The games · Coolhand Cards

Skat

Bid for the right to play alone against the table, take the widow, name the trumps, and score the game's worth or lose twice it.

Players: 3 to 4
Family: Bidding Games
App: Coolhand Cards · iOS and Android, soon

How it goes

Two cards lie face down: the widow. You bid for the right to play alone against the others. Forehand sits after the deal, and middlehand and rearhand follow. Middlehand bids up a ladder of values, forehand need only say yes, and rearhand bids the survivor. The winner, the declarer, takes the widow and puts two down, or plays from the hand for more, then names the game: a suit, with the four jacks as top trumps and a trump beating any other suit; grand, with the jacks alone as trumps; or null, no trumps and no trick taken. Forehand leads a trick, one card from each, the highest taking all. Follow suit if you can. Aces are worth eleven, tens ten, kings four, queens three, jacks two: sixty-one wins the game's value, and a loss costs double. To work out the value, count your jacks in a row from the club jack down, held or lacking, then add one for the game, one each for hand play, for the others on thirty or under, for every trick, and one more for each you announce, and multiply by the suit's base. An announced level counts whether you reach it or not, and announcing every trick announces thirty or under with it.

A good hand

A bid your cards can pay for. A suit game wants half its eleven trumps and an ace or two. A grand wants jacks and aces. A null wants sevens and eights everywhere. Take the widow to mend a suit, and put down points you can't defend, a lone ten first. Defending, feed points to your partner, never the declarer.

The usual mistake

Bidding past what the cards can pay, when a lost game costs twice its value. If the widow brings a jack you were counting as lacking, your run of jacks shortens, the value drops below your bid, and the game is lost whatever you take. Leading trumps as declarer when the defenders hold more. Playing from the hand for the extra multiplier with a hand that needed the widow. And, defending, taking the declarer's cheap trick with an ace that could have carried eleven points to your partner later.

Played differently where you are?

Card games change from table to table, and we researched some of these games instead of playing them. If Skat 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.