Skat (card game)

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For the American draw-and-discard card game called "Scat", see Thirty-one (game).
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Skat (card game)
Type Trick-taking
Players 3
Deck 32
Cards German or French
Play Clockwise
Card rank
(highest to lowest)		 (J) A 10 K Q 9 8 7, A K Q J 10 9 8 7(only for Null - Games)
Related games Sheepshead, Schafkopf, Doppelkopf

Skat is (along with Doppelkopf) the most popular card game in Germany and Silesia. It is also played in American regions with large German populations, such as Wisconsin and Texas.

It is a three- or four-player trick-taking game using a 32-card deck.

The deck of 32 cards consists of the cards 7, 8, 9, 10, jack, queen, king and ace in all suits, without jokers. Some players in Eastern and Southern Germany and Austria prefer German decks with the suits of bells, hearts, leaves and acorns. Until recently in Saxony and Thuringia for example German-suited decks were used almost exclusively. At tournaments, a compromise deck is used nowadays that has the standard suits but with green spades and yellow diamonds.[citation needed] The choice of deck does not otherwise affect the game's rules.

Contents

[edit] Organization of players

League games are organized worldwide by the International Skat Players Association and within Germany by the Deutscher Skatverband e.V. and online by the Deutscher online Skatverband e.V..

[edit] History

Skat was developed around 1810 in Altenburg in what is now the Federal State of Thuringia, Germany and was based on the three-player game of Tarock (also known as Tarot) and the four-player game of Sheepshead. The main innovation was the Bidding process described below.[1]

The first official rules were published in 1886, also in Altenburg. Nevertheless, the rules continued to differ by region. Since 1998 both the ISPA and the DSkV use the same rules.[citation needed]

Skat features prominently in Guenter Grass's novel The Tin Drum and leads a trail connecting the plot. It is also played by many soldiers in Remarque's novel All Quiet on the Western Front.

[edit] Game Rules

Because of the many variations in the rules of Skat, the rules below are necessarily general, although rules not found in official German tournament play are marked as such. A player should contact some nearby Skat players to have the game properly explained.

[edit] General principles

In the long run, every one of the three or four players plays for himself, but in every single game one player, selected by the bidding process, plays against two others. When there are four players, each player skips one round out of four. The two opponents are not allowed to communicate in any way except by their choice of which cards to play.

The main goal in normal games is to score more than half of the card points, i.e. 61 or more out of 120. A declarer who manages to do this is awarded game points, a declarer who fails at this loses game points. At the end of the evening or of the particular round, the player with the most game points wins the round.

[edit] Dealing

The game begins with the dealing of all cards to the three players. Dealing is rotated clockwise around the table, so that the player to the left of the last dealer then becomes the dealer of the next game. The cards are shuffled and dealt face down so that every player has ten cards. The remaining two cards stay separate as the skat. Rules insist that dealing follows the pattern three, skat, four, three (the numbers referring to the number of cards each player gets), but many hobby players deal five times two. In four-player rounds, the dealer does not deal any cards to himself and skips the rest of the round. He may peek into the hand of only one player (usually the one to his right) or into the skat, but not both.

[edit] Bidding

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The bidding system (German: Reizen) defines which of the three active players plays alone against the other two. Bidding occurs prior to every game (directly after dealing).

If several players are interested in playing the game, then the calculated height of bidding defines which player succeeds. Bidding usually starts with the lowest possible game (18). It then follows a question and answer pattern.

The height that a player is allowed to bid—nobody is required to bid anything—is basically a multiplication of

  • the suit the player wants to be trumps
    • clubs = 12,
    • spades = 11,
    • hearts = 10,
    • diamonds = 9,
    • grand (only jacks are trumps) = 24 (for some time the official value was 20, which some hobby players still prefer[citation needed])
  • a count of either trumps owned or trumps not owned plus the basic value of the kind of game the player wants to play

The trumps are always counted in unbroken succession from top down:

  1. jack of clubs,
  2. jack of spades,
  3. jack of hearts, and
  4. jack of diamonds.
  5. trump ace,
  6. trump ten,
  7. trump king,
  8. trump queen,
  9. trump nine,
  10. trump eight, and
  11. trump seven.

If a player has the jack of clubs (♣J), he counts the unbroken series of trumps with which he plays; the first one that is missing stops the count. If he does not have the jack of clubs, he counts the unbroken series of trumps without which he plays; the first one that is present stops the count. Cards in the skat count, even in hand games (see below) where the declarer does not use the skat; this may unexpectedly reduce or increase the trump count and thus makes Hand games without two or more somewhat risky.

The basic value is calculated by adding the specials. Each of those specials counts as 1. The one special one always has is winning (so you have always a +1), called "Game".

The other specials are

  1. Schneider (you win with 90 or more card points)
  2. Schwarz (you achieve all tricks)
  3. Hand (you don't use the Skat for improving your cards)

following specials are according to the official rules only allowed in case of "Hand".

  1. Announcing schneider (you have to win 90 or more card points to win the game)
  2. Announcing schwarz (you have to achieve all tricks to win)
  3. Ouvert (you play with open cards and you will achieve all tricks)

This is best demonstrated with a few examples, first for simple winning the game

  • ♣J, ♠J: With 2, plus 1 is 3.
  • ♣J, ♥J: With 1 (counting interrupted by the missing jack of spades), plus 1 is 2.
  • ♣J, ♠J, ♥J, ♦J, trump ace, trump king: with 5 (interrupted by missing trump 10), plus one is 6.
  • ♥J, ♦J: Without 2, plus 1 is 3.
  • ♥J alone: Also without 2 (counting interrupted by the present jack of hearts), plus 1 is 3.

Now for the basic value

  • ♣J, ♠J: With 2, plus 1 (for winning) plus 1 (for hand) is 4.
  • ♣J, ♠J: With 2, plus 1 (for winning) plus 1 (for schneider) is 4.
  • ♣J, ♠J: With 2, plus 1 (for winning) plus 1 (for hand) plus 1 (for schneider)) plus 1 (for schwarz) is 6.
  • ♣J, ♠J: With 2, game 3, Hand 4, Schneider 5, announced (schneider) 6, schwarz 7, announced (schwarz) 8, ouvert 9

Therefore the theoretically highest count in trumps is either with or without eleven trumps (although this is in fact highly unlikely to ever occur in real play), is 11 plus basic value; whereas the lowest count is either the jack of spades without the jack of clubs or vice versa, is one plus the basic value.

The resulting score for bidding an ordinary game would then e.g. be without 2, plus 1 is 3, times clubs (12), 36, in case of an announced schneider without 2, plus 4 is 6, times 12, 72.

The bidding roles are fixed in this order (clockwise): dealer, listener, bidder, next bidder. Thus the dealer is also the next bidder at a three-player table; at a four-player table the dealer doesn't deal any cards to himself and sits out for that game. The bidder will either say "pass" or announce a number, the listener will answer each bid with "yes" or "pass". If he says "yes", the bidder can then either himself pass or announce a higher number, etc. After either has passed the next bidder will continue to bid (or pass), with the remaining one of the first two now listening, until only one player remains. Good players can usually deduce some information about the other players' hands from their maximum bids.

Bidding begins with 18 (with or without 1 jack is 2 times 9 (diamonds)) and continues with all possible combinations: 20, 22, 23, 24, 27, 30, 33, 35, 36, 40, 44, 45, 46, 48 etc. The highest possible value (extremely rarely reached) is 264 for a grand ouvert with four. (See below for explanation of "ouvert"). Included in this row is the special game null (23) and its variants null hand (35), null ouvert (46) and null ouvert hand (59).

The player who has won the bidding (known as the "declarer" or "soloist") is now free to take up the two remaining cards (the skat) and to discard two cards ("drücken"); the latter may or may not have been contained in the original skat. The declarer may choose not to take the skat at all, which turns the game into a hand game and increases its value. After that, he declares which suit will be trumps. Trumps can be

  • any one of the four suits with the jacks as highest trumps, or
  • only the four jacks (known as "grand")
  • none in null games.

Should all players pass in the bidding, a sub-game called ramsch (literally "trash"), worth 15 points, may optionally be played. Most hobbyist groups do this, but it is not part of the official rules. According to the official rules, in this case the cards are handed in again without being shown, and the next dealer deals anew. There are also other rules how a ramsch scores in existence.

[edit] Play

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The declarer can decide to take up the skat and then to discard any two cards; or he can decide not to look at it (called hand game). In either case, any points in those two cards count towards him.

Following this, the declarer then announces which suit will be trumps.

The forehand (that is, the player to the left of the dealer) leads, i.e. he plays the first card, to the first trick; the other two follow in clockwise direction. Every player plays one card to the trick, which is in the middle of the table. The winner of a trick stacks its cards face-down in front of him, and leads to the next trick, which is again played clockwise.

The players must play a card with the same suit of the first card of the trick, if possible. If a player cannot follow suit, he may discard any card (including a trump card). Trumps, including all four jacks, count as a single suit in their own right; if trumps are led, every player must also play trumps if he has any, and it is not possible to follow suit to a non-trump card with a jack or vice-versa.

If there is at least one trump card in the trick, the highest trump in it wins the trick. If there is no trump in it, the highest card of the suit led wins the trick.

The non-trump suit cards rank in order (highest first): ace, 10, king, queen, 9, 8, 7. Note that the 10 beats the king and queen! The trumps rank the same way, but with the four jacks in the order (highest first): clubs, spades, hearts, diamonds beating them all. The jack of clubs always wins the trick that it is in.

Completed tricks are kept face down in front of the players that won them, until all the cards have been played. Examining completed tricks is not allowed. The tricks of the two players who are playing together are put together, either during or after play.

[edit] Counting

To win, the declarer must achieve 61 or more card points of out the total 120. In order to avoid confusion with game points, card points are called Augen (eyes) in Germany. There is no tie; a 60-60 game is a loss for the declarer.

Since Skat is a zero-sum game, whatever card points he failed to acquire were acquired by the defenders, so only one stack of cards need be counted. The cards have the following card point values:

  • ace = 11
  • 10 = 10
  • king = 4
  • queen = 3
  • jack = 2
  • 9, 8, 7 = none.

Note in particular that the highest-ranking cards for taking tricks (the jacks) are not the highest scoring cards. Note also that the aces and tens combined make up almost three quarters of the total points; taking as many as possible of them is thus imperative for winning. On the other hand, winning 7s, 8s, and 9s doesn't help (or hurt) at all, unless schwarz (see below) is to be achieved.

If a player bid more than he made (e.g., because he found a jack of clubs in the skat and thus went from "without three" to "with one"), he loses. This is called überreizen (overbidding). There are several methods of bidding and scoring higher, which allows a player to rescue himself in this case, or which simply increases the number of game points he gets:

hand
the player does not look at the skat (but he receives their card points; note: any hidden, unseen jacks may also alter the value of the game). The trump count is raised by one.
schneider (tailor, who were proverbially poor people)
the losing side has 30 or less card points. The trump count is increased by one.
schwarz (black, Rotwelsch for "poor")
The losing side won no tricks. Note that even if the losing side takes a trick with only "nil points" cards in it, it is not schwarz. The trump count is increased by one for Schneider, one for schwarz (thus by a total of two).
ouvert (open)
The declarer lays his hand face up on the table before the first trick; the skat remains hidden. In the standard rules, this implies also announcing schneider and schwarz, thus the declarer must take all tricks to win. Ouvert must be announced, thus it is only possible in hand games. The trump count is increased by one for hand, one for schneider, one for schneider announcement, one for schwarz, one for schwarz announcement, one for ouvert, for a total of six.

If (and only if) playing hand: schneider, schwarz or ouvert can be announced after bidding, and their being announced adds another one to the trump count. However, a player who announces, and then doesn't follow up on the announcement, loses. Schneider is never counted more than once; so if you announce sSchneider and then at the end you get less than 30 points yourself, only the original schneider plus announcement that you failed to reach is counted against you, your own schneider is not.

Some hobbyist groups allow all possible combinations of hand, schneider, schwarz and ouvert announcements; in the standard rules this is not possible, schneider can be announced only if hand is also announced, schwarz obviously implies schneider, and ouvert can only be announced if schwarz is also to be achieved. But even in the standard rules unannounced schneider and schwarz apply in all eligible games, hand or not.

Some hobbyist groups allow a player of the opponent party to announce Contra before he plays his a card to the first trick if he thinks the declarer won't win his game, which doubles the game points to be won or lost by the declarer. The declarer may then reply re, which doubles again, if he thinks he can win anyway. None of this is allowed in the standard rules.[citation needed]

[edit] Special games

There are some special games.

[edit] Grand

grand (great)
only jacks are trumps; if a player leads with a jack, following suit requires playing a jack as well by the other players, if possible. The trump count is multiplied with 24 (this used to be 20 until some decades ago). Of course in this case "with four" or "without four" are the highest possible normal trump counts, as only four trumps exist in this type of game; but hand, schneider, schwarz and ouvert remain possible. Grand ouvert with four is the highest possible game in Skat nowadays, counting 264 game points. In theory, grand ouvert without four also counts 264, but obviously cannot be won.
grand ouvert
the multiplier used to be 36. Quite a lot of hobby players use 48 as multiplier. This has been removed from the rules as a game with its own multiplier since 1998; now it uses standard grand and standard ouvert values. Before that time, grand hand "with four", with Schwarz announced, was the highest possible game at 324 points.

[edit] Null

null (fixed bid of 23)
The declarer wins if he manages to make no tricks. He loses, and the game is over, as soon as he makes a trick. In null games, there are no trumps at all (jacks count as part of their normal suits, just below queens), and 10s are lower in trick taking power than face cards. Card points are of no interest in this game. The idea of this is to give a player with an exceptionally bad hand a chance at doing something with it. Since any communication between the opponents would mean a huge disadvantage to the declarer in null games, many rounds play them in complete silence.
null hand (fixed bid of 35)
as for null, but the declarer does not look at the skat.
null ouvert (fixed bid of 46)
This is the only ouvert game in the standard rules where the skat is picked up. The two cards that the declarer discards need not be shown to the opponents.
null ouvert hand (fixed bid of 59).

[edit] Ramsch

Ramsch is not part of official skat rules, but is widely practiced in hobbyist rounds, and is the unofficial rule most often suggested for inclusion into official rules. It is played when all three players pass during the bidding process. There is no declarer in ramsch; every player plays for himself. Tricks are played as if the game were Grand (only jacks are trumps). Hobby players often add the following rule: 10s are lower in trick taking power than Queens and Kings, BUT still count as ten points. Sometimes, they only count one point. There are a couple of variants to the rules concerning 10s, so this should be cleared before starting the game. After all ten tricks are played, the player with the highest number of card points (or alternatively, every player) has their card points amount deducted from their score as negative game points. Other rounds give a fixed value of 15 negative points to the loser. In all variants of Ramsch, the object of this anti-game is to receive as few card points as possible. The idea is to punish players who should have bid on their not-too-bad hands instead of passing.

[edit] Scoring

The score (game points, not the same as card points) for each game (except Ramsch) is always assigned to the declarer.

If the outcome of the game matched or exceeded the initial bid, and the declarer therefore won the game, then the declarer scores as many game points as a bid value on the outcome could have reached maximally — no matter what his actual maximum bid was.

Otherwise, if the declarer failed to reach the goal set by the initial bid and therefore lost, then the declarer is penalized by twice as many negative game points. Until 1998, lost hand games did not count double, but this rule was dropped in that year. (The reason was that in tournament play nearly all games played were hand games at this point; they increased the trump count by one and also did not penalise as much as a normal game would when lost).

In league games, a fixed number of points is added for each game that is won by the declarer , to lower the chance factor and to stress the skill factor of the game. In that situation, it becomes far more important for each player to bid his hand as far as possible.

[edit] North American Skat

Skat in the United States and Canada shares most of its rules with its European counterpart with the addition of a few different games and an alternate system of scoring.

[edit] The Games in North American Skat

Tournée
To determine trump, declarer picks up one card of the skat and looks at it. If declarer wants this card's suit as trump, the card is shown to the other players. Otherwise the hand is played as Paßt mir nicht (it doesn't suit me) and the other card in the skat is turned up to determine trump. A jack gives declarer the choice of either playing grand (jacks only) or the jack's suit as trump. Once trump has been determined, both the skat cards are added to declarer's hand and then two are removed and placed face down to begin his or her pile of cards won.
Solo
The skat remains on the table and declarer names trump in any suit or grand. Grand may also be played ouvert with declarer's hand spread face up for all player to see.
Guckser
Declarer picks up both of the skat cards, adds them to his or her hand and discards two. Game is played with grand trumps. Guckser is the only game in North American Skat where declarer picks up both skat cards at once.
Null
The skat remains untouched and declarer wagers to take no tricks. In null, cards rank A (high) K Q J 10 9 8 7 (low). If declarer takes a trick, then the hand is lost and a new deal commences. Null may also be played ouvert.
Ramsch
If mittelhand and hinterhand both pass, vorhand may declare ramsch and players each play for themselves in trying to take the fewest number of tricks with grand as trumps. The skat is taken by the winner of the last trick.

Upon determining the game, declarer may also state that he or she intends to schneider or schwarz for extra game points (or penalties – see below).

[edit] Scoring in North American Skat

Card points are the same as in German Skat: A=11, 10=10, K=4, Q=3. J=2 and all other cards have no value. The game points, however, are a bit different. Base value for the different games are as follows:

  • Tournée: ♦ 5, ♥ 6, ♠ 7, ♣ 8 , Grand 12. If a tournée is played Paßt mir nicht and declarer does not make 61 card points, then the game point penalty is doubled.
  • Solo: ♦ 9, ♥ 10, ♠ 11, ♣ 12 , Grand 20, Grand Ouvert 24.
  • Guckser: 16, 32 if lost.
  • Null: 20, 40 if played ouvert.
  • Ramsch: player taking th fewest number of card points wins 10 game points, 20 for taking zero tricks. A player taking every trick loses 30 and other players do not win any.

As in German Skat, game points in North American Skat are tallied by multiplying base game value by:

  • 1 for each top trump, either with or without, plus:
    • 1 for game (61 or more card points), or
    • 2 for schneider (91 or more card points), or
    • 3 for schwarz (winning every trick).
  • If schneider was declared add 1, or
  • If schwarz was declared add 2.

Note that if schneider or schwarz are declared but not made, then the contract is not met and declarer loses the amount that he or she would have won if successful. The above multipliers do not figure into games played null or ramsch.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Computer programs

Several computer programs for Skat exist.

  • NetSkat Windows software plays fairly well
  • XSkat Free Linux, Mac OS X and OS/2 software
  • A simulator called LSkat (Lieutenant Skat) is part of the kdegames package of games for KDE.