Skat
Skat is Germany's favorite card game. Bid, pick up the skat, call trumps and beat your two opponents with 61 card points.
3 - 6 Players
Bots available
How do you want to play?
Choose how long the list runs, invite friends to the lobby or fill up with bots. You can change the number of games in the lobby.
Skat with friends
Send friends a lobby link or fill empty seats with bots. With four or more players the dealer sits out.
Play against bots
Challenge strong bots and improve your gameplay. Adjust the bot strength to your level!
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EasyMediumHard
How to play
Skat is Germany's national card game. You need three or more players and 32 cards. The highest bidder plays alone against the other two and needs at least 61 of the 120 card points.
- 1
The table
With four or more players the dealer sits out, so three always play. The deal moves clockwise and a round ends once everyone has dealt. That way everyone deals and leads equally often.
- 2
Deal
Dealt 3 - 2 - 4 - 3: everyone gets 3 cards, then 2 go face down in the middle. That's the skat. Then everyone gets 4 and finally 3 more, 10 cards each. The deal passes on after every game.
- 3
Bidding
You bid with game values: 18, 20, 22, 23, 24, 27, 30 … Only bid as high as your game is worth. Middlehand bids to forehand, who says yes or passes. Then rearhand bids against whoever's left. If everyone passes, the game is passed in.
- 4
Skat or hand
The declarer can pick up the skat and put two cards away. Those points count for the declarer. Or they play hand and never look at the skat.
- 5
Games
Pick a suit game (clubs, spades, hearts or diamonds), grand (only jacks are trumps) or null (the declarer can't take a single trick).
- 6
Trumps
Jacks are always the top trumps, in the order clubs, spades, hearts, diamonds. In a suit game the ace, 10, king, queen, 9, 8 and 7 of the trump suit come next.
- 7
Tricks
Forehand leads and everyone has to follow suit. Jacks count as trumps. Can't follow? Then trump or throw off any card. The highest trump wins the trick. With no trump in it, the highest card of the led suit wins.
- 8
Card points
There are 120 card points in the deck: ace 11, ten 10, king 4, queen 3, jack 2. The 9, 8 and 7 count nothing. The two skat cards always count for the declarer, even in a hand game.
- 9
Winning
The declarer needs at least 61 points, 60 to 60 is lost. With 90 points the defenders are schneider (30 or less), with every trick they are schwarz. It works both ways: a declarer with 30 points or less is schneider too and loses higher.
- 10
Matadors
Matadors are the top trumps in an unbroken row from the jack of clubs, the skat counts too. Holding the jack of clubs you play "with" as many as you have in a row. Without it you play "without" as many as are missing above your highest trump.
- 11
Game value
Game value = base value × levels. Base values: diamonds 9, hearts 10, spades 11, clubs 12, grand 24. Levels: the matadors plus 1 for the game, plus 1 each for hand, schneider, schneider announced, schwarz, schwarz announced and ouvert.
- 12
Example
Clubs hand with the jacks of clubs and spades: with 2 + game + hand = 4 levels, 4 × 12 = 48. If the defenders end up schneider it is 5 levels, 5 × 12 = 60.
- 13
Null
Null has fixed values: null 23, null hand 35, null ouvert 46, null ouvert hand 59. There are no trumps and the order is ace, king, queen, jack, 10, 9, 8, 7. The declarer loses as soon as they take a trick.
- 14
Score sheet
Only the declarer is scored: a won game adds its value, a lost one subtracts twice the value. The defenders get nothing. If the game is worth less than the bid, it is overbid and lost, and it counts the next multiple of the base value that reaches the bid. Whoever has the most points at the end wins the list.
House rules
The game follows the International Skat Order. You can switch on these popular house rules in the lobby:
- When everybody passes
- Passed in as in the Skat Order or Ramsch: everybody plays alone, the most card points lose.
- Durchmarsch
- Whoever takes all tricks in a Ramsch gets 120 points.
- Kontra
- The defenders may say Kontra, the declarer Re. Every level doubles the game.
- Bock rounds
- After 60:60, a lost Kontra, Re or a grand hand the next round counts double.
- Bock Ramsch
- After the Bock round a round of Schieberamsch follows, instead of Ramsch anybody may play grand hand.
- Rum
- The declarer shows the skat before picking it up and gets one more level.
- Spitze
- The last trick has to be won with the lowest trump, for one more level.
- Schenken
- The defenders may give a grand away. If the declarer refuses, they have to make the defenders schneider.
- Revolution
- Special game worth 92: like null ouvert hand, the defenders may swap cards between them.
- Saxon Spitze
- Special game: jacks are trumps, all orders are reversed, the jack of diamonds is the highest.
- Matadors only jacks
- Only the jacks count as matadors, at most with or without 4.
- Grand base value
- 24 in today's Skat Order, 20 as until 1932.
- Grand ouvert 36
- Grand ouvert has the base value 36 (30 with grand 20), the ouvert level doesn't count.
- Schneider doubles
- Schneider and schwarz double the game value instead of adding a level.
- Free announcements
- Announcements can be combined freely, also after picking up the skat.
- Out of schneider with 30
- The defenders are out of schneider with 30 instead of 31 card points.
- Hand is not punished
- Lost hand games are not doubled.
- Hand not overbid
- Hand games can't be overbid: the value without the skat counts as well.
Why Skat online is fun
Bots in three levels
Practice alone with two bots that bid, discard and trump.
Official rules
Bidding, hand, schneider, schwarz, ouvert and null, all by the official Skat rules.
Score sheet
Every game gets scored. Most points at the end wins.