Schmear (Sheepshead)
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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:
- Partner leads 10♦ (10 points)
- Opponent 1 plays Q♣ (3 points)
- Opponent 2 plays A♦ (11 points)
- Picker plays 8♦ (0 points)
- 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.
