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Principles of the German "SKAT" card game - page 1
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SK 1 - Suit ranking and basic Auction values
A pack of SKAT cards consists of 32 cards. Each suit, ranked from highest to lowest contains :
Jack - Ace - 10 - King - Queen - 9 - 8 - 7
The four Jacks (except in the "Nil" and "Uno" games) are always the four highest trumps and belong to whichever suit is designated as trump suit for each game.
The ranking order of the four suits (and the four Jacks), from highest to lowest is :
♣ - ♠ - ♥ - ♦
There are 5 modes of play :
| Play mode
| Auction Value
| Specifications
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| GRAND
| 24
| Only the four Jacks are trumps : J♣ - J♠ - J♥ - J♦
Card Ranking Order :
J♣ - J♠ - J♥ - J♦ - A - 10 - K - Q - 9 - 8 - 7
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SUIT game
| ♣ = 12
♠ = 11
♥ = 10
♦ = 9
| The four Jacks plus all 7 cards of the designated trump suit are trumps.
Card Ranking Order :
J♣ - J♠ - J♥ - J♦ - A - 10 - K - Q - 9 - 8 - 7
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| NIL
| 23
| Contract to make not a single trick. There is no trump suit, Jacks too are not trumps. So there are no trump cards at all. Card Ranking Order in all suits is :
A - K - Q - J - 10 - 9 - 8 - 7
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| UNO *
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| Contract to make one single trick only. There is no trump suit, Jacks too are not trumps. So there are no trump cards at all. Card Ranking Order in all suits is :
A - K - Q - J - 10 - 9 - 8 - 7
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| RAMSCH
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| When all three players have failed to make a single bid and passed, the Ramsch game is on. Like in Grand only the four Jacks are trumps.
Each player plays for himself. The player who collects the largest amount of card value points loses the game.
Card Ranking Order is :
J♣ - J♠ - J♥ - J♦ - A - 10 - K - Q - 9 - 8 - 7
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* Uno is no longer used in Skat I believe, but I played it at the time with my Grandfather. It is a great game so I include it here too.
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SK 2 - Dealing procedure
SKAT is played by three players, called
- the Dealer - who deals the cards,
- the Leader - who will lead to the first trick
- and the Middle hand - who has the option to make the first bid in the auction.
After completion of each deal above functions are rotated around in clockwise direction to the following player.
After shuffling the pack of 32 cards the Dealer deals the cards as follows :
- In clockwise direction, starting with the player to his left (the Leader) the Dealer deals 3 cards to each player.
- He then place the next 2 cards face down in the centre of the table. This is the Skat.
- This is followed by one round of 4 cards to each player, and finally another 3 cards to each player.
All three players now hold 10 cards each, and 2 cards are the (unseen) Skat on the table.
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Copyright © 2011 Michael Furstner
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