Skat rules: how to play the German card game

Skat has a reputation for being difficult, and it partly deserves it: there is a lot of counting, and a hand is sometimes decided in the bidding, before the first card is played. But the skat rules are more orderly than they look. Everything turns on three questions answered in every hand: who plays alone, what game they play, and how much their promise is worth. Once you understand how a game's value is calculated, skat bidding stops being a mystery, and the rest (following suit, taking tricks, counting points) will feel familiar to anyone who has played the Spanish games tute or brisca.

This guide on how to play skat follows the Internationale Skatordnung (ISkO, the International Skat Rules), the common rulebook of the Deutscher Skatverband and of the international players' association, the ISPA. At the end we separate what is in the rulebook from table customs, such as Ramsch or Bock rounds, which many people assume are official and are not. We keep the German names, because they are the ones you will hear at any table and in any app.

What is Skat and where does it come from?

Skat is one of the few classic card games with a known birthplace: the town of Altenburg, in Thuringia, about 40 kilometres south of Leipzig. It took shape between roughly 1810 and 1818 in a circle of local players, the so-called Brommesche Tarok-Gesellschaft, which took Schafkopf as a base (a trick-taking game in which the Unter, the jacks, were fixed trumps) and added ideas from Tarock and from l'Hombre, the game of Spanish origin in which a player bids to play alone against the others. The playing card museum in Altenburg Castle stresses this point: there are legends about a single inventor, but what can be proven is that it was the collective work of the town's residents.

The name first appears in writing in 1813, in a notebook where an Altenburg player recorded his games. By 1818 a local journal, the Osterländische Blätter, was already describing the game. The name comes from the Italian scartare, to discard or set aside, and refers to the two cards set aside in every hand. Students and merchants carried it during the 19th century to Leipzig, Halle, Jena and other university towns, and from there across the country.

As it spread, different regional rules appeared, and with them attempts to unify them:

Today the DSkV and the International Skat Court (Internationales Skatgericht), which settles questions about the rules, are based in Altenburg. The game is listed in Germany's register of intangible cultural heritage and is also played in Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Denmark, eastern France, Namibia and in the German-American communities of the United States, which developed their own variants.

The deck: 32 cards, French or German suits

Skat is played with a 32-card deck: four suits of eight cards each (ace, 10, king, queen, jack, 9, 8 and 7). It is the same make-up as the French piquet deck, in other words a poker deck with the 2s to 6s removed. If you want to see how it fits among the world's other decks, we cover it in how many cards are in a deck.

32 cards: A, 10, K, D, B, 9, 8 and 7 in each suit, no jokers

Two types of deck are in use. The French-suited deck (clubs, spades, hearts and diamonds) is the most widespread. The German-suited deck (acorns, leaves, hearts and bells) is still the traditional one in eastern Germany, above all in Saxony and Thuringia, and there the court cards are called Unter and Ober instead of jack and queen. German tournaments also use a compromise deck, the Turnierbild: French design in four colours (black clubs, green spades, red hearts and orange-yellow diamonds), so nobody mistakes one suit for another at a glance.

French-design Skat decks carry German indices: B for Bube (jack), D for Dame (queen), K and A. That is how they appear on the cards drawn in this article. The four Buben are also called Wenzel, and the suit order (clubs, spades, hearts, diamonds) is used for everything: to rank the Buben, to set each suit's base value and to break ties in the bidding. If you are curious why French suits look the way they do, we explain it in the suits of a poker deck.

Card ranking and card values

In Skat you need to keep apart two things that go together in other games: the ranking (which card beats which in a trick) and the point value (how much each card scores at the end, what Germans call Augen, "eyes").

Card points: 120 in total

This is the typical point split of the "ace-ten" family of games: the ace and the ten carry almost all the value (21 of the 30 points in each suit), the court cards add little and the low cards nothing. That is why in Skat the 10 sits right behind the ace, above the king. The 9s, 8s and 7s are affectionately called Luschen, cards worth nothing.

Ranking in a Farbspiel (suit game)

In a suit game, the declarer picks one suit as trumps. There are then 11 trumps: at the very top the four Buben, always in the same order, and below them the remaining seven cards of the trump suit.

The other three suits (Fehlfarben) keep seven cards each, ranked: ace, 10, king, queen, 9, 8, 7. One detail confuses every beginner: the Buben no longer belong to their suit. In a hearts game, the jack of spades is a trump, not a spade. If someone leads spades and your only spade-looking card is the jack of spades, you do not have to play it; and if a trump is led, the jack of spades does follow suit.

Ranking in Grand

In Grand there are only four trumps: the Buben, in their usual order. The four suits stay as normal seven-card suits (ace, 10, king, queen, 9, 8, 7), all on the same level.

Ranking in Null

In Null there are no trumps and the Buben return to their suit. The ranking switches to the one of almost any deck: ace, king, queen, jack, 10, 9, 8, 7. The 10 drops to its natural place because points do not count here, only tricks.

Players, positions and the deal

Skat has three active players. It is very often played at tables of four: in that case the dealer gets no cards and sits out that hand, and the deal rotates to the left. Each player has a name depending on their position relative to the dealer, and those names matter, because they decide who speaks first in the bidding and who leads to the first trick:

• Vorhand (forehand): the player to the dealer's left. They receive cards first and always lead to the first trick, whoever the declarer is.
• Mittelhand (middlehand): the next player, to the left of Vorhand.
• Hinterhand (rearhand): the third. At a table of three this is the dealer.

The dealer shuffles, the player to their right cuts (each part must have at least four cards) and the cards are dealt face down, starting with Vorhand and going clockwise, in this fixed order:

Each player ends up with 10 cards and two remain in the Skat. Those two cards are the key to the game: whoever wins the bidding may pick them up, improve their hand and discard two others, and whatever they contain always counts for the declarer at the end of the hand.

Types of game

Whoever wins the bidding decides what is played. There are three main types of game and, on top of them, a series of "levels" that make them harder and more valuable.

The levels: Hand, Schneider, Schwarz and Ouvert

Conditions that raise the price can be added to the chosen game. Each one adds a level to the multiplier, as the calculation will show:

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Skat game value calculation: Spitzen × base value

Before explaining the bidding you need to know how to work out what a game is worth, because in Skat you bid with game values. The formula for suit games and Grand is:

Game value = (Spitzen + 1 for playing + levels achieved) × base value

What are Spitzen (matadors "with" and "without")?

Spitzen (also called Matadore, matadors) are the declarer's highest trumps in an unbroken sequence from the top, counting the two Skat cards as theirs. They are counted in two ways:

• "Mit" (with): if the declarer holds the jack of clubs, they count how many trumps they hold in a row from it. With the jacks of clubs and spades, but not the jack of hearts, they play mit 2, "with two".
• "Ohne" (without): if they do not hold the jack of clubs, they count how many trumps are missing above their highest trump. If their highest Bube is the jack of hearts, they are missing clubs and spades: they play ohne 2, "without two".

Counting "without" is worth the same as counting "with": a hand very weak in high trumps can be worth as much as a very strong one. In a suit game there can be 1 to 11 Spitzen (with or without all the trumps); in Grand, 1 to 4, because there are only four trumps.

In the picture, the jacks of clubs and spades in sequence, then a gap where the jack of hearts is missing: "with two".

The levels that add up

Players say it aloud in a very recognisable way: "mit zwei, Spiel drei, mal Herz: dreißig", with two, game three, times hearts: thirty.

Calculation examples

Since the minimum number of Spitzen is 1 and 1 is always added for playing, the lowest possible multiplier is 2. That is why the cheapest game in Skat is a Karo with or without one, 2 × 9 = 18, and why the bidding starts at 18.

Skat bidding: how the Reizen works

The Reizen decides two things: who will be the declarer and the minimum value their game must reach. Nobody says during the bidding what they are going to play: only numbers are spoken, and each number is a promise that the chosen game will be worth at least that much.

Skat bidding values

Only values that match some possible game may be bid. They come from multiplying each base value (9, 10, 11, 12, 24) by 2, 3, 4…, plus the fixed Null values. In order:

After that come 63, 66, 70, 72, 77, 80, 81, 84, 88, 90, 96, 99… You may skip values (you do not have to say them all), but each bid must be higher than the last. At the table they are heavily abbreviated: "vier" for 24, "null" for 23.

Who speaks and in what order

The bidding takes place in two rounds of duels. Germans sum it up with a mnemonic: Geben, Hören, Sagen (deal, listen, say), which gives each position its role starting with the dealer.

1. Mittelhand says, Vorhand listens. Mittelhand bids (18, 20, 22…) and Vorhand answers each number with "ja" (yes, I hold) or "passe" (pass). Mittelhand keeps raising until one of the two passes.
2. Hinterhand bids against whoever is left. Hinterhand continues bidding against the survivor, starting above the last value said, and the survivor answers "ja" or "passe".
3. The last one standing is the declarer, obliged to play a game worth at least the figure at which the bidding closed.

The underlying rule is simple: whoever sits earlier in the deal order only has to hold; whoever sits later has to raise. Vorhand wins ties against Mittelhand, and whoever survives that first duel wins ties against Hinterhand.

If Mittelhand and Hinterhand pass without bidding, Vorhand may play at 18 or pass as well. If all three pass, under the rulebook the hand is not played and the next player deals. At many tables, however, a Ramsch is played instead, which we cover further down.

A complete bidding example

Mittelhand has a good hearts hand with the jacks of clubs and spades: "with two, game three, times hearts", 30. Vorhand has a spades hand "without two": 3 × 11 = 33. Hinterhand has nothing.

• Mittelhand: "18". Vorhand: "ja". Mittelhand: "20". Vorhand: "ja". Mittelhand: "22". Vorhand: "ja". Mittelhand: "23". Vorhand: "ja". Mittelhand: "24". Vorhand: "ja". Mittelhand: "27". Vorhand: "ja". Mittelhand: "30". Vorhand: "ja".
• Mittelhand cannot go beyond 30 with this hand and says "passe".
• Hinterhand, facing Vorhand, says "passe" straight away.
• Vorhand is the declarer at 30. Their spades game is worth 33, so they meet the bid if they win the hand.

Mittelhand could have said 33 and forced Vorhand to decide, but that would have committed them to a 33 game they did not have, unless they were counting on finding something in the Skat or on making Schneider. That gamble, bidding above what you hold in the hope of what might come, is one of the typical decisions in Skat.

After the bidding: Skat, discard and announcement

The declarer then has two options:

• Pick up the Skat: take the two cards, add them to the hand, discard any two cards face down (drücken, "to press") and announce the game. The points in the discarded cards count for the declarer at the end.
• Play Hand: announce the game without looking at the Skat, which stays face down until the end and also counts for the declarer. This gains one multiplier level, and only this way can Schneider, Schwarz or Ouvert be announced in a suit game or Grand.

The announcement must be clear: "Herz", "Grand", "Null", "Pik Hand", "Grand Hand Schneider angesagt"… The two opponents say nothing more: from here on they are partners for the hand, unable to communicate except through the cards they play.

How the hand is played

The card play itself is a classic trick-taking game. Vorhand always leads to the first trick, whether or not they are the declarer. Each player plays one card in turn, to the left.

• You must follow suit: if you can, you must play a card of the suit led. Remember that in suit games and Grand the Buben are trumps, not cards of their suit.
• If you cannot follow suit, you may play any card: a trump to win the trick (ruff) or a card of another suit. There is no obligation to ruff or to overtrump.
• The trick is won by the highest trump or, if there are no trumps, the highest card of the suit led. The winner leads to the next trick.

Ten tricks are played. At the end, the declarer adds up the points in their tricks plus those in the Skat. With 61 or more they win; with 60 or fewer they lose, because the opponents only need 60 to defend. In Null, a single trick is enough for the declarer to lose, and the hand stops there.

Skat scoring

Winning and losing

When the hand ends, the final game value is calculated from everything actually achieved (including an unannounced Schneider or Schwarz). Then:

• If the declarer wins and the game value reaches the bid, the game value is scored.
• If they lose, twice the game value is deducted.
• Only the declarer is scored. The opponents score nothing in basic scoring.

When the game falls short of the bid (überreizt)

If at the end of the hand the actual game value is lower than the bid, the declarer has overbid (überreizt) and loses even with 61 points or more. In that case the deduction is not double the game value, but double the first multiple of the base value that reaches the bid.

An example: someone holds the jacks of clubs and hearts, bids up to 30 hoping to find the jack of spades in the Skat (with three, game four, times hearts: 40) and does not find it. They play hearts "with one": 2 × 10 = 20, less than 30. One way out remains: if they make Schneider, the game is worth 3 × 10 = 30 and meets the bid. If not, they lose, and 2 × 30 = 60 points are deducted, because 30 is the first multiple of 10 that reaches the bid.

Tournament scoring (Seeger)

In DSkV and ISPA tournaments, and in many clubs, an extended scoring known as the Seeger system is used, which rewards winning games as well as adding up value:

Tournament series are played with a fixed number of hands: 48 at tables of four and 36 at tables of three, so that everyone deals the same number of times.

Full table of game values

In suit games the multiplier can go higher (up to 18 with "with 11" and every level), but in practice the hands you see at the table rarely go beyond × 6.

Official rules and house rules

Skat has something unusual among card games: a single rulebook, the Internationale Skatordnung, agreed by the Deutscher Skatverband and the International Skat Players Association (ISPA) and in force since 1 January 1999. Before that, the ISPA, founded in the 1970s, and the DSkV had their own rules and eyed each other warily; the agreement at the end of the 1990s unified them, and since then they can only be changed if both organisations approve. The International Skat Court, based in Altenburg, interprets the rulebook and settles disputes.

Everything explained so far is in the rulebook. But at home and in the pub people almost always play with additions that are not in the Skatordnung. It is worth knowing them, and agreeing on them before you start:

Basic strategy

Skat is learned by playing, but these ideas avoid the most common mistakes of the first few months.

In the bidding

• Work out your ceiling before you bid. Look at your Buben, pick your best suit in your head and calculate its value with Spitzen: that is the number you can safely go up to. Bidding higher means counting on the Skat or on a Schneider, and you should do it knowing it is a risk.
• Be wary of high "withouts". A "without three" hand is worth a lot in the bidding, but if the jack of clubs is in the Skat your value collapses. The more Spitzen you count "without", the more likely a nasty surprise.
• The number of trumps matters more than their rank. A suit game needs a good share of the 11 trumps; several Buben and a long suit make a playable hand, even without aces.

As declarer

• Draw trumps early. As long as the opponents hold trumps they can ruff your aces and tens. The usual approach is to lead trumps until they have none left, and only then play your suits.
• Make the most of the discard. The two cards you put in the Skat count for you. A ten without its ace (a blanke Zehn, bare ten) is an easy card to lose at the table and a good candidate for the discard: that way those 10 points are already yours. It also helps to void yourself in a suit so you can ruff it later.

As an opponent

• "Kurzer Weg, lange Farbe; langer Weg, kurze Farbe". This is the best-known leading proverb in Skat: short way, long suit; long way, short suit. If the declarer sits right on your left (short way), lead your long suit: your partner, behind them, will probably have few cards in that suit and can ruff or load points. If the declarer is on your right (long way), lead a short suit, so you can ruff it yourself later.
• Load points onto your partner (schmieren). When you know the trick belongs to your partner, give them an ace or a ten. The opponents need 60 points and cannot afford to hold back the big cards until the end.
• Switch suits in time. Once the ace and ten of a suit have gone, persisting with it usually hands the declarer the chance to discard their bad cards.

How much does a deck of cards cost?

From €5 to over €100. The 52 cards and the rules stay the same; this is what changes.

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What sets it apart	Classic casino design	Artist illustration on back and faces	Special inks, embossing and foil on the box	Limited print runs and gilded edges
Who it is for	Games at home	Playing with something beautiful	Gifts or cardistry	Collecting and display
Example	Tally-Ho Fan Azul	theory11 Medallion	The Sandwich Series (Luncheon Meat)	Kings Wild LOTR Two Towers Gilded
	See decks	See decks	See decks	See decks

Frequently asked questions

How many players do you need to play Skat?

Three active players. It is very often played with four: the dealer gets no cards that hand and the deal rotates. There are two-player variants, but they are not the official game.

Can you play Skat with a poker deck?

Yes. Just remove the 2 to 6 of each suit to keep the 32 Skat cards (ace, 10, king, queen, jack, 9, 8 and 7). The jacks act as Buben and the queens as Damen.

Why does the bidding start at 18?

Because it is the value of the cheapest possible game: a diamonds game (base value 9) with or without one Spitze, which has a multiplier of 2. 2 × 9 = 18. The next values, 20, 22, 23 and 24, correspond to hearts, spades, Null and clubs.

How many points do you need to win at Skat?

The declarer needs 61 of the deck's 120 points, counting those in the Skat. With 90 or more they make Schneider, and with every trick, Schwarz. In Null, on the other hand, they win by taking no tricks at all.

What is a Hand game?

One played without looking at the Skat. The declarer announces the game without picking up the two cards in the middle, which still count for them at the end. In return for the risk, the game goes up one multiplier level.

What does playing "with two" or "without two" mean?

These are the Spitzen. "With two" means the declarer has the jacks of clubs and spades, but not the jack of hearts. "Without two" means they are missing the top two and their highest trump is the jack of hearts. Both cases add 2 to the multiplier.

Are Ramsch and Kontra part of the official rules?

No. The Internationale Skatordnung does not include Ramsch, which is explicitly excluded from tournaments, or Bock rounds. Kontra and Re are very common in social games and some tournaments allow them in their own conditions.

Skat is played with a 32-card deck with French or German suits, but any poker deck will do once trimmed. In our playing cards section you will find hard-wearing decks that can take many nights of bidding. And if you are looking for other games from the same family, our complete list of card games includes Schafkopf, belote and jass.

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