Sheepshead is Milwaukee's official card game
Are you a “call an ace” player or a “picker and jack of diamond” player when you sit down at the sheepshead table? And if you don’t know what those phrases mean, you probably aren’t familiar with “leaster,” “re-crack” or “schmear.” To know the card game is to speak a certain kind of Milwaukee dialect.
The trick-taking game often features five players but has its share of variants, with different rules and terminology for different parts of the state. But this isn’t a pastime that’s achieved a high level of popularity outside the state’s borders.
Like Milwaukee, sheepshead’s roots are deeply German — the game is Schakopf in its native country, and the unofficial history involves disgruntled peasants inventing the game that gave kings a lower ranking. Sheepshead arrived in Milwaukee with a large population of German immigrants, many of whom worked in brewing.
The card game’s patron saint, Bob Strupp, published “How To Play ‘Winning’ 5 Handed Sheepshead” in 1983. The lifelong Milwaukeean attended Common Council meetings to advocate that the game should be declared Milwaukee’s official card game, a campaign that proved successful.
For more than a quarter century, Glendale has claimed to serve as home to the largest sheepshead tournament in the world; a nurse from Kewaskum won in 2024.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Sheepshead is Milwaukee's official card game
