Skat

Players and equipment

Three players and a 32-card pack, sevens up to aces, in French or German suits. Four may sit at the table, the dealer standing out of each hand. The four jacks are permanent top trumps, ranking clubs, spades, hearts, diamonds above everything else, and the declarer plays alone against the other two.

The deal

Ten cards each, dealt three, then two face down to the middle — the skat — then four, then three. The skat belongs to whoever wins the auction. The seats have names: forehand sits to the dealer's left, middlehand next, and rearhand is the dealer, or the third player when four are at the table.

Play

The two non-dealers bid first, then the dealer. A bid is a number, and it is a claim about what your game will be worth; the others say "pass" or hold. The last player in is the declarer.

Middlehand bids to forehand first, saying a number from 18 upwards through the values a game can be worth — 18, 20, 22, 23, 24, 27, 30, 33 and on — and forehand holds each with "yes" or passes. Rearhand then bids to the survivor from the next number up. The winner must play a game worth at least the last number said or held; if both others pass without bidding, forehand may play at 18.

Naming the game

The declarer may pick up the skat, discard any two face down, and then name one of three games:

Suit game

Take 61 card points

A named suit joins the jacks as trumps

Grand

Take 61 card points

Only the four jacks are trumps

Null

Take no trick at all

There are no trumps and the declarer must lose every trick

Declaring without looking at the skat — playing hand — is worth more. The skat cards count for the declarer at the end, picked up or not, except in a null. Only a declarer playing hand may announce schneider or schwarz before the first lead, or play ouvert with the hand face up, each for one more on the multiplier.

The tricks

The player to the dealer's left leads. Follow suit if you can, otherwise play anything; the highest trump wins the trick, or the highest card of the suit led if no trump falls. Remember that a jack belongs to the trump suit, not to the suit printed on it. In a suit game the trumps are the four jacks and then the ace, ten, king, queen, nine, eight and seven of the named suit; in a null there are no trumps and the jacks rank between the queen and the ten.

Scoring

The pack holds 120 card points, and the declarer needs 61 of them:

Jack

2

Clubs is the highest card in the game

Ace

11

The daus

Ten

10

Ranks between the ace and the king

King

4

Worth having

Queen

3

Worth a little

Nine, eight, seven

0

Worth nothing but the trick

Sixty each is a loss. Ninety or more is schneider and every trick is schwarz; a declarer held to 30 or fewer has been schneidered, which counts against them.

The game is then worth a base value multiplied by how many top trumps ran with or against the declarer, plus one:

Diamonds, hearts, spades, clubs

9, 10, 11, 12

The four suit games

Grand

24

Jacks alone

Null

23

A flat value, not multiplied

Null hand

35

Played without looking at the skat

Null ouvert

46

Played with the hand face up

Null ouvert hand

59

Face up and without the skat

Counting the top trumps is the part that takes a few games to learn, so it is worth doing slowly. Start at the jack of clubs and run down the trump order — clubs, spades, hearts, diamonds, then the trump suit's own cards. Count how many you hold in an unbroken run from the top, and that is "with" so many; if you do not hold the jack of clubs, count how many you are missing in an unbroken run instead, and that is "against" so many. Either way, add one.

Somebody always holds the jack of clubs, so the multiplier is never below 2, and the smallest game anybody can bid is 18.

Hand, schneider, schneider announced, schwarz, schwarz announced and ouvert each add one more. An ouvert suit game or grand carries every step below it, so a grand ouvert with all four jacks is 24 times 11, which is 264 and the biggest game there is.

Spades, holding the club and spade jacks but not hearts

33

With 2, game 3, times 11

Hearts, best trump the diamond jack

40

Against 3, game 4, times 10

The same spade game, winning schneider

44

Schneider adds one: game 4, times 11

A declarer who makes the contract adds the game value; one who fails subtracts twice it, and the defenders score nothing either way. A game worth less than the bid is lost however the tricks fell, which is what makes over-bidding expensive: the declarer is charged twice the smallest multiple of the base value that reaches the bid.

A worked deal

Ben bids 18, 20, 22, 23, 24, 27, 30 and 33 to Alice, who holds every one; Ben passes, Cara passes rather than say 35, and Alice must play a game worth at least 33.

Alice's hand

With 2

The club and spade jacks, five clubs, the ace of hearts, two small cards

The multiplier

3

With 2, plus one for the game

The base value

12

Clubs

The game

36

12 times 3, which covers the bid of 33

Card points

Won

Alice takes 74 of the 120, the skat counted as hers

Alice's score

+36

The value of the game

Had she taken 58

−72

Lost, at twice the value

Ben, next deal

+35, or −70 lost

Null hand, every trick lost without looking at the skat

Alice picks up the skat, finds the ten of diamonds and the queen of spades, keeps the queen and buries the ten with her lone nine of diamonds: the discard is hers at the end, so that ten is banked before a card is led. She names clubs. With the club and spade jacks but not the heart jack she is with 2; plus one is 3, times 12 is 36, which covers her bid. She takes 64 card points in the tricks and the buried ten makes 74: won, and she writes 36. On 58 the same game would have cost her 72, and the defenders write nothing either way. Had she held the club jack alone she would have been with 1 and the game 24, short of her bid — an overbid, lost before a card is played.

Ben's null hand on the next deal is a flat 35: lose every trick and he adds 35; win one and the game ends at once and he subtracts 70.

Ending

Play an agreed number of deals, usually a multiple of three so that everybody deals the same number of times. Highest total wins. A short session is often a round of six; a serious one runs to thirty-six.

What to bid

Count your jacks first: they are your best trumps and your multiplier. A suit game wants five or more trumps counting the jacks and an ace or two on the side. Work out the smallest game you can safely name and never bid past it, because the skat can make a hand worse as well as better.

Picking up the skat

Take the skat unless the hand is already certain — two cards seen and two thrown away are worth more than the one extra multiplier hand gives. Bury the points you cannot protect, a lone ten or a short ace and ten, and never discard a jack. Then lead trumps, so the defenders have none left to take your aces and tens, and count card points as they fall, not tricks.

Playing grand

Grand pays double a clubs game and wants jacks and aces. Three or four jacks with an ace or two behind them is a grand; two jacks with suits full of aces and tens can be one. Play the jacks to draw the others, then cash the aces: with only four trumps in the game, once the jacks are gone every ace is a trick.

Defending as a pair

The defenders win or lose together, and the art is putting points on your partner's tricks and none on the declarer's: throw a ten or an ace when your partner is winning and a seven when the declarer is. Lead the suits the declarer seems short in so that your partner can trump them. Keep the count between you — a declarer on 55 with two tricks left can still be held.

Ramsch

When all three pass, many tables play Ramsch rather than throwing the cards in: everyone plays alone with the jacks the only trumps, as in a grand, and whoever takes the most card points loses that many. The skat usually goes to the winner of the last trick, and a player who takes every trick scores 120 instead.

Bockrunden

A round of deals at double stakes, called after an event agreed beforehand — a Kontra game or a game lost on exactly 60 card points are common triggers.

Kontra and Re

Before the first lead a defender may say "Kontra", doubling the result whichever way it goes, and the declarer may answer "Re", doubling it again. Many tables allow the Kontra only from a defender who bid at least 18.

Losses at single value

Before the rules were revised in 1999 a lost game cost its value once, and only a lost hand game was doubled. Some home tables still play that way; agree which rule before the first deal.

Tournament scoring

Under the Seeger system used in German clubs, a won game adds 50 to its value, a lost game costs twice its value and 50 more, and each defender scores 40 when the declarer loses at a table of three, or 30 at a table of four.

How many points do you need to win in Skat?

The declarer needs 61 of the 120 card points, the two skat cards counting as theirs. Sixty each is a loss. Ninety or more is schneider and every trick is schwarz, each one more step on the multiplier. A null needs no points at all: the declarer must lose every trick.

What are the card values in Skat?

An ace is 11, a ten 10, a king 4, a queen 3 and a jack 2; the nine, eight and seven are worth nothing. That is 30 a suit and 120 in the pack. The ten ranking above the king is what catches new players out.

How does bidding work in Skat?

Middlehand says a number from 18 upwards to forehand, who holds it with "yes" or passes; once one has passed, rearhand bids to the survivor from the next number. The last player in is the declarer and must play a game worth at least the highest number said or held. The numbers are the values a game can be worth, which is why they do not run in ones.

What is the skat in Skat?

The two cards dealt face down in the middle. The declarer may take them into hand and discard any two face down in their place, and the discard counts as theirs at the end. Leaving them untouched is playing hand, one more on the multiplier.

What is null in Skat?

A promise to lose every trick. There are no trumps, the jacks rank between the queen and the ten, and the first trick the declarer wins loses the game. It is worth a flat 23, or 35 played hand, 46 played ouvert and 59 played hand and ouvert; lost, it costs double like any other game.

What happens if you bid more than your game is worth in Skat?

The game is lost however the cards fell. Its value is raised to the smallest multiple of your base value that reaches the bid, and you lose twice that. It happens most often when the skat takes away a jack you were counting on.