The games · Coolhand Cards

Schafkopf

A Bavarian game on thirty-two cards. Call an ace and whoever holds it is your partner, though nobody knows who until it falls.

Players: 4
Family: Bidding Games
App: Coolhand Cards · iOS and Android, soon

How it goes

Thirty-two cards, seven to ace, eight each, and new sides every hand. Each player in turn passes or names a game. The highest stands: a solo over a Wenz over a called game, with ties going to the earlier seat. If all pass, the hand is thrown in. A called game calls the ace of clubs, spades or diamonds, never one you hold, in a suit you hold a card of, so some hands can't call. Its holder is your partner, unannounced until the ace falls. A trick is one card each, and the highest trump, or else the highest card of the suit led, takes all. Follow suit, with trumps counting as one suit, or play anything. Nobody must trump. Each loser pays one winner, a soloist settles with each of the others, and the highest total over the session wins. Aces are worth eleven, tens ten, kings four, queens three, jacks two, a hundred and twenty in all: the playing side needs sixty-one, and sixty loses. In a called game the trumps are the queens of clubs, spades, hearts and diamonds, the jacks in that order, then the hearts ace, ten, king, nine, eight, seven, as every suit ranks. A Wenz, played alone, makes the four jacks the only trumps, each queen between king and nine. A suit solo, also alone, makes the queens, the jacks and that suit trumps. A called game is worth ten and a solo fifty, with ten more each for schneider (the playing side on thirty or under, the others on twenty-nine or under), schwarz (a trickless side) and every runner: one side's unbroken top trumps, from three, or two in a Wenz.

A good hand

Knowing the trumps, the cards that beat every other suit, and where the points are. Queens and jacks are trumps but carry only three and two points, while aces and tens carry eleven and ten.

The usual mistake

Mishandling the called ace. Its holder plays it when its suit is first led, throws it away only as the last card, and leads the suit only with the ace unless holding at least four cards of it, ace included, to run away with a smaller one. And misreckoning the value: count schneider, schwarz and every runner before you settle.

Played differently where you are?

Card games change from table to table, and we researched some of these games instead of playing them. If Schafkopf goes differently where you play it, tell us. That's one of the things the closed beta is for.

The closed beta is by invitation. How to ask to join.