In playing a two player variant of sheepshead, the group I play with decided that it wasn't that much fun. So I simplified it, and taught it to my niece (5 years old) as a start to learning about trick taking games.
The game goes like this:
- Deck of 4 suits, 2-9 (32 cards)
- Deal out a 4x4 grid face down
- Deal out a 4x4 grid on top of the face down cards face up.
- Each player plays the face up cards from the 8 stacks closest to them at the start of the game.
- Follow suit lead if possible, diamonds are trump
- When a face down card is uncovered, at the end of the trick, flip it over.
- Player who takes the most tricks wins.
It's a rather straight forward game. Its about learning how to follow suit and what to throw off when you can't.
And while we believe that there is a first player advantage to this, how does one quantify that amount to determine if a handicap for the second player (beyond winning a tie) is necessary?