Overview
The name means swimming, and that is what English speakers usually call it — Swimming, or just 31. Across the German-speaking world the same game is Schnauz, Knack, Hosn obi, Wutz or Einunddreißig, and it is a close cousin of the American Thirty-One, also called Scat or Blitz, which values its hands the same way.
The target template fits because the sheet counts lives down from a starting number and handles knockouts, rather than accumulating points.
Setup
Use a 32-card pack running from 7 up to ace in four suits. Deal three cards to each player and three face up in the middle. Give each player three tokens, coins or beer mats to represent lives.
The dealer looks at their own hand first and may swap the whole hand for the three face-up cards before play starts, sight unseen for everyone else.
How to play
On your turn choose one of three actions: swap one card from your hand for one on the table, swap all three of your cards for all three on the table, or pass. If everyone passes in a row, the three middle cards are replaced from the pack and play continues.
When you are happy with your hand you knock the table instead of taking an action. Every other player gets exactly one more turn, then all hands are revealed.
Scoring
Card values are ace 11, king, queen and jack 10 each, and 7 through 10 at face value.
Your hand is worth the sum of the cards you hold in a single suit. Cards of other suits count nothing. So ace, king and 8 of hearts is 29; ace of hearts with king and 8 of spades is only 18, because the two spades beat the single heart.
- Highest possible normal hand: 31 (an ace plus two ten-valued cards of the same suit)
- Three cards of the same rank: 30.5 by default
- Lowest possible hand: 7, a lone seven with two off-suit cards
31, 30½ and three of a kind
Three cards of one suit worth 31 — an ace with two ten-value cards — is the top hand, and under the Feuer ends the round setting it is shown the moment you hold it: the round stops and everyone else loses a life. Three of a kind counts 30½ by default, enough to beat any 30 but not a 31; some regions score it as a full 31 or refuse it altogether, which is the Three of a kind counts setting. Three aces are the exception: with Three aces count as Feuer on they beat everything and end the round like a 31 — some rulebooks value them at 32 to make the point.
Losing a life
At the showdown the player with the lowest total loses one life. If Feuer is switched on, a player holding exactly 31 or three aces reveals it the moment they get it, the round ends immediately, and every other player loses a life instead of just one player.
When your last life is gone you are swimming and carry on with none. Losing again while swimming eliminates you. Ties are handled by the tie setting, with an optional exemption for whoever knocked.
Ending the game
Play rounds until one player remains. That player wins. If the buy-back option is on, an eliminated player may rejoin once with full lives, usually for a small stake.
Common variations
Many regions count three of a kind as a clean 31 rather than 30.5, which makes it tie with a real 31 and share the Feuer effect. Some houses forbid the dealer's blind swap. Others let a player who knocks with a very weak hand be punished with two lives instead of one.
Scoring at a glance
| Who wins | Last standing |
|---|---|
| Played to | 3 points by default |
| Score sheet | Counting up to or down from a limit |
| Typical round score | 0 – 3 |
| Negative scores | Never — scores only go up |
| Worth knowing | Cells hold the lives LOST in that round, not the lives left — the Lives column derives what remains by subtracting the running total from the starting lives. Once that reaches zero the player is swimming, and the next life lost knocks them out. |
Schwimmen — score sheet
Worked example
Settings: default — Starting lives3, Extra life while swimmingon, Feuer ends the roundon. Four players: Anna, Ben, Cara, Dan. Every cell is the lives lost that round.
| Round | Anna | Ben | Cara | Dan | Lives after (A/B/C/D) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 / 3 / 3 / 2 |
| 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 / 2 / 2 / 1 |
| 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 / 1 / 2 / 1 |
| 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 / 1 / 2 / 0 |
| 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 / 0 / 2 / 0 |
| 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 / 0 / 2 / out |
| 7 | 0 | 0 | 1 | — | 3 / 0 / 1 / out |
| 8 | 0 | 1 | 0 | — | 3 / out / 1 / out |
| 9 | 0 | — | 1 | — | 3 / out / 0 / out |
| 10 | 0 | — | 1 | — | 3 / out / out / out |
Round 2 is Feuer: Anna turns over 31 and every other player loses a life at once.
Expected standings: Anna, 3 lives, rank 1 — winner; Cara rank 2; Ben rank 3; Dan rank 4. the game is over.
House rules and settings
Every table plays Schwimmen a little differently. These are the 8 rules groups argue about. Each one is a setting in the app — and changing it recalculates a match that is already in progress, which is the thing no other score keeper does.
Starting lives: what is the default in Schwimmen?
How many lives everyone begins with. Three is standard; five makes a longer game that gives unlucky players a way back.
Default: 3. Adjustable from 1 to 10 in steps of 1.
In the app: “Starting lives”.
Extra life while swimming: on or off in Schwimmen?
When your last life is gone you are swimming rather than out. You keep playing on nothing, and only the next loss eliminates you.
Default: on.
In the app: “Extra life while swimming”.
Feuer ends the round: on or off in Schwimmen?
Hitting exactly 31 is called Feuer. You show it straight away, the round stops, and every other player loses a life at once.
Default: on.
In the app: “Feuer ends the round”.
Three of a kind counts: what are the options in Schwimmen?
Three cards of matching rank, such as three queens. The usual half point keeps it just below a real 31.
Default: 30.5 - beats everything except 31. Three options:
In the app: “Three of a kind counts”.
Three aces count as Feuer: on or off in Schwimmen?
Three aces are treated as the top hand and end the round immediately in the same way a 31 does.
Default: on.
In the app: “Three aces count as Feuer”.
Knocker is safe on a tie: on or off in Schwimmen?
If the player who knocked ties for the lowest hand, they escape and the other tied player loses the life instead.
Default: off.
In the app: “Knocker is safe on a tie”.
When two players tie for lowest: what are the options in Schwimmen?
Ties for the worst hand are common, so agree in advance whether they are punished or forgiven.
Default: Everyone tied loses a life. Two options:
In the app: “When two players tie for lowest”.
Allow buying back in: on or off in Schwimmen?
A knocked-out player may rejoin once with a fresh set of lives, so an early exit does not mean sitting out the whole evening.
Default: off.
In the app: “Allow buying back in”.
Variants of Schwimmen
Five lives
Start on five instead of three. The game lasts noticeably longer and single bad rounds matter less.
Feuer costs two
A revealed 31 takes two lives off every other player rather than one, which usually ends the game fast.
Schwimmen is also known as
Einunddreißig, 31, Schnauz, Knack, Wutz, Hosn obi, Blitz, Swimming. These are the same game — the rules and the score sheet above apply to all of them.
Keep score offline
The sheet above works in your browser. Cardzo for iPhone remembers your players, survives a closed tab, and works in a field with no signal.