Skat

1.Setup

• Three players. With four, the dealer receives no cards and sits out the deal; the role rotates.
• A 32-card deck. Suits, from highest to lowest: clubs, spades, hearts, diamonds (in German Kreuz, Pik, Herz, Karo).
• Card values: ace 11, ten 10, king 4, queen 3, jack 2, nine, eight and seven nothing. The deck holds 120 points.
• The dealer shuffles, has the player on their right cut, then deals starting on their left: three cards each, two cards set aside face down — the skat —, four cards each, then three. Everyone has ten cards.
• The player to the dealer's left is called Vorhand ("forehand"), the next one Mittelhand ("middlehand"), the last one Hinterhand ("rearhand").

2.How to play

• Bidding (Reizen) is not about a game but about a number: the game value you think you can reach. The allowed numbers are the possible game values: 18, 20, 22, 23, 24, 27, 30, 33, 35, 36, 40, 44, 45, 46, 48, 50, 54, 55, 59, 60, and so on.
• Middlehand offers values to Forehand, who answers "yes" as long as they can hold, or passes. The winner of this duel then faces Rearhand the same way. The last one standing becomes the declarer; the other two team up against them.
• If Middlehand and Rearhand both pass without bidding, Forehand may play (the bid is then 18) or pass in turn: the deal is dropped and the next player deals.
• The declarer chooses to pick up the skat, then discard two cards that will count for them, or to play Hand, without looking at it. They then announce their game.
• In a suit game, the four jacks are the highest trumps, in the order clubs, spades, hearts, diamonds, followed by the chosen suit: ace, ten, king, queen, nine, eight, seven.
• In Grand, only the four jacks are trumps. In Null, there are no trumps, cards rank ace, king, queen, jack, ten, nine, eight, seven, and the declarer undertakes to take no trick at all.
• When playing Hand, the declarer may announce Schneider or Schwarz. They may also play open (ouvert), their ten cards spread on the table before the first lead; in a suit game or Grand, an open game is played Hand and counts as Schwarz announced.
• Forehand leads the first trick. You must follow the suit led; a jack belongs to the trumps, not to its suit (except in Null). If you cannot follow, play any card you like.
• The trick goes to the highest trump, or else to the highest card of the suit led. Its winner leads the next one.

3.Scoring

• In suit games and Grand, the declarer wins with at least 61 points, skat included. Schneider: 90 points or more, the opponents having 30 or fewer. Schwarz: all the tricks.
• A game's value is its base value multiplied by a number of "levels". Base values: diamonds 9, hearts 10, spades 11, clubs 12, Grand 24.
• Levels add up the matadors and the winning stages. The declarer plays "with" if they hold the jack of clubs, skat included, and count the trumps they hold in unbroken sequence from it; "without" if they lack it, and count the ones missing above their highest trump. "With 2" and "without 2" are worth the same. Up to 11 in a suit game, 4 in Grand.
• Winning stages, one level each: the game itself, Hand, Schneider, Schneider announced, Schwarz, Schwarz announced, open. Announcements only count when playing Hand.
• For example: clubs with 2, won without more, is worth 12 × (2 + 1) = 36. Grand open with 4 is worth 24 × 11 = 264, the biggest possible game.
• Null has a fixed value: 23, Null Hand 35, Null open 46, Null open Hand 59.
• When they win, the declarer writes down the game's value. When they lose, twice that value is taken off, Hand games included. The opponents write nothing.
• A declarer who loses with 30 points or fewer is Schneider, and with no trick at all is Schwarz: that stage also counts in the value of the loss. An announced Schneider or Schwarz that is not achieved loses the game, counted at that stage only once.
• Overbidding: if the game's value falls short of the bid, often because a jack found in the skat changed the matadors, the game is lost. It then counts the smallest multiple of its base value that reaches the bid, doubled. Example from the Skatordnung: bid of 50, hearts with 1 announced, lost at 5 × 10 = 50, that is −100.
• Tournament scoring (Seeger-Fabian): each player adds 50 points per game they won and takes off 50 per game they lost. Each game lost by a declarer also earns 40 points for each of their two opponents at a three-player table, 30 for each of the other three players at a four-player table, dealer included.

4.End of the game

• Agree in advance on how many games the score sheet will hold, a multiple of the number of players so that everyone deals the same number of times: 36, for example.
• The highest total wins. In tournaments, on equal points after Seeger-Fabian scoring, whoever won more games ranks higher, then whoever lost fewer.

House rules and pitfalls

• Kontra and Re: many tables let an opponent say "Kontra" before the first lead, the game then counting double, and the declarer answer "Re", quadruple. The 1998 Skatordnung does not provide for them; the counter offers them as an option.
• Ramsch: when everyone passes, some tables play a Ramsch, where each player tries to take as few points as possible. The Skatordnung rules it out: the deal simply moves on.
• Common trap: a jack does not belong to its suit. The jack of hearts is a trump; when hearts are led, it does not follow suit.
• A side that took only one trick with no points in it is not Schwarz, only Schneider.
• With four, the dealer never looks at the skat, and may only see the hand of one neighbour.
• The counter adds the Seeger-Fabian points game by game rather than at the end of the sheet: the final total is the same.

Variants

chosen when starting, the scorer follows

Frequently asked questions

The box

Age

Ages 12+

Origin

Traditional game, with no specific designer or publisher

Mechanics

AuctionHand ManagementTrick-taking

Contents

• 1 32-card deck
• Something to write the scores down

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