Sheepshead Stake Calculator
Running a Sheepshead night and arguing over how much the picker owes after a 4× doubler stack and a crack? Plug the numbers in. Live-updated payouts for every common multiplier — doublers, cracks, blitz, schneider, schwarz, solo, leaster and mauer — across 3-, 4-, and 5-handed tables.
Payouts
Multiplier: ×1•Per share: 1
Picker
2 shares
+2
Partner
1 share
+1
Defender (each of 3)
1 share each
-1
Total stakes exchanged3
How this stack reads
base stake 1 = ×1 per share (1). Picker wins +2 per share. Partner wins +1. Each defender pays -1.
How Sheepshead stakes actually work
Every hand has a base stake — a number your group agrees on before the first deal. It might be a nickel, a dollar, or just a point on a tally sheet. The calculator above doesn’t care which: the math is the same.
What changes the payout is the share count and the multiplier stack. In a standard 5-handed partnership hand, the picker is worth 2 shares, the partner 1 share, and each of the three defenders ±1 share — zero-sum across the table. When the picker goes solo, they swallow the whole defender pool: 4 shares to the picker, ∓1 from each of the four defenders. 4-handed and 3-handed scale accordingly.
On top of the share count, multipliers stack multiplicatively, not additively. A crack doubles the hand. A re-crack doubles it again, so a re-cracked hand is worth 4× the base. Each active doubler carried in from a previous pass-out doubles the stake again. Two doublers + a crack + a re-crack on a solo hand? That’s base × 4 (doublers) × 2 (crack) × 2 (re-crack) × 2 (solo) = 32× per share. A normally trivial nickel hand becomes a $1.60 swing per share — and the solo picker is on the hook for four of those.
Blitz (announced when the picker holds both black queens) adds another ×2 if it lands. Schneider — taking 91+ of the 120 points — adds ×2, and schwarz (every trick, 120–0) is ×3 instead. Mauer (the rare picker penalty for being unable to legally call) is ×2 and runs against the picker by convention. Leasters are the lone exception: when nobody picks and the hand is salvaged, the leaster winner simply takes 1 share from each loser — no multipliers, just a flat sweep.
Every table tweaks the edges. Some groups cap doublers at 2, some let the partner crack, some treat blitz as ×3. If your crew plays a non-standard variant, see regional house rules for the most common variations and how to settle them at the table.
Related reading
- Doubler rules — how doublers get carried in from pass-out hands
- Cracking rules — when defenders can crack and how re-cracks work
- Blitz rules — what blitz means and what it’s worth
- Schneider & schwarz — the 91-point and shut-out bonuses
- Regional house rules — Wisconsin vs Bavarian vs online conventions
- Score Tracker — track a full evening of hands, not just one