How to play Skat
Skat is Germany's national card game: a three-player trick-taking game played with a 32-card deck (sevens up to aces) in which one player — the declarer — takes on the other two. You play against Elva and Þórður over twelve hands, four deals each; the highest total after hand twelve wins. Each hand, every player gets ten cards and two go face down into the skat.
Just want the rules? Read the complete Skat rulebook.
First comes the bidding. Bids climb a fixed ladder — 18, 20, 22, 23, 24, 27 and so on — and every bid is a promise: “my game will be worth at least this much.” Middlehand bids against Forehand, then the dealer takes on whoever survives. The winner becomes the declarer and may pick up the skat and discard any two cards (their points count for the declarer!), or leave it face down and play a harder, higher-scoring hand game.
Then the declarer names the contract:
- A suit game (diamonds 9, hearts 10, spades 11, clubs 12) — the four jacks become the top trumps, always in the order ♣J ♠J ♥J ♦J, followed by A, 10, K, Q, 9, 8, 7 of the trump suit. Eleven trumps in all, and the declarer needs 61 of the 120 card points (A=11, 10=10, K=4, Q=3, J=2).
- Grand (base 24) — only the four jacks are trumps.
- Null — no trumps, cards in plain face order (the 10 below the J!), and the declarer must take no tricks at all. Fixed values: 23, Hand 35, Ouvert 46, Hand Ouvert 59.
On a hand game the declarer may also announce Schneider (90 points), Schwarz (every trick) or play Ouvert with their cards on the table. The game's value is its base times its multipliers: the run of top trumps you hold or lack (“with 2 / without 2”), plus one for the game, one for hand, and more for Schneider and Schwarz — announced or simply made, by either side. Win and the value is added to your score; lose — or overbid, when your game turns out to be worth less than your bid — and you lose double.
- Click or drag — tap a card or drag it to the middle to play it; drag two cards onto the skat (or tap to raise them) when you exchange.
- Follow suit — remember jacks belong to the trump suit, not their printed suit: if hearts are trump and a jack is led, you must answer with a trump.
- The value preview in the contract picker warns you when a contract cannot (☠) or might not (⚠) cover your bid.
Strategy tips for Skat
- Count your jacks before you bid. The club jack decides whether you are “with” or “without”, and the skat can betray you: bid on “without 2” and a club jack in the skat silently turns your ×3 into ×2 — an instant overbid. When in doubt, stop bidding one step earlier.
- 61 points is about aces and tens. Four of the five point-heavy cards in every suit are the ace and ten. A long trump suit wins tricks, but it is the aces you cash and the tens you protect that get you over the line.
- Discard for points and for voids. A naked ten is worth ten points sitting safely in the skat — that is a sixth of your target banked before the first card is played. Emptying a short side suit so you can trump it is usually worth more than keeping a middling king.
- Pull trumps as declarer, hoard them as defender. With the top jack, lead trumps until the defenders have none — every trump they hold is a trick your aces might lose. Defending, keep your trumps to ruff the declarer's tens.
- Defenders: throw your points on your partner's tricks. The two defenders share their card points. When your partner has a trick won, feed it your tens and aces (“schmieren”) rather than wasting them under the declarer's trumps.
- Check Null before you force a weak suit game. A hand full of sevens, eights and nines is dreadful for a suit contract and perfect for Null — and Null's fixed 23 conveniently matches a low winning bid.
- Respect the fixed 12 hands. The match ends after hand twelve no matter what. If you trail late, a bold Grand or an announced Schneider is worth the risk; if you lead, take the quiet 18-point games and let the others gamble.
Frequently asked questions
How does bidding work in Skat?
Bidding is a numbers auction between the three seats. Middlehand starts by naming the lowest bid, 18, and Forehand either accepts or passes; Middlehand keeps raising along the fixed ladder (18, 20, 22, 23, 24, 27…) until one of them gives up, and then Rearhand bids against the survivor the same way. The last player standing becomes the declarer and must play a contract worth at least their bid. If nobody wants to bid, Forehand may take the game at 18 — and if even Forehand passes, the hand is thrown in and the deal moves on.
What is a Grand in Skat?
Grand is a contract in which only the four jacks are trumps, ranked clubs, spades, hearts, diamonds. Every other suit runs ace, ten, king, queen, nine, eight, seven. Grand has the highest base value, 24, so even a minimal Grand is worth 48 points — you want a fistful of jacks and aces before you call it.
Why is the jack of clubs so important in Skat?
In every suit contract and in Grand the four jacks are the highest trumps, and the club jack is the highest of all. The value of your game is multiplied by how many top trumps you hold in unbroken sequence from the club jack down ("with 2") or how many you are missing from the top ("without 2"), so that one card decides the multiplier of almost every hand.
What is a Null game in Skat?
Null flips the game on its head: there are no trumps and the declarer promises to take no tricks at all — the hand ends instantly if they win one. Cards rank in plain face order, ace king queen jack ten nine eight seven, so the ten sits below the jack. Null is worth a fixed 23 points, Null Hand 35, Null Ouvert (played with your cards face up) 46, and Null Hand Ouvert 59.
What do Schneider and Schwarz mean?
They are the two levels above simply winning. Schneider means one side took at least 90 of the 120 card points, and Schwarz means one side took every single trick. Each one that happens adds a multiplier to the game value — whether it happens to the declarer or to the defenders. On a hand game the declarer may also announce Schneider or Schwarz in advance, raising the target from 61 points to 90 or to every trick, and adding further multipliers for the announcement itself.
What happens if I overbid in Skat?
Your contract must be worth at least as much as your winning bid. The multipliers depend partly on the skat — two cards you may never have seen — so a hand you valued at "without 2" can collapse to "with 1" if the club jack is lying in the skat. If the final value of your game comes up short of your bid you lose automatically, and you lose double the game's value, even if you took 61 points fair and square.
More free card games
If you like three-handed battles, try the Icelandic kitty game Manni. For more trump-picking tricks there is Euchre, where the jacks also jump suits as bowers, or the classic team game Whist.