The Penguin Book of Card Games: Everything You Need to Know to Play Over 250 Games (74 page)

long as you know the score.

At grand, don’t hesitate to lead a long suit to force Jacks out if

your own are either vulnerable or needed for a later entry. For

example:

11. J J ATK87 AT7

Given the lead, this is a grand hand without two. Leading a Jack

could be fatal. Instead, play spades from the top down. If the Ace is

trumped, re-enter with a top heart or red Jack, and play the spade

Ten. If this also is trumped, you are left with the only Jack in play

and at least five more tricks to win. You wil try to throw the heart

loser cheaply, rather than rely on clearing the suit with your Ace-

Ten.

The partners’ main object is to exploit every opportunity

of‘stuf ing’ tricks being won by the other by throwing high counters

of‘stuf ing’ tricks being won by the other by throwing high counters

on them, especial y vulnerable Tens. A typical suit-game opening

sees the soloist leading a red Jack and the second dropping a black

Jack in case his partner can stuf it with the Ace or Ten, which

might otherwise be lost. Alternatively, the second to play, having no

black Jack, wil himself drop the Ace or Ten, hoping his partner

can play a high Jack. If not, they are both in the soloist’s hand – or

skat (same thing in practice) – and the high trump would probably

be lost anyway, so there was no harm in trying.

A vital rule of play for the partners is to seek, wherever possible,

to keep the soloist in the middle, i.e. playing second to a trick. If,

for example, soloist is lying third to a trick to which you have the

lead, and you have no probable winner, lead low from a suit which

your partner can either head or trump, in order to get him into the

lead. Associated with this endeavour is a mnemonic applying to the

opening lead, namely ‘Long route, short suit; short route, long suit’.

In other words, lead from a short suit if the soloist is playing third

to the first trick, long if he is playing second.

North American Skat

The form of Skat stil played (though dwindlingly) by members of

the North American Skat League, based in Milwaukee, and the

subject of an excel ent treatise by Joe Wergin, reflects the

nineteenth-century form of the game introduced by New World

immigrants. The old game of ered three types of suit-bid, namely

skat, tournee, and hand. German Skat has retained the first and

dropped the second, but America has retained the tournee and

dropped the skat-exchange bid (except at grand). The hand bid,

here cal ed solo, remains unchanged. The games and base values of

American Skat are:

Tournee Diamonds 5, hearts 6, spades 7, clubs 8, grand 12. The

soloist takes one card of the skat and may accept its suit as trump,

in which case he shows it, adds the other, and discards two to the

skat. If it doesn’t suit him (‘Paβt mir nicht’) – either because he

skat. If it doesn’t suit him (‘Paβt mir nicht’) – either because he

hasn’t enough of that suit or because its value is lower than his bid

– he adds it to his hand without showing it, and must then turn up

and accept the suit of the second card as trump, even if it is the

same. Either way, if he turns a Jack he may either entrump the suit

it shows, or play at grand. (A tournee bid normal y requires at least

two Jacks, one of them black, and three biddable suits.)

Solo Diamonds 9, hearts 10, spades 11, clubs 12, grand 20, grand

ouvert 24. The soloist announces trump and plays without touching

the skat. There is no extra multiplier for this, the base values being

higher instead. Extra multipliers may be added for making or

declaring schneider and schwarz. Suit solos are not playable ouvert.

Guckser The soloist takes the skat without showing it, makes any

two discards, and must play at grand. This bid, cal ed guckser or

gucki, has the base value 16.

Nul Nul may only be played solo, without skat-exchange. It counts

20, or 40 ouvert.

Ramsch If Middlehand and Rearhand make no bid, Forehand may

cal Ramsch. The skat is untouched, Jacks are trumps, and the

player taking the fewest card-points scores 10, or 20 if he took no

trick. A player careless enough to win every trick loses 30 instead of

the others’ winning 20.

As in German Skat, the game value is found by multiplying the

base value by: 1 per ‘top’, plus 1 for game (61+), or 2 for

schneider (91+), or 3 for schwarz (win every trick), plus another 1

or 2 for schneider or schwarz declared.

Auction, rules of play, and scoring are basical y as for German

Skat. But note:

1. Bidding starts at 10 (diamonds, tournee, with or without one),

and continues: 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 27, 28,

and continues: 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 27, 28,

30…

2. The soloist needs at least 91 card-points to win schneider (not

90 as in German Skat), and at least 30 to escape it.

3. Lost gucksers are lost doubled, as also is a lost tournee if

played ‘second turn’, the soloist having rejected the suit of the

first-turned card (even if the second was the same).

Texas Skat

This is stil played at tournament level under the aegis of The Texas

State Skat League (Austin, Texas), founded in 1924. It resembles

German rather than North American Skat in that the basic game is

skat-exchange rather than tournee.

The base values are: diamonds 9, hearts 10, spades 11, clubs 12,

grand 16. This is multiplied by the number of ‘tops’ played with or

without, plus 1 for game, and an additional 1 each for hand,

schneider, schneider declared, schwarz, and schwarz declared. You

may declare schneider or schwarz whether you take the skat or play

from the hand. If declaring schwarz, you may also play ouvert. This

doubles the score instead of adding an extra multiplier.

The soloist needs at least 91 card-points to win schneider (as in

North American Skat), and at least 31 to escape it (as in German

Skat).

Nul is 20, ouvert 30, hand 40, ouvert hand 60.

Ramsch (played if al pass) is 10 for taking fewest card-points, 20

for winning no trick, minus 30 for winning every trick.

Schafkopf (Schaffkopf, Sheepshead)

4 players, 32 cards

Schafkopf is widely played in southern Germany and is claimed as

the national card game of Bavaria. First recorded in 1811, but with

so many variations as to suggest a substantial history, it evidently

borrowed from Quadril e and Tarock, contributed to Skat, and is

the immediate ancestor of the more complex Doppelkopf, now

popular in the north. It exists in many variations for three and four

players. The fol owing partnership game is that specified by the

First Bavarian Schafkopf Congress (Munich, 1989), as described by

Wolfgang Peschel in Bayerisch Schaf kopfen (Weilheim, 1992).

Schafkopf means Sheepshead, popularly explained as reflecting a

hypothetical original played up to nine points, supposedly marked

as nine lines on a board gradual y building up to the stylized

representation of a sheep’s head. The spel ing Schaf kopf is

preferred by those who assert that its original players typical y used

a barrel (Schaf ) as an ad hoc card table, with its lid as the playing

surface – a practice wel at ested for several other games of this

period. Another possibility is that it derives from an earlier German

game cal ed Scharwentzel (see also the Danish game of

Skasrvindsel).

Preliminaries Four players each play alone in the long run but form

ad hoc partnerships from deal to deal. A game is any multiple of

four deals, each being set led in hard score (coins or counters). Play

goes to the left.

Cards and deal Schafkopf normal y employs a 32-card German pack

consisting of Daus, Konig, Ober, Unter, 10-9-8-7 and suits of acorns,

leaves, hearts, bel s, but here we wil assume AKQJT987 in spades,

hearts, clubs, diamonds. Deal eight each in two rounds of four.

Rank and value Cards have point-values as fol ows: Ace 11, Ten 10,

King 4, Queen 3, Jack 2, others zero. The rank of cards for trick-

taking purposes is peculiar. Queens and Jacks are normal y the

eight highest trumps, known col ectively as Wenz or Wenzel,