Mosters, Mittlers, and Other No-Pick Variants

At some Sheepshead tables, roughly one in eight hands ends with everyone passing. Five players, no picker. The hand has to go somewhere — and that’s where the variants come in. Different tables, towns, and tournaments use wildly different rules, and the choice changes how aggressively you should be picking marginal hands.

This page is a tour of every no-pick variant in common use, plus a few oddballs you might bump into at a Bavarian-American social club in Sheboygan. If your table doesn’t agree on this rule before the first deal, settle it now — the math of picking depends on it.

1. Leaster (the most common variant)

The default no-pick rule across most of Wisconsin. When everyone passes, the hand is played as a leaster (sometimes called a “loester,” “loserman,” or “low man”). The rules:

• Everyone plays for themselves — no partners, no teams.
• The player who captures the fewest points wins the hand.
• The blind sits face-down until the last trick; the player who wins the last trick takes the blind (and its points). This is usually a curse, not a blessing.
• Some tables require a winner to take at least one trick. If you take zero tricks, you don’t win the leaster even with zero points.

Stakes are usually halved compared to a normal hand. Leasters reward patience: lead aces and tens to force opponents to take the points, and try to lose the last trick so someone else inherits the blind. See the dedicated leaster strategy page for the full playbook.

2. Doubler (re-deal with stakes doubled)

The second most popular no-pick rule. When everyone passes, the hand is thrown in and re-dealt by the same dealer — the deal does not rotate until someone finally picks. The next hand is played at double stakes, and doublers stack: pass out again and it’s a “double doubler” worth 4×, then 8×, all riding on whoever picks. This is how Play Sheepshead implements it. Common house variants:

• Multiplying doubler (our default): Each consecutive pass-out doubles again — 2×, 4×, 8× — and the full multiplier applies to the single hand that’s eventually picked.
• Separate-hands doubler: Instead of multiplying, each doubler adds one more separate hand at 2× (two doublers = the next two hands doubled, not quadrupled).
• Capped doubler: Some tables cap doublers at 2× or 4×, no matter how many consecutive no-picks occur.

See the dedicated doubler rules page for full mechanics. The strategic effect is huge: when a doubler is on the table, you should pick on hands you’d normally pass — the prize is twice as big. We cover that in the playing with doublers strategy page.

3. Forced Pick (“Stick the Dealer”)

A tournament favorite, and increasingly common in casual play. When everyone passes, the dealer is forced to pick, regardless of their hand. They take the blind, bury two cards, and play out the hand as picker — even with three trump and no Queens.

Why it’s popular:

• Eliminates dead hands. Every deal produces a result. Tournaments love this for time management.
• Punishes deal rotation luck. Passing all night because you keep getting marginal hands is no longer an option as dealer.
• Changes the math of passing. If you’re second-to-last in seat 4 and you have a so-so hand, picking it yourself is often better than dumping it on the dealer — because they will be forced to pick, and you’ll face them with a stacked deck.

Some tables soften the rule: the dealer can choose to play it as a leaster instead, or the dealer can declare “going alone” rather than calling a partner. Forced pick + go-alone-by-default is the harshest version, used in some Milwaukee tournaments.

4. Schwanzers (rare, scored hands directly)

A rare variant kept alive in a few old-timer clubs. When everyone passes, no tricks are played. Instead, each player’s hand value is scored directly using a fixed point system: aces, tens, and kings are tallied in each player’s hand, and the lowest total wins. Sometimes the blind’s points are awarded to the dealer; sometimes split.

Schwanzers (literally “little tails” in German) are a quick-play variant — no card play, just a count and a payout. They show up in old Schafkopf rulebooks more than modern Sheepshead. If you encounter them, the standard agreement is “ace = 11, ten = 10, king = 4, queen = 3, jack = 2, others = 0” — the same as regular Sheepshead point values — and lowest count takes the small stake.

5. Mosters and Mittlers (regional curiosities)

A “moster” (sometimes “most”) is the opposite of a leaster: when everyone passes, the player who captures the most points wins the hand. The hand is played out solo-style, but the incentive is reversed — you want every ace and ten you can grab.

A “mittler” (the middle one) is the rarest variant of all: the player who finishes with the middle point total — neither highest nor lowest — wins. Captures roughly 40 points and you take the hand. Played for laughs in some Bavarian-American clubs; almost never seen at a serious Wisconsin table.

Both mosters and mittlers reward different reasoning than a leaster. In a moster, your aces are weapons; in a mittler, you have to actively avoid both extremes. Most players will encounter them maybe once a decade — but the names show up in old rulebooks and German-language Schafkopf manuals, so they’re worth recognizing.

6. Throw-In (skip the hand)

The simplest possible variant, used in informal kitchen games: everyone passes, the cards are thrown in, the deal rotates, and you deal a new hand. No leaster, no doubler, no scoring. It’s fast, but it makes weak hands costless to pass — which encourages conservative picking and stalls games. Almost never used in tournament play.

Which variant should your table use?

A practical guide:

• Casual play with mixed skill levels: leasters. Forgiving, teaches loss-management, low stakes.
• Money games with experienced players: doublers. Adds urgency and bigger payouts. Standard in Milwaukee tavern leagues.
• Tournaments: forced pick. Keeps the clock moving, eliminates dead hands.
• Family-and-friends night: mix and match. Some tables play doublers until they cap, then leaster on the next no-pick. The hybrid keeps things interesting.

How no-pick rules change strategy

Knowing the variant is essential to pick/pass decisions:

• Leasters favor passing. A leaster is mild — half-stakes, distributed payout. Picking on a marginal hand to avoid a leaster is usually wrong.
• Doublers favor picking. The next hand will be 2× stakes. Either you pick now on a mediocre hand, or somebody else picks the doubler — and the chance they hold a monster goes up.
• Forced pick favors aggressive middle-seat picks. If you pass in seat 3 or 4 with a borderline hand and the dealer gets stuck with garbage, the picker payout is large but the partnership math is messy.

Key takeaways

• Always agree on the no-pick rule before the first deal.
• Leaster is the default; doubler is the second-most-common.
• Forced pick is the tournament standard.
• Schwanzers, mosters, and mittlers are rare but historical.
• The chosen rule changes the math of picking marginal hands — adjust accordingly.