This weekend we gave Doppelkopf a solid college try for an hour or so with a bunch of learning hands. We played with one totally new player and three experienced Sheepshead players.
Why play Doppelkopf instead of just Sheepshead? Sheeps is a great game at three (easier than Skat, but packs the same punch) and awesome at 5 players with the hidden partner (even if you are a jack of diamonds camp follower). However, at 4 players, Sheepshead is not great and is not really worth playing. A group without a 5th player could just play 3 player and then have the dealer sit out, but what’s the fun of that, especially when there is an alternative!
Doppelkopf is played with a double deck of cards, either two French decks mashed together or a special Doppelkopf deck (probably easier but the suits won’t be recognizable as much for Sheepshead players if you get the one with bells and acorns and stuff), with everything but the 9’s and up removed (so 48 cards total). The TRUMP suit is all the Queens and Jacks, all Diamonds as normal, but the two ten of hearts are also considered Trump, and the TOP trump in the game. Looking at the deck, that’s a LOT of Trump! The game is played like Euchre with two teams of two players (normally) and the RE team is determined by whoever has the two OLD LADIES (Queens of Clubs). The other players are KONTRA. RE is effectively the picker when comparing to Sheepshead.
Dealing is all the cards (12), there is no blind. First there is a round of declarations before any cards are played where players call out if a single player has both Queen of Clubs (a Marriage hand) or are in Poverty with only three or less Trump or are just good to play a normal game (where they say good or gseunt). Once declarations are concluded, play starts with the player to the left of the dealer and plays normally (for Sheepshead players that is!) except that the first instance of a card played beats a second instance if that card wins the trick EXCEPT 10 of hearts where the SECOND 10 played wins the trick.
After the first hand of the game, players may declare they are RE or KONTRA (basically saying what team they are on before many cards are played) and this doubles the stakes of that hand. Otherwise no one really knows who is who in the game until cards start hitting the table. There are other declarations that can be made, but that’s too complicated for this post and we didn’t use that while learning.
Scoring is similar to Sheepshead per team and the card values are identical to Sheepshead for determining the winner. RE needs 121 points, Kontra needs 120 to win the hand and the winning team normally gets one point from the other players if they win. If KONTRA wins (Gegen die Alten) they get two points as it’s the same as a Sheepshead BUMP.
There are also some conditional scoring incidents if certain tricks are won, like catching a fox (ace of diamonds) and a doppelkopf* trick. We didn’t use these during learning, but likely will going forward.
After only a gaggle of hands, I would love to keep playing the game more to plumb it’s depths as there are some very different strats compared to Sheepshead. Yet, even after this initial play, I already feel like with 4 players, Doppelkopf is superior to 4 handed Sheepshead. If you are a Sheeps player and get stuck with just 4 players, absolutely give it a try. You just need to make sure to pack that double deck!
*Like Backgammon, the name of the game references a gamestate. A Doppelkopf is when a team wins a trick that is all 10’s and Aces, which gives them a game point.
Obligatory picture of Nicola Cavanis.
