One may only bid numbers which it is possible to score sheet. The full bidding sequence starts with:
| Diamonds with, or without, one Jack | 18 |
| Hearts with one | 20 |
| Spades with one | 22 |
| Null | 23 |
| Clubs with one | 24 |
| Diamonds with two | 27 |
| Hearts with two | 30 |
| Spades with two | 33 |
| Null hand | 35 |
| Clubs with two or diamonds with three | 36 |
| Hearts with three or grand with one | 40 |
| Spades with three | 44 |
| Diamonds with four | 45 |
| Null open | 46 |
| Clubs with three | 48 |
| Hearts with four | 50 |
| Diamonds with five | 54 |
| Spades with four | 55 |
| Null hand open | 59 |
| Clubs with four, hearts with five or grand with two | 60 |
| Grand hand with four with Schwartz announced | 200 |
| and Theoretically Club hand with chwartz Announced | 204 |
In practice the auction never gets past 60 among skillful players.
A typical auction might go:
(M- Middlehand, F- Forehand, D- Dealer).
| M : 18 | F: Yes |
| M : 20 | F: Yes |
| M : 22 | F: Yes |
| M : 23 | F: Yes |
| M : 24 | F: Pass |
| D : 27 | M: Yes |
| D : Pass |
The result of this auction is that Middlehand has contracted t make at least 27 points. If all three players pass, the hand is thrown in and the deal passes on.
If the declarer overbids, either by accident or because he was hoping to play poker without several Jacks and finds one in the skat, then it is possible that he has absolutely no way to make his contract, even by making Schwartz. In this case he loses the next higher multiple of his base value above his bid.
Suppose, for example, that a player holding:
♥ 10, K, Q, 9, 8, 7♣ A, 10, ♠ A, K
plays hearts in hand, after bidding up to 59 points.
He makes 8s cards points, but the ♠ J proves to be in the skat. Far from being ‘without five’ as he had hoped, he is only ‘without one’ and so scores only 30 (without one, game two, hand three).
He loses 60 points for this, since that is the next multiple of 10 above his bid. It is always a bit dangerous trying to go without the Jacks because of the risk of finding one in the skat.
THE PLAY
Skat is a trick-taking game, like Bridge, Solo Whist and Hearts. Play proceeds in a series of tricks, in each of which one player leads a card, and the other two, in turn clockwise round the table, follow with one card.
The player leading can choose any card he likes, but the others are forced to play cards of the suit led, unless they have no such card when they are free to choose any card.
The trick is won by the highest card of the suit led, except that one suit (called the trump suit) always beats the other suits and a trick to which trumps are played is won by the highest trump irrespective of the suit led.
The winner of each trick keeps the three cards it contain face down in front of him, and leads to the next trick. The player on the dealer’s left (‘Forehand’) leads to the first trick.
SCORING
Adding up the value of the cards captured and seeing whether the declarer has achieved 61 card points determines whether he has won or not.
The amount of keeping score with money he gets for doing so (or the score he gets if you are not playing for money) is determined in an unlikely sounding manner which takes a little getting used to. It is the product of two numbers which we shall call the ‘base value’ and the ‘multiplier’.
The base value depends only on the trump suit:
| Diamonds | 9 |
| Hearts | 10 |
| Spades | 11 |
| Clubs | 12 |
| Grand | 20 |