Trump
Definition
The powerful suit that beats all fail cards. In Sheepshead: all Queens, all Jacks, and all Diamonds are trump (14 cards total).
Trump in play
Trump is the 14-card super-suit that beats every fail card: all four Queens, all four Jacks, and the entire diamond suit, ranked from the Queen of Clubs down to the 7 of Diamonds. Counting how much trump is still out - yours, the picker's, the defenders' - is the single most important tracking skill in the game. The picker usually leads trump early to strip it from opponents before cashing fail Aces.
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Related Terms
Fail (Fail Suit)
Any suit that is not trump. In Sheepshead, Clubs, Spades, and Hearts (without their Queens and Jacks) are fail suits.
Diamonds
The suit that forms the lower trump cards. All Diamonds (A♦ through 7♦) are trump, ranked below the Jacks.
Trump In
To play a trump card when a fail suit was led (because you have none of that fail suit). A way to win tricks you otherwise couldn't.