it in two) by the player to the dealer's right. Two cards are dealt at a time. The most powerful trumps are as follows, Q of clubs, Q of spades, J of clubs, J of spades, J of hearts, J of diamonds, A of diamonds (fox), 10 of diamonds, K of diamonds, Q of diamonds, 9 of diamonds. The non-trump strengths are A, 10, K, Q, 9. The queen of hearts is no longer trump (it is actually a very weak card). Players have partners. The main objective is to get the ace of diamonds, also known as "the fox". The "fox catchers" are the top 6 most powerful trump. There is no picker, nor blind cards. When a card leads a trick, other players must follow suit, or trump if the trick is led with trump. The point system is based on the fox, 1 point, and however many "counters" a player has. The "counter cards" are always ace, 10, and king. If a player wins the last trick, they get 1 extra counter, with 13 counters in total. 7 to 9 counters is one point, and 10 to 12 counters is two points. The game is usually played to 21 or 42 points and whichever team reaches the number wins. If a player gets all the "fox catchers" in their hand, it is known as "automatic bucking", where the team automatically wins 14 points. If a player wins all the tricks, it is known as a "buck", where the team wins 7 points, it is like winning all 13 counters, but getting a higher reward from it. Play variations There are a number of different play variations for Sheepshead. Variants may change how partners are chosen, scoring, the suits considered fail, or what occurs when the blind is not picked. Variations in the number of players are discussed in the next section. Partners The following two variants apply only to five and six-player games, and possibly four-player games. Variants differ in whether the picker is permitted to choose to play alone, and in whether there are some situations where the picker may be required to play alone. Called Ace The picker chooses a called ace suit after picking the blind. Whoever has this called ace will be his partner. There are a few further rules behind this. The called suit must be a fail suit (clubs, spades or