Skat (derived from Italian "scatare", discard) is the most popular German Card Game. It's always played by three folks - if there are more, some of them will have to take turns spectating. The game is typically played over a number of rounds, with the final winner determined by the total of points gained/lost. The game was developed in the 1810s in Altenburg (Thuringia) from an older game, Schafkopf (still popular in Bavaria) using elements taken from Tarock (originally Italian Tarocchi, better known in English as Tarot) and Ombre (Spanish). The first printed rules appeared in 1848. Like Bridge, Whist, and Tarock, it is considered a game of skill.
For the game, you need 32 cards, from 7 to ace, in four suits. Each player gets ten cards to begin with; the two remaining cards are the skat. Then, the reizen (bidding) begins. How high you can bid depends on what type of game you want to play, the number of trumps you have, how high you expect to win, if you decide to play without the skat, or even open (showing your hand). The player who wins the bidding may pick up the skat and exchange one or two hand cards (unless, of course, they bid not to), then declares which type of game is played - standard suit game note , grand note ("great game", worth the most points), or the null game note . Each card has a point value from zero to eleven pointsnote ; to win, the declarer needs at least 61 of 120 points - the number of tricks he won is meaningless.note This includes the point value of the two cards in the skat. If the declarer wins and the value of the game meets the bid, they gain points equal to the bidding value of the game, otherwise, they lose twice that number of points.
It is often played for money, though not much - less than one cent per point, usually. Ideally played at Der Stammtisch.
No relation to the American card game Scat (also known as 31). It is one of the sources of inspiration for the related Russian card game, Preferans.
Tropes:
- Action Initiative: During the bidding phase, the middlehand (two steps from dealer) bids first, then the forehand (one step) may reply. When one passes, the rearhand (either dealer or three steps) then enters the bidding contest. After the overall bidwinner sets up the trick contract, the forehand starts and play continues as normal in a tabletop game.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Ouvert (open) games are usually not played out. While the opponents still don't know each others cards, one usually doesn't play ouvert until victory is mathematically certain due to the high points value.
- Long List:
- One reason why the player base is slowly dying out is because a lot of people know how to play out their cards, but can't calculate a hand's point value, which leads to overbidding and and an automatic loss. Here's how they are calculated: Count the number of consecutive highest trumps either present or not present in your hand, add bonus points for the height of your victory (if applicable), add 1 for each difficulty modifier that you declared, add 1 just because, and multiply the result with the game's basic value (Diamonds: 9, Hearts: 10, Spades: 11, Clubs: 12, Grand: 24).
- Don't forget to double the value if you lose your game (unless you have declared difficulty modifiers), and double it for each Contra, Re, etc...
- The most unlikely and therefore most expensive game is Grand Ouvert with all 4 Jacks: 1 just because, +4 for having all Jacks in your hand, +2 for winning all the tricks, +2 for declaring to win all tricks beforehand, +1 for not picking up the Skat and +1 for playing the hand open. Multiplied with 24 for Grand equals 264 points.
- Misère Game: In the "null game", the declarer wins if they do not take any tricks. The "Ramsch" variant also required players to avoid collecting points.
- Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught: Unless a complaint is made during the game by the cheated party, any result is valid.
- No Unified Ruleset: Exact rules between groups vary, with the below being especially common.
- Playing Ramsch when no player wants to play.
- Saying "Kontra" if an opponent doesn't think the player can win, and responding with "Re" if the player thinks they can, indeed, win. Both double the points.
- Announcing Schneider ("tailor", opponents win at most 30 points), schwarz ("black", opponents win 'no' tricks) or even ouvert ("open", cards open before the first card is played and also schwarz) without playing Hand (not picking up the Skat).
- Playing ouvert without having to play schwarz.
- Null or schwarz counting points instead of tricks.
- Counting Grand ouvert as 36 instead of 24 base points.
- One-Word Title: "Skat" is derived from "discard", as the declarer gets to swap out two of their cards.
- Score Multiplier: The multiplier for the game value is at least ×2. This multiplier starts at 1, is increased by the number of consecutive highest trump cards appearing in one team (both for or against), and also increased further by playing well, making announcements or choosing not to pick up the skat. This multiplier can only be determined at the end of the game, because there's some unknown elements.
- Serial Escalation: Some groups will allow that after declaring the game, the opponents and the declarer may announce "Kontra!" - "Re!" - "Bock!" - "Hirsch!" - "Supra!", which essentially boils down to "You can't win this!" - "Can too!" - "Cannot!" - "Can too!" - "Cannot!". Each of this declarations doubles the point value of the game, so you can see where this ends. And some rounds don't stop at this. (Exaggerated in Werner, a German comic by Brösel, but it usually stops at "Re!" and is entirely forbidden by the official rules because it reveals information about your hand.)
- Serious Business: Very much so. God help you if you play with some old veterans of this game and make mistakes.
- The 16 Lands of Deutschland: Although you can play with both French cards (which correspond to the suits used in the English-speaking world) and German ones (which have the suits Eichel (acorns), Grün (green leaves), Herz (hearts) and Schelle (bells), the former tend to be predominantly used in the west and north and the latter in the east and south of Germany.
- Springtime for Hitler: The Null game where a player declares to lose all tricks.
- A common variant is that the default game when no player bids is "Ramsch", where the player who accumulates the most card points loses. Sometimes subverted by another variant which allows you to win a "Ramsch" by winning every single point.
- Trick-Taking Card Game: 32 cards, 7 to Ace, are dealt to three players with two leftover. Players then bid on how good they believe their hands to be, with the highest bidder (hereafter the declarer) being allowed to trade out one or two cards from the leftovers. From there, the declarer chooses one of three options - one suit + jacks as trump, jacks alone as trump, or null (the declarer has to lose all tricks). Each card has a point value, and the declarer must take 61 of 120 points (including the leftovers) to win.
