Skat

Conditions to win : Get more than half of the card points (at least 61 out of 120).

How to Play : Each card has a numerical number. 7, 8, and 9 have zero. The jack has 2. The queen has 3. The king has 4. The 10 has 10. The ace has 11. It starts with something called a "trick." Every player (starting from the left) puts in a card. The player who put the highest ranking card (Ranks are ace, 10, king, queen, 9, 8, 7) wins the trick. At the end of the game, the person with the highest card points wins.

In the beginning of the skat game, you see people who "hear" and people who "say." This is the betting process. Two people start out betting. Eventually someone will decline a bet and the person left still betting will then ask the other person who was just sitting there watching people hear and say things. They go through it, and in the end, the person who took the last bet chooses the game, but it also comes with a risk. In the end, if the declarer's value (remember them tricks?) is less than the bid, then he automatically loses. Furthermore, if the declarer lost, the two other players won, and vice versa. Maybe it was just coincidence…but…moving on…

After the declarer is decided, he gets to choose what skat variation to play. The variations are Diamonds, Hearts, Spades, Clubs, Grand, Null, and Null Ouvert.

In Diamonds, Heart, Spades, and Clubs, the suit chosen determine the trump cards. The jacks are included as the top trump cards. Trump cards means they're the cards that will take the trick. If no trump cards are present, then the next best thing based on the card value is the deciding factor. The Jacks, remember, are the top trump cards, so they hold precedence over the suits. From highest to lowest they rank as club, spade, heart, then diamond.

e.g. If we were playing spades and I busted out a spade King, my friend busted out a diamond queen, and some dude busted out a club Jack, then the dude with the club Jack takes the trick. Oh yeah, and the declarer tries to take at least 61 card points.

In Grand, the only trumps are Jacks. It plays pretty much like the suit games, but you only get four trump cards (the four jacks). Everything else is based on the card value.

In Null, there are no trumps whatsoever and the point of the game is to lose the tricks. Pretty much, less is more.

In Null Ouvert, the declarer's hands are visible to the other players. Oooh. Fascinating, huh?

That is all I have on Skat so far. I'm currently trying to figure out a few more things, but this should be enough to get you started =) I really am starting to like this game.

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