Sheepshead!

Last night I learned how to play the card game Sheepshead. Not only is it an awfully confusing game to learn, but I had to learn the German terms for everything; the Queen is Dame (pronounced Da-me), the Jack is Bube (boo-be), and the Ace is Ass. Their suits are different names too: Karo for Diamonds, Kreuz for Clubs, and Pik (peek) for Spades. At least Herz for Hearts made sense. To make things worse, one says the suit first. So the Queen of Diamons is really Karo Dame. Other terms were easy enough to pick up; Trumpf for trump and Farbe for suit, as well as geben when dealing and mischen when shuffling.

I kinda wish I had picked up Sheepshead while I was in Wisconsin; I remember Mark Pfenning and Lori Schneeberg playing it with other employees at Concordia University Wisconsin, but I never really got the chance to play with other students.

There was some beginner's luck, but also some silly mistakes. I'm looking forward to playing it again.