Bavarian Schafkopf

Players and equipment

Bavarian Schafkopf seats exactly four, and play runs clockwise. You need a German-suited pack of 32 cards: the suits are Acorns, Leaves, Hearts and Bells, each running Ace (also called the Sow), Ten, King, Ober, Unter, Nine, Eight and Seven. Card points never change: an Ace is worth 11, a Ten 10, a King 4, an Ober 3 and an Unter 2; Nines, Eights and Sevens are worth nothing — 30 points a suit, 120 in the pack.

Which cards are trumps depends on the contract, and you only find that out once the bidding is done. In a Rufer or a Solo the trumps are all four Obers, all four Unters, and six more cards below them — Hearts in a Rufer, or whichever suit the declarer names in a Solo — fourteen trumps in all. In a Wenz only the four Unters are trumps, and the Obers drop back into their own suits as ordinary cards between the King and the Nine.

The deal

The dealer shuffles, and the player on their right cuts the pack with at least three cards either side of the cut. Dealing runs clockwise from forehand — the dealer's left-hand neighbour — four cards at a time over two rounds, until all four of you hold eight.

Play

Before a card is played there is a single round of bidding for six contracts, ranked lowest to highest: Rufer, Wenz, Solo, Wenz Tout, Solo Tout and Sie. Forehand speaks first and either passes or says they will play; each later bid stands, is matched, or is beaten by a higher one, and whoever holds the highest contract becomes the declarer, ties going to whoever is first in clockwise order from forehand. If everyone passes, the cards are thrown in with no result — nothing goes on the sheet, because nothing was won or lost.

A Rufer is a partnership formed by the deal itself. The declarer calls the Ace of a non-trump suit in which they hold at least one card other than an Ober or Unter, but not the Ace itself, and whoever holds that Ace becomes their secret partner without saying so — you only find out as the hand unfolds. A declarer already holding all three callable Aces cannot bid a Rufer at all, since there would be nobody left to call.

A Wenz or a Solo is played alone, the declarer against the other three. A Solo lets the declarer name any suit they hold a card of (besides the Obers and Unters) as the extra six trumps. A Tout — Wenz Tout or Solo Tout — adds one promise: the declarer's side must win every trick, or the contract is lost outright however many points were taken. A Sie needs no bidding or play at all: a player dealt all four Obers and Unters simply shows the hand and wins on the spot.

Forehand leads to the first trick, and the lead passes to whoever won the trick before. Follow suit if you can — in a Rufer or a Solo an Ober or an Unter belongs to the trumps, never to its printed suit, so a led Nine of Leaves can still force you to play the Leaves Ten if your only other Leaves card is the Ober. If you cannot follow suit you may play any card, with no obligation to beat the trick or to trump it. In a Rufer, the called Ace's holder must play it the first time its suit is led, unless they hold at least three other cards of that suit and choose to "run away" by leading a lower one first — after that the Ace may be kept back like any other card.

Any defender may double the stakes for the hand by calling it before the second card is played, and the declarer may double again in reply; a defender's call doubles everything the hand is worth, described under Scoring, and the declarer's reply doubles it again.

Scoring

A hand ends once all eight tricks are played, or the moment a Sie is shown, or a Tout side loses a trick. Add up the card points each side took: the declarer's side needs 61 or more to win, the defence 60 or more. Taking 91 or more as the winning declarer, or 90 or more as the winning defence, is a Schneider, worth an extra bonus; taking every trick is a Schwarz, worth a bigger one still. In a Rufer, the declarer and their secret partner add their tricks together, and so do the two defenders — often the moment the table learns who the secret partner was.

Agree a value for one unit before you start — traditionally a small coin, though a token works just as well — and every figure below is counted in units of it. In a Rufer each of the two losers pays one unit to one of the two winners; a Wenz or a Solo, played alone, is worth five units from each of the three defenders to the declarer, or the other way if it is lost. A Tout is a flat rate with no Schneider or Schwarz bonus, and a Sie is worth more again:

Rufer

1 unit

plain win or loss

Rufer, Schneider

2 units

the winning side's points also clear 91 (declarer) or 90 (defence)

Rufer, Schwarz

3 units

the winning side also takes every trick

Wenz or Solo

5 units

plain win or loss, from or to each of the three opponents

Wenz or Solo, Schneider

6 units

the winning side's points also clear 91 (declarer) or 90 (defence)

Wenz or Solo, Schwarz

7 units

the winning side also takes every trick

Wenz Tout or Solo Tout

10 units

win or loss; no Schneider or Schwarz on top

Sie

20 units

shown and won outright, from each of the three opponents

The winning side is also paid for an unbroken run of the very top trumps held by either side — the Obers of Acorns, Leaves and Hearts, in that order, then on down the ranking — so a declarer who loses while holding runners pays for them as well. A Rufer or Solo pays for three or more of these "runners," up to all fourteen trumps; a Wenz, with only four trumps to run through, pays from two runners up to all four. Runners double under a Tout and double again under a Sie, and everything above doubles if a defender doubled before the second card, and doubles again if the declarer answered it.

Runners, Rufer or Solo

1 unit each

three or more unbroken top trumps, held by either side

Runners, Wenz

1 unit each

two or more unbroken top trumps

Runners, under a Tout

2 units each

the same runners, doubled

Runners, under a Sie

4 units each

the same runners, doubled again

The doubling call

everything above ×2, or ×4 if answered

a defender calls it before the second card is played; the declarer may answer it

A Sie always holds all eight top trumps, so its runners are never in doubt: 20 units for the Sie plus 32 for the runners — 52 units from each opponent before anybody doubles.

A Rufer splits its win or loss evenly between the two players on each side; a Solo-family contract does not — the declarer alone collects from, or pays, all three opponents. SquareScores deals nothing and settles nothing in coin; the table works out each hand's units as above, and the sheet only wants the result once you have it. A round on the sheet is one dealt hand, and the score table takes whole numbers from zero up and nothing else, so what goes in is measured from the bottom of the hand: find whoever came out worst, and everyone enters how many units they finished above that player, so the worst result is always 0. Every player is lifted by the same amount, so the running totals keep the true gap between everybody — nothing is carried to a later hand, and the column highest when you stop is the one actually ahead.

A worked hand

Lena calls a Rufer with the Ace of Bells, and Jonas turns out to be holding it — her secret partner for the hand. Between them they take 93 card points, clearing the 91 needed for a Schneider, and they hold five unbroken top trumps (the four Obers and the Acorns Unter). That is 1 unit for the win, 1 more for the Schneider, and 5 for the runners: 7 units each from Felix and from Nora, the two defenders.

Lena

14

declarer, Schneider

Jonas

14

the called Ace

Felix

0

defender

Nora

0

defender

Felix and Nora each lost 7 units, the worst result of the hand, so each enters 0; Lena and Jonas each won 7 units, 14 above that, so each enters 14.

Ending

There is no finishing line in Bavarian Schafkopf and no fixed number of hands — a table plays for as long as the sitting holds, dealing on from one hand to the next with the running totals carrying forward. End match is any player's to tap, whenever the table is ready to stop, and it banks whoever's total is then the highest. A hand thrown in because everyone passed never needed a round at all, so it leaves nothing to bank either way.

Weigh your hand before you speak, not after

A Rufer calls for a strong suit and a card or two worth smearing onto a partner's trick; a Solo or a Wenz has to stand alone, with no partner to lean on. Bid the lowest contract your hand can carry — overreaching into a Solo on a hand that only supports a Rufer costs you five units to each of three opponents instead of one.

Count the trumps before you call an Ace

You are about to play fourteen trumps' worth of cards without knowing who holds the other half. Work out how many Obers, Unters and top Hearts are still unaccounted for before deciding which Ace to call — a thin trump hand wants the partner most likely holding the rest.

Run away from the called Ace when you can afford to

Holding at least three other cards in the called suit, lead a lower one first — before anyone else leads that suit — and you keep the Ace back for later instead of parting with it the moment the suit appears. It also tells the table, once the suit is led with no Ace in sight, exactly who has run.

Smear points onto a trick already won, not one still in doubt

Unable to follow suit, play your Ace or Ten onto a trick a partner or fellow defender is winning, so the points land on the right side; play it onto a trick still undecided and you risk handing those points away. Slough your lowest cards of other suits onto tricks you expect to lose.

Save the Tout call for a hand already winning big

A Tout is lost the instant one trick gets away from you, however many points you still hold — commit to it only once you can see your way to every trick, not merely to a comfortable majority of the points.

Short Schafkopf

Played with 24 cards instead of 32 — the Sevens and Eights come out — and each player gets six cards instead of eight. The contracts and the scoring carry over unchanged; only the deal and the pace differ, and it is especially common in the northeast of Bavaria.

Geier and Suit Geier

Some tables add Geier alongside Wenz: the same idea, but the four Obers are the only trumps and the Unters drop back into their suits instead. A Suit Geier adds a chosen suit as six more trumps underneath the Obers.

Bettel

A negative contract some tables allow below Suit Geier: the declarer undertakes to lose every single trick, with no trump suit at all and cards ranking straight from Ace down to Seven. Tables vary on whether a defender must try to beat the highest card already played when following suit.

Wedding (Hochzeit)

A player dealt only one trump may offer it face down rather than bid outright, asking who will play a Wedding with them. Whoever accepts takes the face-down trump and passes the offerer a card face down in exchange, and the two play as declarer and secret partner against the other two, under Rufer rules but with no called Ace. If nobody accepts, the hand scores nothing and the next player deals.

Ramsch instead of a redeal

Rather than throwing in a hand where everybody passed, many tables play a Ramsch: the same fourteen trumps as a Rufer, no partnerships, and the aim is to take as few card points as possible. Whoever ends up with the most points pays the other three, often doubled for every player who took no tricks at all.

How many cards do you deal in Bavarian Schafkopf?

Eight to each of the four players, dealt four at a time in two rounds from a 32-card German-suited pack.

What happens if every player passes in the bidding?

The hand is thrown in with no result, and the next player deals — nothing is entered on the sheet, because nothing was won or lost. Many tables play a Ramsch instead; see Variations.

How many trumps are there?

Fourteen in a Rufer or a Solo — the four Obers, the four Unters and the six cards of the trump suit — and just four in a Wenz, where only the Unters are trumps and the Obers become ordinary suit cards.

Can the defenders be told who the secret partner is before the hand ends?

No — the Rufer's called Ace is never announced, and its holder is only revealed by how the hand plays out: by the Ace itself appearing, by a player "running away" from it, or by whose tricks the card points end up in once the hand is scored.

Why call an Ace instead of playing alone?

A Rufer is the easier contract to make, since the called Ace brings a hidden second hand's worth of cards onto the declarer's side, and it risks far less: one unit from or to each of the two losers, against a Solo's five from or to each of three opponents. A Solo pays so much more precisely because the declarer carries the whole hand alone.

Is Bavarian Schafkopf ever played with fewer than four?

Not under these rules — the bidding, the partnerships and the fourteen-trump structure all assume exactly four at the table. Some circles play three- or two-handed adaptations with their own dealing and scoring, different enough to count as separate games rather than a smaller table for this one.