Gambling Guide

A schmear or shmearing refers to a strategy used in the card game, Sheepshead.

A schmear is when a player plays a high point card (Ace, Ten or King) with the hope that their partner(s) will get the trick.

An example of schmearing:

1. Partner leads 10♦ (10 points)
2. Opponent 1 plays Q♣ (3 points)
3. Opponent 2 plays A♦ (11 points)
4. Picker plays 8♦ (0 points)
5. Opponent 3 (out of trump) plays 10♠ (10 points)

This trick was worth 34 points. That's schneider all by itself.

Opponent 1 won the trick as soon as s/he laid down the big Queen. As a result, opponents 2 and 3 both took advantage of the situation and put high-counting cards down. Also note that the picker played the 8♦, a no-counting card.