Carol Lipenski is, arguably, the sheepshead champion of the world.
If you haven’t been in Wisconsin long, sheepshead is a card game brought to America by German immigrants, and it has pretty much died out everywhere but here. Which makes the biggest sheepshead tournament in Wisconsin the biggest title in the world.
Last year, Lipenski, a 76-year-old retired nurse from Kewaskum who plays three times a week, took home the title (as well as $100 and a plaque) for winning the 27th Glendale Open Sheepshead Tournament last April at Nicolet High School. She bested some 180 other players to claim the honor.
As we approach this year’s tournament (April 6, registration here), we caught up with Lipenski about her big tournament win, what first-timers should expect, and her love for the game she’s played since she was a kid. And we have to say, she’s just the sweetest sheepshead queen we’ve ever met – even when calling fellow players mauers.
Tell us who you’d pick to be a Betty this year!
That’s got to be a pretty good flex in Wisconsin – “I’m a champion of sheepshead.”
Carol Lipenski: That was a stroke of luck. You have to get the cards. That was the first time I ever did that – won that plaque.
OK, so what is a sheepshead tournament like? How is it different from playing with friends and family around the kitchen table?
CL: Each one is run differently. At the big one in Glendale, you get three numbers, and those are the tables that you play at for each round, so you end up playing with a different group of players. That evens the playing field so that you’re not just playing with super-skilled players. It’s a broad spectrum, and you get to play with different people, meet different people. They do have strict rules. Like once you pick and have buried, you can’t pick that up and look at it. They really make you adhere to the rules. When you’re with friends, if people look, you know, you don’t say anything, but [in a tournament] you can’t do those things.
How do people play? Are players tighter with picking? Looser?
CL: There are some people who will pick on a duck, you know what I mean? They’ll pick on almost anything. And then there are other people who – they have what I would pick on, and they pass, so they’re, like, what you call mauering. It’s how gutsy a player you are. The longer I have played sheepshead, the more aggressive I get. I will pick with like, lesser than what you would think would be a picking hand. You figure, “Oh, what the heck, give it a whirl” and try it. And sometimes you’ll get a good partner and a good blind and other times, you go down the tubes. But I think, knowing that it’s a tournament, people tend to be more cautious, but again, a lot depends upon the player.
Now another thing is when you go to a tournament, you see the same collection of people playing. So, then you know how those people play. Most of the people that play regularly on a weekly basis are in their 70s, 80s, even in their 90s, and they’re as sharp as can be – really good players. Over the years, the more you play, you learn – like, “Oh, I never would have done that years ago.” It’s always a learning curve.
Is it competitive in the tournaments? Like, cutthroat?
CL: Most of the people I’ve played with, they still go to have a good time. People play in these tournaments because they have a love of the game of sheepshead, so maybe not as cutthroat as you would think. In our regular groups, we play for money, but it’s only nickels. Now, my neighbor across the street who also plays here in Kewaskum, she has a group that she plays with on Tuesday and they play for quarters. Now, that can get to be very expensive! I mean, you can win or lose like $11, $12, $13 in one evening compared to, like 65 cents. So then you have to really, really pay attention.
What’s the tournament format? Is it four-handed or five?
CL: Dennis [Staral] has been running that for, oh my gosh, years and years. It’s a very organized tournament. I think he does a great job. It is five handed, call an ace, double on the bump. That is the general thing at most tournaments. There are some tournaments where they play jack of diamonds partner. That’s a lot harder, because it’s random, right? You pick it [in the blind], you’re on your own. My favorite is call an ace. I’ve played that most my life.
Were there any dramatic moments in that tournament last year?
CL: I was really surprised because to be a winner of a tournament that size, usually your [score] is like in the 60s or around 70. I won with a 49, which to me is kind of a mediocre number. I was actually tied with one other man, up until the very last hand that was played, and then somebody else at his table won that hand and I ended up being higher. I was like, “Oh my gosh,” I couldn’t believe it. Because, you know, that was not that high of a score to win with. The lady that won [the tournament in a previous year] who is president of our group in Jackson, she I think had like a 75, and that’s normally what you would see to win a tournament of that size. And I got it with a 49. I had two or three hands where I picked and played alone and got like 12 points. I’m like, “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe it” because usually when I play in Glendale, I have terrible cards. Sometimes I ended up in the minus! So you have to get cards – but you still have to know how to play, too.
Do you have any pointers for someone who enjoys the game and is thinking about getting serious about sheepshead?
CL: They should just jump in and try it. The more you play, the better you get. There’s a lot of people out there that are way better players than I am. There’s a lady that we play with – her mind is like a computer. Now, I don’t count points as I’m playing. But I count the trumps – I want to know how many trump are out there, so that I keep track of. There are some people who do both. And then when you’re done playing the hand, she knows already exactly what the score is. And when you’re counting the cards – when you’re turning them down – I never saw anybody count so fast.
If you really love the game, and have an opportunity to join different groups and play with different people, I think that’s the greatest opportunity to improve your game. It helps keep your mind sharp. I think sheepshead is a great game to help prevent dementia and Alzheimer’s because it really makes you think – you’ve got to count, you’ve got to have your wits about you. And it’s a great socialization – you’re not isolated. You know, some seniors, they’re at home, a couch potato. They don’t get up and move. It’s a very good thing for seniors to enjoy playing cards.
Do you have like a favorite sheepshead term or saying? Like, whenever my dad leads to the picker, he always says, “Even a pig has a heart” before he plays a heart.
CL: Yeah, one thing I always said – when you don’t have a super-strong hand, maybe you only have one queen and then some little piddly things, but you might have five trump. So I’ll play a seven or eight or a nine of diamonds to see how many trump I can pull out, I’ll say “Will the little fishy get the big fishy?” And sometimes on that measly seven or eight or nine, you might get a couple of queens to fall.
