Skat was developed in the 19th century in the small Thuringian town of Altenburg based on the card games L'hombre, Wendischer Schafkopf and Tarot. The name Skat comes from the Italian word scatare (to put away), which refers to the face-down cards at the start of the game.

 

As Skat is a very complex game, only the basic rules are explained here.

Skat is played with three people. The game requires memory, powers of deduction and logical thinking. A beginner only learns tactics and subtleties by playing skat frequently.

 

The 32 cards in the game of skat have the following values: Ace = 11; King = 4; Jack = 2; Ten = 10; Queen = 3; 9,8,7 = 0.

 

Colour order: clubs, spades, hearts, diamonds

 

In suit games and Grand, trump cards are the 4 jacks in suit rank order or a changing trump suit, which is determined before each game in suit games.

In Grand games there are therefore 4 trump cards (all Jacks), in suit games 11 (cards 7, 8, 9, 10, Queen, King, Ace of a certain suit and 4 Jacks).

 

All cards together result in a score of 120 points.

 

During the course of the game, played trump cards must be played with trump cards and colour cards of the same colour. If you do not have a matching colour card, you may trump; if you do not have a trump card, you discard at random.