Skat Rules — How to Play and Keep Score
Skat is Germany's national card game and one of the sharpest three-player games ever designed. A thirty-two card deck is dealt out, two cards go face down as the skat, and an auction decides who becomes the declarer. That player plays alone against the other two and is the only one who normally writes a score. The interesting part for a scorekeeper is that the number written is not the card points taken but the computed value of the contract.
Overview
Skat is Germany's national card game and one of the sharpest three-player games ever designed. A thirty-two card deck is dealt out, two cards go face down as the skat, and an auction decides who becomes the declarer. That player plays alone against the other two and is the only one who normally writes a score. The interesting part for a scorekeeper is that the number written is not the card points taken but the computed value of the contract.
Setup
Three active players; a fourth sits out each deal at a four-handed table. Ten cards each, plus the two-card skat. Agree the scoring system and the length of the series before the first deal, since tournament scoring and Bierlachs produce totals that cannot be compared with each other.
How to play
Players bid numbers taken from the ladder of possible game values: 18, 20, 22, 23, 24, 27, 30, 33, 35, 36, 40, 44, 45, 46, 48, 50, 54, 55, 59, 60 and upwards. The survivor of the auction either picks up the skat and discards two cards, or declares a hand game and leaves it untouched. They then announce the contract: a trump suit, grand, or one of the null games. Defenders try to hold the declarer under 61 card points out of 120.
Scoring
Suit games have a base value: diamonds 9, hearts 10, spades 11, clubs 12. Grand is 24. Multiply the base by a multiplier built by adding: the number of top trumps held or missing in unbroken sequence from the club jack, plus 1 for the game itself, plus 1 each for hand, schneider, schneider announced, schwarz, schwarz announced and open. The smallest possible suit game is therefore 9 x 2 = 18 and the smallest grand is 24 x 2 = 48.
Null contracts ignore all of that and have fixed values: null 23, null hand 35, null ouvert 46, null ouvert hand 59.
The declarer needs 61 card points to win, 90 for schneider and every trick for schwarz. A won game scores plus the game value. A lost game scores minus twice the game value. If the declarer's game turns out to be worth less than what they bid, they have overbid and lose twice the lowest multiple of their base value that still covers the bid.
Tournament scoring keeps those numbers and adds 50 to a won game, subtracts a further 50 from a lost game, and gives each defender 30 points at a four-player table or 40 at a three-player table whenever the declarer loses.
Bierlachs records nothing but losses. When the declarer wins, each defender is debited the game value; when the declarer loses, the declarer is debited twice it. The session ends when someone reaches the finishing score.
Kontra doubles the score for the deal and Re doubles it again, and it is the final score that doubles, not the contract value.
Ending the game
The series runs for the agreed number of deals and the highest total wins. Bierlachs instead ends the moment a player reaches the finishing score.
Common variations
Ramsch replaces a passed hand with a points-avoidance game: the player taking the most card points is penalised by that amount, a player who takes no trick at all worsens the loser's result, and a player who takes every trick scores the Durchmarsch bonus instead.
Scoring at a glance
| Who wins | Highest score |
|---|---|
| Rounds | 36 fixed |
| Score sheet | A bid and a result per player per round; the score is derived |
| Typical round score | -120 – 120 |
| Negative scores | Possible |
| Worth knowing | Only the declarer normally writes a number. A won game is plus the game value, a lost game is minus twice it. |
Skat — score sheet
Worked example
Settings: default — scoringSystem: simple, dealCount: 36. Three players: Anna,
Ben, Cara.
Only the declarer fills a row. Each declared deal records the game value, the threshold that contract has to clear, and what the declarer actually took — measured in the unit that contract is measured in. A suit or grand game needs 61 card points; a null needs 0 tricks.
| Deal | Declarer | Contract | Value | Needs | Took | Scores |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Anna | Clubs, one matador | 24 | 61 points | 75 | +24 |
| 2 | Ben | Grand | 48 | 61 points | 55 | −96 |
| 3 | Cara | Hearts | 30 | 61 points | 61 | +30 |
| 4 | Anna | Null ouvert | 46 | 0 tricks | 0 | +46 |
| 5 | Ben | Null | 23 | 0 tricks | 1 | −46 |
Expected standings after five deals: Anna 70, rank 1; Cara 30, rank 2; Ben
−142, rank 3. finished: false — a series runs 36 deals, and five have been
played.
Three things this is built to catch:
A lost game costs twice what a won one pays. Ben's grand was worth 48 and cost him 96. This is the one asymmetry in the whole bidding family — every other game in the catalogue loses exactly what it bid — so a scorer that negates the contract value and stops there is right everywhere except here, and wrong by a factor of two on the game most likely to be played by someone who will notice.
Sixty-one is a win, sixty is not. Cara's hearts game landed on 61 exactly and
paid 30. One card point fewer and the same deal is −60: a 90-point swing on
the far side of a boundary that a > in place of a >= puts in the wrong place.
Taking more than you needed pays nothing extra. Anna's 75 points and a hypothetical 95 both pay 24. Schneider and schwarz are not bonuses added after the deal — they are multipliers folded into the game value before it, during the auction. An implementation that pays for the overshoot double-counts them.
The declarer's row is the only one with numbers in it. Defenders record nothing at all under the simple list, which is why Ben and Cara have empty cells in deal 1 rather than zeros — and why the totals of a Skat sheet do not sum to anything in particular across a row.
House rules and settings
Every table plays Skat a little differently. These are the 10 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.
Scoring system: what are the options in Skat?
How each deal is turned into a number. The simple list writes the plain game value, tournament scoring adds fixed bonuses, and Bierlachs records only losses until someone hits the floor.
Default: Simple list. Three options:
In the app: “Scoring system”.
Deals in the series: what is the default in Skat?
How many hands the session lasts. Use a multiple of the number of players so everyone deals the same number of times.
Default: 36. Adjustable from 3 to 96 in steps of 3.
In the app: “Deals in the series”.
Bierlachs finishing score: what is the default in Skat?
When playing Bierlachs, the session stops as soon as one player's total drops to this number. That player buys the drinks.
Default: -500. Adjustable from -2000 to -100 in steps of 50.
In the app: “Bierlachs finishing score”.
Bonus to each defender when the declarer loses: what are the options in Skat?
In tournament scoring the two defenders are rewarded for beating the declarer. This sets how much they get.
Default: Automatic (40 with three players, 30 with four). Four options:
In the app: “Bonus to each defender when the declarer loses”.
Ramsch when everyone passes: what are the options in Skat?
What happens when nobody wants to play the hand. Ramsch is a race to avoid taking valuable cards, and the player who takes the most is penalised.
Default: Throw the hand in. Four options:
In the app: “Ramsch when everyone passes”.
Durchmarsch bonus: what is the default in Skat?
What a player scores in Ramsch for winning every single trick instead of losing points.
Default: 120. Adjustable from 0 to 200 in steps of 10.
In the app: “Durchmarsch bonus”.
Kontra and Re doubling: on or off in Skat?
Lets a defender double the stake before play, and the declarer double it again. Each doubling multiplies the final score by two.
Default: off.
In the app: “Kontra and Re doubling”.
Bock rounds: on or off in Skat?
After certain dramatic hands, the next full round is played for double scores.
Default: off.
In the app: “Bock rounds”.
Settle in money: on or off in Skat?
Turns the final totals into cash at an agreed rate per point instead of leaving them as bare numbers.
Default: off.
In the app: “Settle in money”.
Rate per point: what is the default in Skat?
How many cents one point is worth when the session is settled in money.
Default: 10. Adjustable from 1 to 500 in steps of 1.
In the app: “Rate per point”.
Variants of Skat
Three-hand Skat
The purest form. Everyone plays every deal, one against two.
Four-hand Skat
The dealer sits out each hand. Sessions run to a multiple of four deals.
Ramschrunde
A session where every passed hand becomes a Ramsch instead of being thrown in.
Skat is also known as
Turnierskat, German Skat, Bierlachs. 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.
Coming to the App Store.