared the winner after
ten hands of Sheepshead have been played. -
Partner variants of:
- Called Ace partner (allows calling of unknown, 10’s , or going alone)
- Jack of Diamonds
- Call up next Jack is enabled by default, this can be disabled in the options menu.
In three handed and four handed play the picker does not have a partner.
- Call up next Jack is enabled by default, this can be disabled in the options menu.
*Leasters: Enable in options menu. If leaster is not enabled and picking is passed by all players, the dealer will pick.
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Scoring: Can either be ‘Double on the bump’ (default) or ‘Single on the bump’.
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Knocking: Also called rapping or cracking. This can be enabled in the options menu.
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Statistics: Keeps track of your play statistics, such as games won, tricks taken, times picked, etc.
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GameCenter integration:
- Leaderboards: ‘High Score’ and ‘High Tournament Score’
- Achievements based on game score and tricks taken
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Large Print Cards, if those small cards are just too hard to see!
An overview of Sheepshead rules can be found in the support page.
Double tapping to play a card is supported (it must be enabled in the options menu). If enabled, tapping a card once will select it, and tapping it a second time will play it.
This will allow you to change selected cards if you accidentally select the wrong card! Simply tap the correct card, and the first card will be unselected. Tap the second card again to confirm playing it.
What’s New in the Latest Update?
Find out what’s new in the latest version of Sheepshead updated on 4th February 2023:
- Three handed logic improvements
- Bug fixes
User Reviews on Sheepshead
Looking for more information? Read a comprehensive review of Sheepshead below:
Ever since the update – players are going alone with very bad hands (not even worth picking with a partner either)
With version 1.9.1 it will sometimes not allow us to pick a hand. Otherwise, great game to learn from. Agree with others about questionable computer decisions and suggestions, but that helps the learning process.
Last weeks update broke the game. AI players now often go alone on poor picking hands.
Loners being called with three trump. Not hardly a challenge anymore.
Latest version is terrible. Computer often picks and goes alone in 5 hand with no queens and 3 fail suites. Hey we win but no one would ever do that for real. Non picking partners lead trump. Agree with other reviewers that computer gets better partners on average. Prior versions seemed to have less quirks.
Developer knows the rules of Sheepshead, but has no clue as to how to play.
We’ve been liking this game since we originally downloaded it and would have given 5 stars. Gameplay isnt what a human would do as the computer doesnt shmeer points unless it knows the trick is theirs but its been a good learning tool to teach you how to play. The reason we have tanked the rating is because if Im second in line to pick and we have a good enough hand to pick, the app freezes. The only thing we can do is to pass and then the game will freeze completely. We have to close out the app to keep playing and we lose a good hand. We’ve tried deleting and reinstalling twice and no improvement. This just started in the last few weeks.
No trick/no Schneider hands comprise easily half of the hands played. Way too high of a percentage. It’s an outlier to have a 2 point win for the picker, which in real sheepshead is the most usual outcome. Just deal the cards randomly and play the hands out like a real card game. The stacking of hands is a real downside to this game.
We’ve played them all this is the best one and this is the one we’ve shared with our friends. Call Ace plays very well. Turn on large print cards.
We noticed faster displaying of the cards and clearer graphics in general. So far we look the new version. We play this app daily.
Recently we can no longer start a new game. When we click the three horizontal lines we get a portion of what looks like a blank Shetland of lined paper. Removed app, shut down iPhone and then reloaded. No change.
The other players consistently make horrendous moves. They never play long suits, they throw the Ace or 10 of diamonds in situations where the picker is obviously going to take the trick, its just annoying.
We had no idea how to play, but with the help of the hints we learned quickly and now can play sheephead confidently with friends.
There are several things we like about this app. First, it is easy to read the cards on the screen and play them. Instead of emphasizing cute animations and characters, it simply lets you play the game. The options allow for extensive variations which cover most of those that we have heard or seen played. Most importantly, the players play with "human"-like characteristics, sometimes picking on garbage and sometimes playing consistently strong. Over many iterations, we have found the game is winnable (both in regular and tournament play) but luck of the draw will definitely put you through some tough streaks, just like in real life. High stakes games (blitzing, cracking, doublers, etc.) cause the same dramatic swings in score as in actual play too. If you are a strong player you might find the playing logic to be flawed. If you are a weaker player you might find it to be intimidating. (By the way, for those who complain about the odds being tilted toward the computer, programers don’t think that way and try to deliberately crush the user with non-random card distributions. If bad deals are killing you, try "casual mode" which will actually tip them in your favor for awhile, but like we said, it can be won quite handily without that feature. It just takes some patience. Remember that alert partners and defenders with average hands can make or break games!) Overall we find it to be just the right difficulty and fun to play. The developer appears to be responsive to the requests and concerns of users. We have submitted a couple of feature requests via the feedback email and hopefully those will come out in future editions.
This app was never played the best Sheeps of those available, but we always thought it had the best UI. Since the last update, its nearly unplayable. The AI consistently misses smears like its not even counting trump, and always plays merely the next highest trump over whats on the table rather than taking control. As for leasters, you can always count on the BQs coming out the first time trump is led.
Out of the blue it takes you to an ad page and wont let you back in to the game.
Fun game but the app constantly crashes when playing in tournaments. We get to the last round an d it freezes and shuts down.
Really a fun game, but many times players will not schmere when they should and play lower trump when they can fail off. Need a tweak on the logarithm.
The app is very good and fun to play. Great practice and/or learning for newbie. Game has some serious programming issues. For example, computer picks, Im the partner. On the third trick, fail led, we follow suit with 10H, picker plays after us and lays fail of another suit – EVEN THOUGH SHE HAS TRUMP. Player behind her on the end takes trick with Ace. We lose out on 25 points and end up losing the game. We replayed that game 3 times and picker makes same mistake every time.
Deals are far from random. Hands are too predictable. Partners fail off when they should schmear. If they could fix those issues it would be the real deal.
After a number of games the play screen goes black and we need to close the game and restart to see anything. We can get into menu and some actually display but only those that return to the black screen. New came comes up black also. It seems to score the points on a end of game but we never get to see it.
We’ve never seen such lopsided, unrealistic card distribution in the real world.
As many others have stated, hands are stacked for the computer. Amazing how the picker and partner nearly always have all the high trump and the amount of no- trick games is unreal. Deleted the app. Would give this a negative rating if possible.
If we could give this game a negative star rating we would. The hands are completely stacked for the computer. If you get a chance to pick your partner has 0 trump… Your called ace gets trumped every single time while the computers ace walks even though you lead the suit with 3 of that called suit in your hand. Also the computer plays really stupid plays(doesnt know when to throw off points and steals tricks from you when youre partner). Not even close to random deals. Really frustrating to play for an experienced player. Almost impossible to learn how to play for a beginner. Totally useless app!
Worst than playing with three blind hands. There is not even the slightest logic programmed into the opponents whatsoever.
This is a great app that allows you to customize it to fit how you play Sheepshead at home. The AI will sometimes do plays that will make you scratch your head, but that happens in real life games all the time. Overall, it’s the best Sheepshead app we have come across. It’s simple, yet customizable and let’s you sit back and play your favorite card game. Cheers!
Great app, two requests When playing tournament, don’t replay a hand, looses track of number of game and plays forever Would be nice to reset points back to zero on normal play.
Thank you Derek for developing an app that is fun to play. We’ve only been playing for two days and it is already one of our favorite game apps. At times, a bit questionable on the card laid by the computer players, but you get that in the real game too. Thanks again for using your talent for our enjoyment.
We agree with the reviewer that said he felt the deck was stacked. The same people keep getting the best hands. We almost never have a decent hand and many times have only one trump. If we have a few trump, then our fail is sevens and eights. The deals should at least favor the player a little more. Thinking about looking for a more equitable game!
In Jack of Diamonds partner games we are frequently wondering about why our digital partner has picked. Pickers lose a phenomenal amount of the time. Game shouldnt be set up to discourage picking.
Watched the called suit go around on Called Ace without the ace being played. A 10 toon the trick. Player with the called ace then lead called ace (didnt win the previous trick). Would be nice to see the logic built out for the bots like it is for the human player. Also lots of questionable plays by the opponents. They should assume perfect knowledge of cards played and minimal knowledge of unplayed cards. But there needs to be situational awareness. If trump is lead to start a game it should be assumed to be the partner if not the person who picked. Seemingly wrong cards are routinely played.
Either you have all the trump or one 9 of diamonds. You can play for 10 minutes and never see more than two trump in your hand then the next 5 minutes you and the partner have every trump in the deck. Stupid!
Returning woodworker is correct. Really bad play with constant horrible moves. Player on end could have taken trick 4 with a 10spades when 9spades was high with the picker and he threw off. Next trick that player threw out the 10spades. Too frustrating to keep playing.
Bad news … It plays like crap. We would love to get in a game with whoever wrote this, it would be money in our pocket. Does stupid play come to mind. Picker leads with a called ace and leads a queen of spades with the queen of clubs in the pickets hand, DUH .. Clueless since the partner does not know this …
We’ve been playing sheepshead more than half our life and we can’t say we’ve EVER seen so many lopsided card distribution. Funny how when it’s 2 computer players paired up 1) they have the majority of the trump in 95% of the games; 2) the partner "just happens" to have the queen of clubs; 3) our partners have terrible hands 75% of the time. Fun but some serious rigging of hands in favor of the computer. EDIT: After further games downgrading rating. To many games where the computer is just GIVEN the perfect partner. Computer seems to find a completely LOADED partner to often to be pure "coincidence". Game needs MUCH better randomization of cards. Loading the computer picker’s & partner’s hands is called cheating. EDIT 2: Last time we checked rigging hands was called CHEATING. Just saying…
The app is good gameplay works. An issue we have is if you go back to the main menu while in the middle of a hand and come back to the game it resets the hand and you get a different set of cards.
Best Sheeps game we have found of 3 we have tried. Lots of options. Not a fan of graphics, but game play decent. Computer partners do make some occasional dumb plays, but better than other ones we have tried. Worth downloading to get Sheeps fix.
At times it’s "suspiciously" one-sided especially if you’re clever and get on a long winning streak; then your so-called associates play like they’ve forgotten how or the opposite… Know exactly how to hit your weak spots. *All in all this game seems "mostly fair" and it’s also free.
It worked beautifully – until a few days ago! Now, if you change the options – like go from 5 players to 4 – it freezes! Have tried reloading game, but to no avail!! Arghh!!!
Simple app to play a complex card game. Good AI – once in awhile makes a questionable play, but that happens IRL as well! Enjoying playing 5 handed and 3 handed.
Instead of creating a 1 star review because some of the logic needs adjusting, try being grateful that someone was willing to put together a mobile app for this. Yahoo clearly didn’t care when they disbanded their community. We’ve reached out to the developer on a number of occasions regarding logic, and issues were addressed in a matter of days. People should try to be more helpful.
Update: just tried playing JD 5 handed with new update. 1st trick of first hand shows still troubles with the algorithm. Computer player with stupidly JD trumping playing JD on a fail trick that opponents already had played JS. More sense would be to trump over opponent, not under, or throw off one of his own fail. JD made absolutely no sense. Waiting for a version that actually works again. Ok, the app runs and allows you to play it. But the latest update takes a game that used to be fun and makes it unplayable – at least for 5 handed JD. This is because the computer players went from making occasional questionable plays to consistently making REALLY STUPID plays. For instance on a hand we just picked, we won because the QC had already been played, and on the 5th trick we led fail, our partner played a fail, then one defender played the QH and the next defender played the QS. Defenders played the top 2 remaining trump on a fail trick. This allowed us to take the last trick and win the hand. This stupid example of play has become commonplace with this latest update. And for us, this type of stupid play make the game unplayable.
Kudos to Derek for the killer Sheepshead app. It works great and it sounds like the updates have improved it from past versions. Even though the AI players are all pretty heavy Mauers, you just have to adjust to that. Our one complaint would be that the Leaster programming could use some work. When we can win Leasters with a trick of 35 points, the AI definitely isn’t playing too well. But overall the app is great, and it’s a fun way to pass the time.
Nice that you can customize the game to how you play, like called ace & no leasters. AI isn’t very smart and is easy to beat, but the tournaments are fun.
This is a really good sheepshead app. We would give it 5 stars but AI does not know how to play properly. They frequently overshoot their partners after their partner has the best card out their. Also they always back into their trump which is the incorrect way to play with a partner. Other than that, this is the best Sheepshead app out there.
This game is frustrating from a experienced players point of view! Sure the computer flows the "rule" but it doesn’t or can’t follow the in written rules!
This game does not know how to play itself. We’ve played sheephead for over 20 yrs and learned from old germans. Ex. Im on the end as partner, picker has the lead. Only 3 trump left. He leads trump only to come back with his fail suit instead of leading it to hope we can cut it. Especially when we lead trump earlier and the others were throwing off fail. Things like this a computer can not learn we guess.
When you partner-lead 7d and the picker plays 10d and loses the trick then takes a low value trick with QH, it’s time to teach the programmer how to play better! Nice to have a program available though…