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Title: Foster's Skat Manual
Author: Foster, Robert Frederick (1853-1945)
Date of first publication: 1922 [this edition] 1905 [first edition]
Edition used as base for this ebook:
   New York: E. P. Dutton,
   Third edition, 1922
Date first posted: 17 January 2009
Date last updated: 17 January 2009
Project Gutenberg Canada ebook #238

This ebook was produced by: David T. Jones
& the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
at http://www.pgdpcanada.net

This file was produced from images generously made available
by the Internet Archive/Universal Library




FOSTER'S

SKAT MANUAL

BY

R. F. FOSTER

Author of

"Foster's Pirate Bridge," "Foster on Auction," "Foster's
Russian Bank," "Auction Made Easy," etc.

[Illustration: logo]

NEW YORK
E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY
681 Fifth Avenue



Copyright, 1906, by
McCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO.


Copyright, 1922, by
E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY


_All Rights Reserved_


_Printed in the United States of America_




PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION


Among those who play cards for the intellectual amusement they afford,
rather than as an excuse for gambling, Skat still holds its position
as the best of all card games. It has all the strong points of bridge
in giving full scope for the display of skill and judgment, both in
bidding and play, with the additional advantage that the player who is
chiefly responsible for the result is not at the mercy of any partner,
which is, and has always been, the one fatal defect of bridge.

The one objection usually made to Skat, is the supposed difficulty of
learning the game, it having, unfortunately, started with the
reputation of being complicated. At the time this charge was made, the
comparison was with whist, then the public favorite, and the easiest
game in the world to learn. "Follow suit or trump." That is all there
was to learn about playing whist.

The objections to the complications of Skat have been largely removed
by the introduction of what are technically called "Gucki Solos," the
highest bidder taking the Skat cards into his hand before naming his
game. This cuts out a great many of the uncertainties of the bidding
and complications in the scoring, and removes one of the chief
difficulties of learning the game as first played in this country,
fifteen or twenty years ago. As now generally played, there is no
uncertainty as to what cards are in the Skat, or out against the
highest bidder. The game has now all the fascinations and
possibilities of Auction Bridge, with none of its drawbacks. At no
distant day, Skat may be the national game.

The game described in the following pages is the official game, as
regulated by the laws of the American Skat League, but the remarks
made in connection with Solos, page 84, 93 and 161, will explain the
difference between the official game, as still played in the annual
tournaments of the American Skat League, and the popular game of the
clubs.
                                                 R. F. FOSTER.

532 MONROE STREET,
BROOKLYN, N. Y.

January, 1922.




PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION


The following pages are an attempt to present the elements of the
modern game of Skat in such a manner that the reader may understand
it, and the student may sit down and play it.

Many persons have played Skat for a number of years without
understanding it as they should, and the few who have read any
text-books on the subject seem to have learnt little or nothing from
them. While the authors of these books may have been masters of the
game they wrote about, they do not seem to have possessed the ability
to communicate their knowledge to others. The matter contained in
these text-books is presented to the mind in such a manner as to
confuse, rather than assist, and the usual result of their perusal is
to discourage and dismay.

The complications and difficulties of which one hears so much exist
only in the imagination of those who have not studied the subject. If
the game is properly presented to the pupil, it is easily mastered,
and I have found that in ten lessons of one hour each I can make any
person of ordinary intelligence a better Skat-player than the majority
of those who have simply picked up the game, although they may have
played it for years. The results of this experience in teaching are
given in the chapters that follow.

I wish to express my indebtedness to Herr K. Buhle of Leipzig (whose
works on the game in German I have always recommended as classics in
their way), for many of the illustrative hands and principles which
are used in the present work.
                                                     R. F. FOSTER.

532 MONROE STREET,
       BROOKLYN, N. Y.




CONTENTS
                                                           PAGE

Preface to the Third Edition                                iii

Preface to the First Edition                                  v

Index to the Illustrative Hands                              ix

Introduction                                                 xi

Historical                                                    3

The American Laws of Skat                                    10

Description of the Game                                      22

How to Learn Skat                                            27

First Principles                                             29

The Simple Game                                              40

Scoring                                                      44

Bidding                                                      48

Tournee                                                      53

Laying Out for the Skat                                      60

Leading in Tournee                                           70

Tenace                                                       76

Passt-Mir-Nicht                                              78

Solo                                                         84

Grand Solo                                                  120

Open Grands                                                 139

Tournee Grand                                               141

Gucki Grand                                                 148

Ramsch                                                      162

Nullo                                                       171

Test Hands                                                  181

Varieties of Skat                                           182

Management of Tournaments                                   184

Technical Terms                                             192




INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIVE HANDS

NO.                                                        PAGE

 1. Simple Game, by Vorhand                                  41

 2. Spade Tournee, by Hinterhand                             63

 3. Heart Tournee, by Vorhand                                65

 4. Club Tournee, by Vorhand                                 67

 5. Diamond Tournee, by Mittelhand                           73

 6. Spade Tournee, by Vorhand                                81

 7. Club Solo, schneider, by Vorhand                         89

 8. Club Solo, schneider, by Hinterhand                      91

 9. Club Solo, by Mittelhand                                 99

10. Heart Solo, by Vorhand                                  101

11. Club Solo, by Mittelhand                                105

12. Diamond Solo, by Vorhand                                111

13. Solo Grand, by Vorhand                                  131

14. Solo Grand, by Vorhand                                  133

15. Solo Grand, by Mittelhand                               137

16. Tournee Grand, by Vorhand                               143

17. Tournee Grand, by Mittelhand                            145

18. Gucki Grand, by Mittelhand                              151

19. Gucki Grand, by Hinterhand                              155

20. Gucki Grand, by Vorhand                                 159

21. Ramsch                                                  167

22. Ramsch                                                  169

23. Nullo                                                   179




INTRODUCTION


Skat is unquestionably one of the most fascinating of all card games,
not only on account of its infinite variety, but because of its
elasticity and its adaptability to persons of varying ability.

It has several points in its favour which no other game can boast of.
To begin with, it is one of the few good games for three players; but
if there are four or five candidates they can all play, and even six
may make up the table. This is infinitely better than whist and
bridge, in which, if there are not exactly four, it is either
impossible to play, or some one must sit out and watch the game all
through a rubber. In Skat, the game is finished any time you wish to
stop, and it is not necessary to forego the pleasure of another rubber
for fear it would last so long that you would miss your train or your
dinner.

Skat does not require the gambling element to make it interesting,
like bridge or poker. In bridge you must play for something, or there
would be no restraint on the declarations. No matter how rash the
declaration may be in bridge, it is possible to pull it off; but in
Skat it is useless to overbid your hand, because you know in advance
that you must lose. In bridge, you declare with a view to winning as
much money as possible; in Skat, you declare in order to get the
privilege of playing. In the one you _must_ declare, win or lose; in
the other you declare only when you have the odds in your favour.

Many of the elements which make bridge so popular are to be found in
Skat; such as the sole responsibility for the result resting with the
player who names the trump, and the combination of two adversaries
against him. But in Skat there is the added interest that the
adversaries are not always the same pair, as they are in bridge. With
a table of four players, there are no less than nine different ways in
which one player, naming the trump, may be opposed to a different
partnership.

In bridge, there are only two games: trumps and no-trumps, and there
is only one way of selecting them--to name them. In Skat there are
seven games, and there are three different ways of selecting them.
When you have a particularly worthless hand at bridge, you must lose;
but at Skat you can win points with the worst possible hand that can
be dealt. In bridge, you have a certainty in the honour scores, which
are a mere matter of luck, while in Skat you must play for everything
you get, and the most overwhelming hand may be defeated.

In Skat, there is just enough of the element of luck to make the game
interesting to the novice and to insure a chance for the beginner.
The game is full of the most delightful surprises, which are a
refreshing change from the deadly monotony of the invincible hand
which one continually sees at the bridge table. The difference between
the expression on the faces of a party of Skat-players and that on
those at a bridge table is alone sufficient to convince any
unprejudiced spectator that bridge is getting on the nerves of its
devotees, while the Skat-players are thoroughly enjoying themselves.
It is a jolly game, with lots of life and excitement in it, and no one
who has ever played it long enough to understand it thoroughly was
ever known to give it up for any other game.

Popular error supposes that Skat is a peculiarly German game, which is
quite unsuited to other nationalities. If you mention Skat to any one
who is not familiar with the game, you will probably be favoured with
the opinion that it is a very complicated affair. If you suggest to a
German who has played Skat for a number of years, that it would be a
good game for English or Americans, he will shake his head and tell
you that it is too deep for them. He evidently wishes you to infer
that it requires a German intellect to master it. If you reply that
the English and Americans seem to have possessed intelligence enough
to master whist, he will smile at you and remark that whist is child's
play, compared to Skat.

It is a peculiarity of the German mind continually to mistake the
complex for the profound. It is inconceivable to the German that whist
can be such a difficult game as we know it to be, because its elements
are so simple. Because the elements of Skat are more complicated, it
is assumed to be a deeper game; but such is not the case, the fact
being that there never was, and probably never will be, such a
profound game of cards as whist.

This continual repetition of the statement that Skat is a very
complicated or a very difficult game has gradually come to pass for
fact. When one makes the attempt to learn the game, one's experience
seems to confirm its reputation, but this is simply because the game
is thrown at one all at once. The general idea of teaching a person
Skat is to make him play, the one who has no cards in each deal
sitting behind the beginner and giving him ten different pieces of
advice about ten different things in one hand, and then ten ifs and
buts in the next hand. It is worse than having all the declarations
and honour valuations and leads hurled at you the first time you sit
down to the bridge table.

I learned Skat that way, and after playing it for ten years I had no
clear idea of any part of the game, and no grasp of its fundamental
principles, except the method of bidding and the point value of won or
lost games. To tell a Solo from a Grand was guesswork, not based on
any comprehensive rule which would stand analysis or criticism. Since
I have taught myself the game scientifically, taking the game apart
and analyzing it, and am better able to judge the ability of others, I
must say that I have not seen more than two or three really
first-class players, although I have met hundreds who thought they
were. So far from the majority of those who play Skat thoroughly
understanding the game, they know as little about its fine points as
the average domestic rubber knows about bridge.

As to the ability of English or Americans to master Skat, which
Germans seem so doubtful of, I am confident that within the next few
years the English-speaking people will be the best Skat-players in the
world; all they need is to be properly taught. It is a peculiarity of
the Americans to take hold of any game, indoor or out, and to carry it
to a perfection which its originators never dreamed of. They will do
the same thing with the game of Skat.


FOSTER'S SKAT MANUAL




HISTORICAL


Skat is distinguished from many other national games by the fact that
it is of comparatively modern origin, and was first played in a place
that can be pointed out with certainty. This enables us to trace its
history with tolerable accuracy.

For the facts connected with the development of Skat, we are indebted
to the members of a card club that used to meet at Altenburg, under
the name of the Brommesche Tarokgesellschaft. Although this was
nominally a tarok club, its members were apparently familiar with all
the games played at that time, especially Solo and ombre.

The elements of Skat appear to have been derived from the Wendish game
of Schafkopf, or Schafskopf, which we are told was a favourite with
the farmers of Thuringen, a province of Saxony, lying southwest of
Berlin.

As the story goes, the game of Schafkopf first came to the notice of
polite society in 1811. An enthusiastic card-player who resided in
Altenburg, and who was a member of the Tarok Club, had occasion to
send his coachman to a small town in the Sachsischen Erzgebirges.
During the trip, this coachman passed his evenings learning the
Wendish game from some of the peasants along the road. Knowing his
master's predilection for card games, the coachman explained Schafkopf
to him on his return, and the master thought well enough of it to
induce some of his friends to give it a trial. One of those who took
kindly to the new game was the Advocate Hempel, a cousin of the
Professor Hempel who wrote the first text-book on Skat, thirty years
later.

The games already familiar to the members of the Tarok Club
undoubtedly had an influence in shaping the career of the newcomer,
tarok itself probably more than any other. This is an Italian game,
and is known to be one of the most ancient games of cards, probably
imported into Germany as early as the 16th century. Many of the ideas
and terms in Skat are clearly derived from the more ancient tarok, the
variations in the play being probably suggested from time to time by
members of the club who appreciated the fine points of the older game
and wished to preserve or perpetuate some of its interesting features.

As first played in Altenburg immediately after 1811, no cards were
laid out for the Skat during the deal. The dealer took twelve cards,
turning up the last one for the trump, the other players having ten
cards each. The dealer was obliged to play against the two others,
after he had laid out two cards, so as to reduce his hand to ten. The
points in these Skat cards counted for the dealer at the end.
Gradually it seems to have become the fashion to allow the other
players to name the trump, instead of turning it up. This was
practically an offer to play Solo in a named suit, but the suits did
not outrank one another as they do now, and the player simply won his
game if he got sixty-one points home.

This method of allowing others to name the trump compelled the dealer
to take only ten cards, and the two surplus cards left on the table
were taken by the bidder and others laid out, the points in them to be
counted for the single player at the end of the hand. It is in this
form of the game that we see the introduction of the Italian idea in
tarok and calabrasella. In tarok, two cards were laid away, which were
called "Skat" cards; in calabrasella, a game which is still widely
played and requires no little skill, we have the same offer to play
single-handed against two adversaries, with the privilege of taking
unknown cards lying on the table and discarding others in their place.

At this stage of development, it was necessary to have a name for the
cards left on the table during the deal, and nothing could be more
natural than to adopt the one that the members of the club were
already familiar with in the game of tarok, "Skat."

This word, it may be observed, is evidently derived from the Italian
"scartare," to discard, and its derivative, "scatola," a box, or place
of safe-keeping. In some German works the word is still spelled
"scat." In later years we find those who made still further changes in
the game going again to the Italian tarok for the term "matadore."

The system of allowing players other than the dealer to name the trump
could not last long without giving rise to disputes as to which should
have the privilege, and in order to meet this difficulty the varying
values of the suits were introduced. About this time, 1818, a brief
article appeared in the _Osterlnder Blttern_, describing the new
game under the name of "Skat," and commenting upon its wonderful
increase in popularity during the short time of its existence.

For a number of years Skat-players seem to have been content with the
game in the form in which it was described in this article, until a
certain Rathkopisten N., who would not allow his name to be published,
proposed the introduction of the matadores, and also suggested that
Solo should be played without touching the Skat cards. This brought
the game to two forms, Simple and Solo, Tournee being still unheard
of. Until this proposal to play without the Skat cards, the game had
always been what we know as frage, which is no longer played, so that
we have practically nothing left of the original Schafkopf.

Soon after the introduction of the matadores and Solos, we find the
game beginning to spread from Altenburg, and in 1826 the new
variations had arrived at the University in Leipzig, and from thence
they spread to other institutions of learning, from which the students
carried the game home to all parts of Germany.

It was not until 1848 that any attempt was made to state the
principles of Skat in a text-book. In that year, Gymnasium Professor
J. F. L. Hempel of Altenburg published the rules of the game under the
title, "Das Skatspiel, von J. F. L. H." Soon after Hempel's book, we
find a work of 48 pages published in Leipzig by C. W. B. Namburg,
dated 1855, and another of 30 pages by G. von F. Quedlingburg at
Leipzig in 1856.

It is in these works that we find the first mention of playing Grand
and Nullo. As then played, the Grand was a true no trumper, there
being no matadores in it as now. We have no record of the exact date
at which the matadores were introduced to Grand.

The Tournee was not played until the sixties, and after that came the
Ramsch. In quite recent years other forms of the game have been
introduced to meet the demands of altered conditions, and to allow
greater freedom in the bidding. The most notable and also the most
popular of these are the Gucki and Passt-mir-nicht. Although the
governing bodies of both the German and North-American Skat Leagues
have refused to recognise these two games, they have undoubtedly come
to stay, especially the Gucki Grand. It is not unlikely that the
Gucki Nullo will be equally well received when it is better known.

It is not improbable that further changes will be introduced,
especially in the matter of eliminating the one great vice of the
game, which is reckoning the value of the matadores found in the Skat
when any player bids Solo. In any game played without the Skat cards,
those cards should be absolutely disregarded and remain untouched. If
the adversaries get 60, they win; if they get 90, they make the player
schneider; if they do not reach 30, they are schneider themselves.
There is no necessity for the player to count his Skat, and the
wenzels show for themselves in the play.

With regard to the laws of the game, which alone can remedy this one
great defect in Skat, the first attempt to set them in order was made
by a congress of Skat-players convened in Altenburg on Saturday, the
7th of August, 1886. More than a thousand delegates were present from
all parts of Germany, and many came from Austria and America. The
following years congresses were held in Leipzig and Dresden, and in
1888 the laws were published in book form by Theodor Thomas of
Leipzig.

Since then, annual congresses have been held in various cities of
Germany, and the Deutschen Skat Verbande publish a monthly paper,
entitled _Die Deutsche Skat-Zeitung_, the subscription to which is
seventy-five cents, or three marks, or three shillings, a year,
including membership in the League, if sent to Robert Fuchs,
Altenburg, Germany.

In America, the first Skat Congress was held at St. Louis, Mo., on
Saturday, the 22d of January, 1898, and congresses have been held
annually ever since. At this time, the American Skat League has,
unfortunately, no official organ and no permanent address to which
applications for membership can be sent. If the game continues to grow
in popularity at its present rate, this state of affairs will soon be
remedied.




THE AMERICAN LAWS OF SKAT

1. The following are the unit values of the various games:

    Trumps;  D  H  S  C | Jacks Trumps;  -- | No Trumps;     --
    Simple   1  2  3  4 | Tournee Grand  12 | Tournee Nullo  10
    Tournee  5  6  7  8 | Solo Grand     16 | Solo Nullo     20
    Solo     9 10 11 12 | Open Grand     24 | Open Nullo     40

2. When there are trumps, the unit value of the game shall be
multiplied as follows: 1 for game; 2 for schneider; 3 for announcing
schneider, or for making schwarz without having made any announcement;
4 for schwarz after announcing schneider; and 5 for announcing
schwarz. To each of these multipliers shall be added one for each
matadore, with or without.

3. When there are no trumps there shall be no multipliers.

4. The value of Ramsch shall be 20 points, to be charged to the player
losing the game. If one player take no trick, the loser shall be
charged 30 points. If two players take no trick, the loser shall be
charged 50 points. In case of ties, the winner of the last trick shall
be the loser.

5. In all games which are played "open," the hand of the player must
be laid face up on the table before either adversary plays a card; but
the adversaries shall not be allowed to consult, neither can they
dictate to the player what cards he shall play.


Formation of Table

6. Any number from three to six may form a table, but there shall be
only three active players in each deal, and they shall be known
respectively as Vorhand, Mittelhand, and Hinterhand. Those who hold no
cards shall share the fortunes of those opposed to the single player
whose score is put down.

7. There shall be as many deals in each round as there are players at
the table, and no person shall be allowed to withdraw from the game
during a round, unless the others consent to a substitute and such
substitute be found.

8. Newcomers can enter only after the conclusion of a round, and with
the consent of the other players. The new candidate for play must take
his seat so that he shall have the deal.

9. If seats are drawn for, the lowest Skat card shall have the first
choice. The next lowest shall sit on his left, and so on. In cutting,
the cards and suits rank as in play. The one drawing the lowest card
shall deal the first hand, and the score shall be kept by the player
on his right.

10. The game shall come to an end only at the conclusion of a round.


Cards

11. There are thirty-two cards in the pack, the rank and value of
which are as follows: Jack 2; ace 11; ten 10; king 4; queen 3; the
nine, eight, and seven having no value.

12. The suits always outrank one another in the same order in bidding
for the trump: Clubs, Spades, Hearts, and Diamonds. The four Jacks,
which are always the four best trumps, outrank one another in the same
way.

13. In Nullo, the cards rank: A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, and the suits
and Jacks are all of equal rank.


Dealing

14. When four or more play at the same table, the dealer takes no
cards, but gives cards to the two sitting immediately on his left and
to the one next him on his right.

15. When only three play, Hinterhand deals the cards.

16. The deal passes in order to the left.

17. After being thoroughly shuffled, the pack must be presented to the
pone, the player sitting on the dealer's right, to be cut, and at
least three cards must be left in each packet. Any player may demand
a right to shuffle the cards before they are dealt, but the dealer
shall have the last shuffle, before presenting the cards to be cut. If
any card is exposed in cutting there must be a new cut.

18. The dealer shall give each active player cards, three at a time
for the first round, face down, beginning on his left. He shall then
lay aside two cards, face down, for the Skat. Each player shall then
receive four cards at a time for the second round, and finally three
cards at a time for the last round.

19. If any card is found faced in the pack, or if the pack be proved
incorrect or imperfect, there must be a new deal.

20. Should a player deal out of his proper turn, the deal must stand
if a bid has been made or a game announced, otherwise there must be a
new deal by the right dealer. When the deal stands, the next deal must
be made by the player who should have dealt, and subsequent deals must
be so arranged that there shall be the right number to each round. The
player dealing out of turn shall be penalised 10 points.


Errors in Dealing

21. There are no misdeals. No matter what happens, the same dealer
must deal again if it was his proper turn to deal.

22. If a card is exposed during the deal, there must be a new deal, or
if the cards of the players become confused so that the dealer cannot
separate them.

23. If the dealer gives too many or too few cards to any player, or
neglects to lay out the Skat cards in their proper turn, or does not
give the right number of cards in each round, or gives three to one
player and four to another, or fails to present the pack to be cut,
there must be a new deal.


The Skat Cards

24. Any active player taking up or seeing either or both of the Skat
cards, when he is not entitled to do so, shall be debarred from
bidding that deal. If any but an active player look at either of the
Skat cards, 10 points shall be deducted from his score.

25. If any Kiebitz (an onlooker not belonging to the table) looks at
either of the Skat cards, he may be called upon to pay the value of
the game.

26. If an active player look at the Skat cards during the play, he not
having laid out those cards himself from his hand, he shall be charged
with the full value of the game, but the hand shall be played out, in
order to settle the score of the other players.

27. Should any active player take one or both the Skat cards into his
hand by mistake, before the bidding begins, the dealer shall draw from
his hand, face down, enough cards to reduce his hand to ten and the
player at fault shall be charged 25 points penalty, and be debarred
from bidding for that deal.

28. Should the successful bidder take both the Skat cards into his
hand together, or pick them up together, he shall be obliged to play a
Gucki Grand, unless he shall have first announced that he played
Nullo. Should he put one of the Skat cards in his hand without first
showing it, he shall be obliged to play a Passt-Mir-Nicht, and turn up
the other card.

29. The player may turn up either of the Skat cards, but should he
expose both in so doing he must play the suit of the higher value.

30. Should he turn up a Jack, he may either play in suit or he may
announce a Grand.

31. A player turning up a seven cannot announce Nullo unless it has
been previously agreed to play Tournee Nullos.

32. The player who takes the Skat cards must lay out two cards in
their place before a card is led. Should he neglect to lay out for the
Skat, or should he lay out more or less than two, and not discover the
error until the first trick has been turned and quitted, he shall lose
his game.


Bidding

33. All bidding shall be by numbers representing the value of some
possible game, and the lowest bid allowed shall be 10.

34. Mittelhand must bid to Vorhand, and Vorhand must either undertake
as good a game as that offered him, or pass. If Vorhand passes,
Hinterhand bids to Mittelhand, and Mittelhand must either undertake as
good a game as that offered, or pass. If Mittelhand passes when
bidding to Vorhand, Hinterhand must bid to Vorhand; but Hinterhand is
not allowed to say anything until the bidding between Vorhand and
Mittelhand is settled.

35. Any figure once named cannot be recalled.

36. The survivor of the bidding shall be known as the Player, and
shall have the privilege of naming the game to be played; the two
other active players being his adversaries.

37. If no bid is made, and Vorhand will not undertake to play any game
against the two others, Ramsch must be played.


Announcements

38. The player who does not use the Skat cards shall announce the suit
which he selects for the trump, or shall state that he plays Grand or
Nullo, as the case may be.

39. If he wishes to announce schneider or schwarz, he must do so at
the time that he names the game he will play.

40. The manner of taking up the Skat cards is sufficient announcement
for a Tournee, Passt-Mir-Nicht, or Gucki Grand.

41. The player is not allowed to announce either schneider or schwarz
in any game in which the Skat cards are used.

42. The adversaries cannot announce schneider or schwarz under any
circumstances.

43. No player but Vorhand can announce Ramsch, and then only when no
bid has been made.


Playing

44. In Tournee, but not in Solo, Grand, or Nullo, the player may, in
order to save a possible schneider, abandon his game as lost, before a
card is played. He should do so before laying out for the Skat, and
the adversaries shall be bound to score it simply as a game lost, even
if they could have made the player schneider.

45. No matter who is the player, Vorhand must lead for the first
trick. The winner of the trick leads for the next trick, and so on,
and each player in turn must follow suit if he can.

46. If, during the play of the hand, any player is found to have a
wrong number of cards, the others having their right number, only
those who have their right number can win the game. If it is the
player who has a wrong number, his game is lost. If it is one of his
adversaries, the player wins.

47. If the player leads out of turn, the cards must be taken back if
the trick is not complete, but if both adversaries have played to the
false lead, the trick stands.

48. If an adversary of the player leads out of turn, and the player
call attention to it, he may immediately claim his game as won, and
abandon his cards; or he may insist that the play proceed, with a view
to making the adversaries schneider or schwarz. Whether he proceeds or
not, his game is won.

49. If during the progress of the hand the player lays his cards upon
the table, face up, and announces that he has won his game by reaching
61 or 91, whichever may be necessary to make good his bid, and it is
proved that he is mistaken, he loses his game, even if he could have
taken up his cards again and won it.

50. If an adversary lays his cards face up on the table and claims to
have already defeated the player's game, all that adversary's cards
shall be taken in by the player, and counted with his own. If the
adversary be found to be in error, he shall be charged individually
with the full value of the game, in addition to which the player shall
score the value of it as won.

51. If the player declares his game lost, and places his cards upon
the table, the adversaries shall take all such cards and add them to
their own, without further playing.


The Revoke

52. Should the player revoke, and not discover the error before the
trick is turned and quitted, he loses his game. If he discovers and
corrects the error in time, there is no penalty, but the adversary who
plays after him may amend his play.

53. If the adversary of the player revokes and discovers the error in
time to correct it, that is, before the trick is turned and quitted,
the player may call upon him to play his highest or lowest card of the
suit in which he renounces. If the revoke is not corrected in time,
the adversaries lose the game.

54. An adversary may ask his partner if he has none of the suit to
which he renounces. If the partner revokes in spite of being asked,
and the trick is turned, the individual in error shall pay his
partner's losses on the game. That is, the loss of the individual
partner who asks him.


Looking Back

55. Any active player may see the last trick turned and quitted, but
no more. Should he look at any other trick, or count his cards, he
immediately loses his game; but either of the other players may insist
on finishing the hand for the purpose of settling the value of the
game.


Scoring

56. The player wins his game if he reaches 61 points. He wins
schneider if he reaches 91. He wins schwarz if he gets every trick.

57. If the adversaries reach 30, they are out of schneider. If they
reach 60, they defeat the player. If they reach 90 they make him
schneider; and if they win every trick they make him schwarz.

58. The value of the game having been calculated according to Law No.
2, the amount won or lost shall be entered under the name of the
individual player, and each following item shall be added to or
deducted from the previous total, so that the last entry shall at all
times show the exact state of the player's score.

59. At the end of the sitting, each player wins from or loses to each
of the others at the table the full amount of the score.

60. In every case in which a player loses his game he loses what he
would have won if he had been successful, regardless of the amount he
may have bid.

61. If the player fails to win a game equal to the amount he has bid,
he loses the value of the next higher game which would have made his
bid good; because in no case can a player lose less than he bid, and
in every case must he lose some multiple of the game which he declared
to play.


Variations in Scoring

In some places the system of bidding by numbers in such a manner as to
make them fit the old methods of bidding by suits, is still adhered
to. This compels them to make a Nullo worth 23, so that it may still
come between the lowest spade and club Solos, and to play Ramsch at
10, so that it shall equal the lowest Tournee bid.

In many places they still play Grand Solo worth 18, but the Open Grand
at 24 only.

In many parts of Germany it is still the rule to use the same unit
value for Solo that is used for Tournee, but to add one multiplier for
the Solo. They count it in this manner when it is a club Solo: One for
game, one for "out of hand," with two, four times eight, thirty-two.
We should count it worth thirty-six.




DESCRIPTION OF THE GAME


For the benefit of those who prefer to have a general idea of what a
game is like, before they sit down to the study of its details, the
following brief description may be useful.

Skat is played with a pack of thirty-two cards, all below the seven
being deleted. As in all German games, the 10 ranks next to the A, and
then come the K, Q, 9, 8, 7. The four J's are always the best cards in
the pack, no matter what the trump suit may be.

There are never more than three active players in each deal, although
four or five may sit at the same table and take their turns to become
active players. Each individual is for himself, and the final result
is an individual score. The game is at an end any time the players
wish to stop, each deal being practically a complete game in itself.

Any one can have the first deal, after which it passes in order to the
left. The cards are given out three at a time for the first round;
then two are laid aside, face down, for the Skat; then four more to
each player, and finally three, so that each hand consists of ten
cards.

There are several varieties of games to be played, and the players
bid against one another for the privilege of saying what the game
shall be, the one offering to play the game which will win or lose the
greatest number of points having the choice. This bidding is done by
naming the figure value of a game, such as ten, twelve, or twenty.
These amounts are offered to the player who has the right to name the
game if no one else bids for it; that is the one sitting on the
dealer's left. If the one to whom the offer is made has as good a game
himself, he says so, and the other must bid higher or pass. If the
holder has not as good a game, he passes, and the next player must bid
to the one who now holds the privilege.

The successful bidder, who is called the "player," can play as much
more expensive a game as he pleases, but he cannot play a cheaper one.
Having stated what he is going to play, the two others become partners
against him for that deal, but there is no change in the position of
the first lead, which is always with the player on the dealer's left.
Players must follow suit if they can, and the winner of a trick leads
for the next, as in any game of cards.

There are three kinds of game to be played and three ways of playing
them. The successful bidder can play with a whole suit for trumps as
well as the four Jacks; or with only the Jacks as trumps; or without
any trumps at all. He can also determine what the trump shall be in
three different ways: by taking both the Skat cards into his own
hand; by turning up one of them; or by leaving them both alone and
declaring on his own cards.

If he names a suit for trumps, it is to his advantage to pick out one
which will gain for him the most points, if he has a choice; because
the suits vary in value, clubs being the best, spades next, then
hearts, and finally diamonds.

As the four Jacks are always the best trumps, there are eleven cards
in the trump suit and only seven in each of the plain suits. The Jacks
outrank one another just as the suits do, the club Jack being the
best, then spades, hearts, and diamonds. When Jacks are the only
trumps, the plain suits are all equal, so that there are four plain
suits of seven cards each and a four-card trump suit, all Jacks; but
the Jacks still retain their rank with regard to one another.

When there is no trump at all, the cards rank as at whist, A, K, Q, J,
10, 9, 8, 7.

When there is a trump, the player's object is always to win. When
there is no trump, his object is to lose.

The object of the game, when there is a trump, is not to win so many
tricks, but to get home a certain number of points in the tricks won.
These points are reckoned by giving the five highest cards in each
suit a fixed value. The A counts 11; the 10, 10; the K, 4; the Q, 3;
the J, 2. There being four suits with 30 points in each, there are
120 in the pack, and the successful bidder must get home the majority
of this 120; that is, 61 or more, or he loses his game.

In playing without any trump, the cards have no value, because the
moment the player takes a single trick, his game is lost.

The amount won by the player when he wins his game by getting 61 or
more points in his cards, depends on two things: the suit and manner
of its selection, and the number of trumps he holds or does not hold,
in unbroken sequence with the club Jack. To the number of this
sequence is always added 1 for winning the game. These two factors,
the value of a trump selected in a certain way, and the sequence of
trumps, are multiplied together, and the result is the number of
points won or lost.

To illustrate: Let us suppose that the trump selected was a club,
which the player named without touching the Skat cards. The unit value
of this game is 12. Let us suppose further that the player held the
Jacks of clubs and spades, but that his opponents had the Jack of
hearts. Then his sequence of "matadores," as they are called, stopped
at 2, to which he adds 1 for winning his game. The unit value of the
club Solo, 12, is therefore to be multiplied by 3, and the player wins
3 x 12 = 36 points. This is supposing that he got home 61 in his
cards. Had he got home 91 or more, he would have added another
multiplier, making his game worth 4 x 12 = 48. Had he seen from the
strength of his hand before he began to play that he must get home 91
or more, he could have announced "schneider," as it is called, in
advance, and that announcement would have given him still another
multiplier, making his game worth 5 x 12 = 60.

Knowing that he was going to play a club Solo if he was the successful
bidder, and knowing that he held two matadores, it is obvious that he
knew in advance that his game would be worth at least 36 points if he
won it; therefore he was able to bid anything up to that figure for
the privilege of naming the game to be played. Had any other player
offered more than 36, the one with the club Solo would have had to
stop, because if one overbids his hand he loses what he would have
been obliged to get home to make his bid good. Had he risked a bid of
40, for instance, he would have been compelled to make his adversaries
schneider to get another multiplier, or he would lose 48.

When the player wins, he wins from both his adversaries. If there is a
fourth who takes no cards, the player wins from him also. If the
player loses, he loses to all the others at the table.

This description is quite sufficient to give one a general idea of the
game, the details of which will be presented in proper sequence in the
following pages.




HOW TO LEARN SKAT


While no book can ever take the place of a personal teacher, simply
because the book has not intelligence enough to adapt itself to the
varying abilities of its readers, and cannot stop to make still more
clear to one person that which is almost too clear to another, yet
much can be learned from a book if the student will conscientiously
follow the directions which are given for its perusal, instead of
skipping through is as if it were a novel.

It is imperative that any person who is really desirous of learning a
game from a book should lay out the actual cards, and study the
principles of play with the cards before him. Many persons imagine
that it is an easy matter to remember rules provided that they
understand them clearly when they read them, but I can assure them
that nothing is more difficult. You understood perfectly what was said
to you at dinner last week; you do not remember a word of it now. It
is precisely the same with rules or principles of play; they must be
impressed on the memory by experience, whether that experience is
gained by laying out cards at home or taking part in an actual game at
a club.

Do not try to remember rules, but train the eye by practice with the
actual cards, so that you will recognise the situation the moment you
see it again. Those who will take the trouble to sort out the cards
for the Illustrative Hands and play them over, will find themselves
tenfold repaid.




FIRST PRINCIPLES


One of the chief attractions of Skat is its elasticity. Any number
from three to six can take part in the game at the same table, but
when there are more than five, it is better to make up two separate
tables. The best number to form a table is four.

No matter what the number at the table, there are never more or less
than three active players. When there are four, the dealer in each
round takes no cards himself. When there are more than four, the
dealer gives cards to the two players immediately on his left and the
one on his right.


The Players

The German names are usually adopted to signify the positions of the
players who take an active part. This would be the arrangement of four
players at a table:

                          Mittelhand.

                              M

               Vorhand.   V       H    Hinterhand.

                              D

                            Dealer.


In diagrams, the letters are enough to indicate the players. Vorhand,
or V, corresponds to our eldest hand or leader. Next on his left comes
the Mittelhand, M, and Hinterhand is the last player on the first
trick. Throughout this work the players will be indicated simply by
the initial letters: V, M, H. It is never necessary to refer to the
Dealer, because when only three persons form a table H deals the
cards, so that V shall be the leader to the first trick.

No matter how many are at the same table, the deal passes to the left
in regular order, so that if there are four, the one who dealt the
last hand will be H, and the one who was V will be the Dealer, taking
no cards.

In Skat, two players combine against the single player, the single
player being the one who decides what shall be the trump. This
individual, who is always referred to as the "player," to distinguish
him from the "partner" or "adversaries," may be either V, M, or H; but
his position does not affect the lead, which is always with V, no
matter where the "player" sits.


The Cards

There are thirty-two cards in the pack, all below the seven being
thrown out. This gives us four suits of eight cards each.

There are three kinds of games. With a whole suit for trumps; with
nothing but the four Jacks for trumps; and, with no trumps at all.
This last being a graft upon the game, and having nothing in common
with it, we shall dismiss it entirely from our consideration until we
come to it in its proper place in the chapter on Nullo, at the end. In
what follows we shall make matters much clearer if we treat the
subject as if there were no such thing in Skat as a no-trumper, or
Nullo.

Whether the trumps are a whole suit of cards or only the four Jacks,
the Jacks are always the best trumps, and they always maintain a
certain order of rank with regard to one another. As this order is the
key to the whole game, it should be mastered as early as possible, and
the best way for the beginner is to have continually before him upon
the table a card with the four Jacks pasted on it in this order:

    CJ SJ HJ DJ

If they are made to overlap, so as to give special prominence to the
club Jack, it will impress the order better on the memory. The club is
always the best; then comes the spade; then the heart, and then the
diamond.

Another stumbling block for the beginner is the peculiar rank of the
cards. As in all German games, the 10 comes next to the A, and will
win the K; so that whether the suit is a trump suit or not, the
trick-taking rank of the cards will always be as follows:

    CA C10 CK CQ C9 C8 C7

If a suit is named for the trump, there will be eleven trumps in play,
and their rank will be as follows:

    CJ SJ HJ DJ SA S10 SK SQ S9 S8 S7

The five highest cards in each suit have a numerical value attached to
them with which the beginner should make himself thoroughly familiar.
These values are as follows:

    Any A is worth 11 points.

    Any 10 is worth 10 points.

    Any K is worth 4 points.

    Any Q is worth 3 points.

    Any J is worth 2 points.

    The 7, 8, and 9 have no value.

As there are 30 points in each of the 4 suits, there are 120 points in
the pack, and the object of the player is to secure the majority of
these 120 points; that is, 61 or more. The number of tricks taken in
does not make the slightest difference, because the player who takes
in 61 in two tricks is just as much a winner as if he got home 61
points in eight tricks.

As this numerical value of the cards taken in in tricks decides the
game, it is very important that the player should early accustom
himself to the process of mental addition which enables him to keep
count of the total number of points which he has taken home. The
shortest and surest way to acquire this facility is not to wait until
you are engaged in actual play, but to take a pack of cards, shuffle
them, and give yourself about half of them. Run these over and
ascertain their total pip value. Let us suppose that you happen to
pick out some such as the following:

    DA D10 SJ CJ C7 HJ SK SA DJ HA H10 H8

The easiest way to count these is to take them three at a time, as
that is the way in which they will present themselves in play. This
would give you: 23 + 4 = 27 + 17 = 44 + 21 = 65. At first, the
beginner may find it easier to add the cards one at a time before
gathering them. If his total is 27 he can say, "and 4 is 31 and 11 is
42 and 2 is 44." With practice this mental count can be kept without
taking the attention from the run of the cards.


The Matadores

Having mastered the rank and value of the cards, the next thing is to
count the unbroken sequences of trumps, beginning with the club Jack.
The number in this sequence is called the number of matadores.

The club Jack is always a matadore, so there must always be 1, and
there may be 11. If the club Jack is in the hand of the player, all
other trumps in sequence with it in his hand or Skat are matadores,
and he is said to be "with" so many. If the club Jack is not in the
hand or Skat of the player, he must be "without" so many, because if
he has not the club Jack he has no matadores. If his opponents have
it, they count all the trumps in sequence with it, whether in one hand
or divided between them, and where their sequence stops, his must
begin. If they are "with" three, he must be "without" three.

Let us suppose that hearts are trumps, and that the player holds these
cards:

    CJ SJ HA HK H9 H8 SA D10 DK DQ

His sequence of matadores stops at the spade Jack, so he is "with" 2.

Suppose clubs are trumps, and the following cards in the hand of the
player:

    HJ CA C10 CQ C8 C7 HA H10 S10 SK

Not having the club Jack, he must be "without," and as the spade Jack
is also missing, he is "without" 2.

In order to become familiar with this sequence of matadores it is
excellent practice to take any ten cards from the pack of thirty-two,
and to count the matadores in each of the suits that the hand happens
to contain. Let us suppose some such cards as these to be selected:

    HA H10 H8 C10 CK CQ DQ D8 D7 S10

Not having the club Jack, the player must be "without" 4 in hearts;
"without" 5 in clubs and spades; "without" 7 in diamonds. The greatest
number to be "with" or "without" is 11, and that must include the Skat
cards if it is "with." In Illustrative Hand No. 6 the reader will find
an example of a player being "without" 10, and still winning his game.


Choice of Seats and Deal

The players' positions at the table are not considered of any
importance unless one is superstitious, but they may be drawn for. The
person drawing the lowest Skat card, the suits outranking one another
as in play, has the choice of seats, the next lower card sitting on
his left and so on. Any other method of drawing lots may be adopted if
agreeable to all.

Any one may deal the first hand, but when seats are drawn for it is
usual for the one cutting the lowest card to deal first and for the
player on his right to keep the score. If a certain player is selected
as score-keeper on account of his greater reliability, or for any
other reason, the player on his left must deal the first hand, so that
the score-keeper shall know that when it comes to his own deal, it is
the end of a round. Beginners should take every opportunity to keep
the score, in order to become familiar with the values of the various
games won and lost.


Dealing

The cards being thoroughly shuffled and presented to the right hand to
be cut, at least three cards must be left in each packet. The top cut
should be placed nearer the dealer, who must reunite the packets
before beginning to deal.

The modern rule for dealing is to give three cards to each player in
turn, beginning on the dealer's left, and then to lay out two cards,
face down, for the Skat. Then four more to each player in turn, and
finally three. This rule is briefly expressed by the formula: three,
Skat, four, three.

When three play, the one on the left of the dealer is V, the one next
him is M, and the dealer himself is H.

When four play, the dealer takes no cards, and the player on his right
is H.

When five or six play, the dealer takes no cards, and gives cards only
to the two players immediately on his left, who are V and M
respectively, and to the one sitting next him on his right, who is H.

The dealer is not allowed to peep at the Skat cards, even if he is not
playing, under a penalty of 10 points. If one of the active players
sees one of the Skat cards during the deal, he is not allowed to bid
that hand. All minor irregularities in the deal, etc., will be found
provided for in the Laws.


Naming the Trump

The privilege of selecting the game that shall be played and the suit
that shall be the trump belongs naturally to V, and he always names
the trump unless some one has a better game to offer.

Before explaining the methods of bidding by which other players seek
to obtain this privilege, which naturally belongs to V, it is
important that the beginner should have some opportunity to become
familiar with the principles already explained, and should engage in
an actual game. This will compel him to count up the pip value of the
cards he wins and will give him some very necessary practice in
reckoning up the number of matadores that he is "with" or "without."
For this purpose there is no better training than the Simple Game,
which is sometimes called Frage. Let us suppose the table to be made
up of four players.




THE SIMPLE GAME

Or Frage


The cards dealt, V takes the two Skat cards into his hand, without
showing or naming them to the other players, and after sorting his
hand of twelve cards, picks out the suit that he would like to have
for the trump. Having made his selection, he lays out two cards again,
so as to reduce his hand to ten cards, but he does not show or name
the cards laid out. Having laid out his Skat, he announces the trump
suit and leads for the first trick any card he pleases.

Players must follow suit if they can, but they are not obliged to head
the trick unless they wish to, neither are they obliged to trump if
they have none of the suit led.

Beginners must be especially careful to remember that the Jacks belong
to the trump suit, and that even if they have none of the trump suit
itself, let us say diamonds, they must play the Jack of clubs, spades,
or hearts, if a diamond is led; because those cards are really
diamonds. The penalty for a revoke, if not corrected in time, is the
immediate loss of the game.

Of course the player knows how many points he has laid away in his
Skat, which will count for him at the end of the hand, and he should
mentally add to this the number of points he takes home in tricks, so
that he may be able to judge what he must still make in order to reach
or pass the necessary 61. Good players keep account of the
adversaries' score also, but this requires long practice.

The partners who are opposed to the player must keep mental count of
their joint score, but neither is allowed to inform the other how many
they have. One of the partners gathers the tricks taken by either of
them, but that need not prevent the other from watching what points go
into them, because one never knows which of the two will have the
opportunity to throw in the deciding counting-card at the critical
moment. It is useless for them to keep account of the player's score,
because they do not know what he has laid away in the Skat.

In order to confirm the mental count, each side turns over and counts
its points after the hand is finished, the player reckoning the Skat
cards for himself. The player must reach 61 to win his game; 60 is not
enough.

Illustrative Hand No. 1

Simple Game, by Vorhand

                    C  8
                    S  K Q
                    H  J Q 9 8
                    D  A Q 8

                      M
C  J 10                          C  K Q 9 7
S  J 10 8 7        V     H       S  9
H  7                             H  A 10 K
D  10 K 9             D          D  J 7

               In Skat; CA, SA.

V takes both Skat cards into his hand, and lays out the D 10 and the H
7 for the Skat.

TRICK    V    M    H     +    -
-

 1     *CJ   QS   JD     7    -
 2      S7  *SK   S9     -    4
 3     *CA   C8   C9    11    -
 4     *SJ   HJ   C7     4    -
 5     *SA   D8   CQ    14    -
 6     *S10  H8   CK    14    -
 7     *S8   H9   D7     -    -
 8     *C10  HQ   HK    17    -
 9      D9  *DQ   HA     -   14
10      DK  *DA   H10    -   25

V gets 67 in play and 10 in Skat; winning his game.

In spades 3; 1 for game, 2 matadores, = 3 x 3 = 9 points.

Illustrative Hand No. 1 is a fair example of the Simple game. V takes
both the Skat cards into his hand and declares spades for trumps,
because he has six of them. He lays away in the Skat the 7 of hearts,
so that he can trump that suit, and the 10 of diamonds, which might be
caught by the adversaries.

V begins by leading his best trump. H having only one guard to the
lowest Jack, plays the J to the first trick, to let his partner know
that V does not hold it. V knows that every trump is in play, because
he has not put any in the Skat, and he infers that M would not give up
the Q if he had the 9, so H must have the 9. In order to avoid
establishing the J of hearts against himself, V leads a small trump
for the second round, and M puts on the K, which is worth 2 points
more than the J. M then leads his singleton club, hoping his partner
may have the ace of clubs, and can give him a ruff, so that he can
save his heart Jack. Knowing it must be a singleton, H just covers it,
so as not to lose any more points than necessary. After that H
discards all his clubs, so that his partner shall know what cards he
still holds.

In all these diagrams the cards are given at the top of the page as
they were dealt. In the diagram of the play, the cards actually held
are shown.

V always leads for the first trick, and the underlined card wins the
trick, the card under it being the next one led.

At the right of the diagrams all through this work will be found the
points gained or lost by the player. What he wins is shown in the plus
column; what he loses in the minus column.




SCORING


At the end of the hand comes the part that is usually so confusing to
the novice, and that is computing the value of the game. At first he
may be assisted by the table of values which is printed at the head of
the Skat scoring pads.

The trump suits have a different value attached to each, according to
their rank. This is called the ground or unit value of the game. In
the Simple Game these values are:

    D 1; H 2; S 3; C 4.

If the player wins his game, by getting home 61 points or more, he is
entitled to the number of points that the trump suit is worth as his
unit of value. If he named spades, as in Illustrative Hand No. 1, the
unit value of his game is 3. As he won the game he is entitled to 3
points for it.

But in addition to these 3 points for winning the game, he is entitled
to as many more times that unit value as he was "with" or "without"
matadores. It is usual to add the 1 for the game and the number of
matadores all together, and call them "multipliers."

The winning of the game being always 1, and the number of matadores
never less than 1, it follows that the smallest possible game is twice
the unit value.

In Illustrative Hand No. 1, the player had 2 matadores, so that he had
3 multipliers, and the value of his game was 3 x 3 = 9.

If the player is fortunate enough to get 91 points or more, so that
his adversaries do not get "out of schneider," as it is called, the
player adds one more multiplier, and reckons his hand as; 1 for the
game, 1 for schneider, with 3, = 5 times the unit value.

For the purpose of keeping the score, a sheet of paper or a card ruled
into four columns is used. At the head of each column a player's name
is written and under his name the amount he wins or loses, when he is
the player. Only the score of the actual player is entered, and that
is put down as a plus when he wins, or as a minus when he loses. The
second item to be entered in the same column is not put down
individually, but is added to or deducted from the previous amount, so
that the bottom figure in each column shows the exact state of the
player's score.

Suppose that four players are engaged, and that this is the state of
the score after the tenth deal:


Smith         Jones         Brown          Green
-------------------------------------------------
+ 24          - 20           +16           + 12
+ 60          - 36           - 4
+ 96          - 12           +16


This shows that Smith has played three games, winning 24 on the first
and 36 on each of the others. Jones lost 20 and then lost 16, after
which he won 24. Brown won 16 and then lost 20 and then won 20, while
Green has played only one game, which he won.

While any sheet of paper will do to keep the scores on, it is well to
have the table of trump values at the head of it, in case of dispute.
The Foster Skat Scorers have the full table of unit values printed in
convenient form at the top, and also have the principal rules of the
game on the back.

There are several ways of balancing the scores at the end of the
sitting, but the simplest will be found the best for all purposes.

Call the lowest score 0, and add what he has lost to the scores of
each of the others. Add together the total of the winnings that this
new result shows, and put it down. Then multiply each player's total
by the number of players on the score sheet, and deduct the amount of
the total winnings from each. This will give what each owes or wins.

For example: Take the score we have for Smith, Jones, Brown, and
Green. As Jones is the lowest, call him zero and add his amount to
that of each of the others, and then add up the total winnings thus
found. This gives us:


 Smith      Jones       Brown       Green

 + 96       - 12        + 16        + 12
_________________________________________
+ 108          0        + 28        + 24 = 160
    4          4           4           4
__________________________________________
+ 432        + 0       + 112        + 96
- 160      - 160       - 160       - 160
__________________________________________
+ 272      - 160         -48         -64


After we have multiplied each man's winnings by the number of players,
in this case 4, we deduct the 160, our total, from each, and the
account balances. Smith wins everything, 272 points, while Jones,
Brown, and Green each have to contribute their share.

If there are only three players, the multiplication is by 3. Suppose
the result to be:


 Smith             Jones           Brown

+  348             - 86           - 110
_________________________________________
+  458             + 24             + 0 = 482
     3                3               3
_________________________________________
+ 1374             + 72             + 0
-  482            - 482           - 482
_________________________________________
+  892            - 410           - 482


In this case, the lowest score is Brown's, and as Jones has not lost
so much as Brown, he is put down as winning the difference between
them, 24 points. Here our total winnings are 482, the amount to be
deducted from each player after multiplying his score by 3.




BIDDING


After a little practice at this simple game, in which V always takes
the two Skat cards, the novice will have learned something about the
way the play goes, and will be able to form some general idea of the
value of a hand. He will also be impressed by the importance of
knowing what is in the Skat, and the advantage of being able to lay
away in it cards which would otherwise fall to the enemy.

With this foundation to go upon, he will be better able to understand
the next step, which is bidding for the privilege of naming the trump
suit.

Let us suppose that the game is still Simple, but instead of allowing
V to take up the Skat cards and pick out the trump, let us see what
the others would have to do in order to get the play themselves, by
bidding for it. These bids will have to be made without seeing or
touching the Skat cards of course, because it will not be known until
the bidding is at an end which player is entitled to them. This will
require a player to have such cards that he is willing to take the
risk of the play, even if he should find cards in the Skat that were
of no help to him.

If no one bids, V still retains his privilege, so the bids must be
made to him, and M has the first say. H does not say a word until M
has either been disposed of by V or has taken the privilege away from
him, because H must bid to the survivor of the first round.

Suppose this was the distribution of the cards:

                    C  J
                    S  A K
                    H  K Q
                    D  J 10 Q 8 7

C  K Q 9 8 7          M          C  10
S  Q 8 7                         S  J 10 9
H  ----            V     H       H  J 10 9 8 7
D  A 9                           D  K
                      D

            In Skat; C A and H A.

M has a good hand in diamonds, and bids diamonds. This compels V to
declare himself. With the six highest clubs out against him and only
one ace in his hand, it would be folly for him to say he would play in
clubs, not knowing what was in the Skat, so he passes.

This leaves M in possession of the privilege, but H still has a chance
to bid. This player has a fairly strong heart hand and he bids hearts
to M, not to V, who is out of it. As hearts outrank diamonds in value,
M must either pass, or offer to play a better game than the one he
named, diamonds. As he cannot improve upon his first bid, he passes,
and there being no one else to oppose him, H becomes the player, and
takes up the Skat cards.

This does not mean that H must play hearts, but he must play some game
as valuable as hearts. Before making his final decision he looks at
the Skat cards. Should he be so fortunate as to find the A and K of
spades in the Skat, he might change his mind about hearts and declare
spades, because he can win more with spades for trumps, on account of
the greater unit value of the game. Spades being a still more valuable
game than his bid, hearts, he may play it, but he cannot go back to
diamonds, no matter what is in the Skat.

Finding two aces, he concludes to stand by the hearts, and lays away
in the Skat the 10 of spades and the singleton diamond, keeping in his
hand seven trumps, the A 10 of clubs, and the 9 of spades.

Here are a few examples of the kind of hands on which a player might
bid Simple in the various suits named under them:


C  J 10                C  10 Q
S  A Q                 S  10
H  10 9                H  J 10 9 8 7
D  J Q 9 8             D  J K
   Diamonds.              Hearts.

C  J                   C  Q 9 8
S  J Q 9               S  J 10
H  9 8                 H  J K Q
D  J 10 9 8            D  J 8
   Spades.                Clubs.

The player should study carefully the natural order of the bids and
the conversation of the game in bidding. The chief things to pay
attention to are these.

V always has the play if no one else bids for it, and M is always the
first one to say whether he will bid or pass. H is not allowed to say
anything until M has declared himself. Should M forget that it is his
turn, or be inattentive, V may call his attention to it by saying, "I
am Vorhand". When M passes, or ceases bidding, it becomes H's turn to
bid to V.

When a player bids to V, it is really in the form of a question,
because what he wishes to know is, is the game that V has as good as
the one his questioner can offer. It is much as if M said to him, "How
good is your game? Is it spades?" This means, "If your game is not as
good as spades, I am willing to try something as good as spades
myself." In fact, that is the manner in which the bidding was
originally conducted, the players asking, "Is it so-and-so?" The
natural reply to this question is "Yes," or "No," and this answer is
still the custom.

Persons who are not familiar with the game think that when they bid
and the player says "No," he means, "No, you cannot have it", but the
actual meaning is, "No, my game is not as good as that."

When V says "Yes," M must bid a higher game or pass. There is no limit
to the number of times a player may bid, but each bid must be better
than the last which has met the answer, "Yes." When M stops, or V
passes, there is no use in H's offering anything but a better game
than the last mentioned, because the player would not be allowed to
pass if he did, he being bound to see that as good a game is played as
that on which he holds it, or a better one.

If a player takes a chance and bids spades, so as to get the play, and
after picking up the Skat cards finds he has an invincible game in
hearts, he cannot play hearts, because it is not as good a game as the
one on which he got the privilege by bidding for it. He could play
clubs after having bid spades, because clubs are more valuable than
spades, but he cannot go backward.

While this may seem a little complicated in the explanation, it is not
so in practice, and players soon become accustomed to it, and at the
same time they get fixed in mind the order of the suits and the way in
which clubs, spades, hearts, and diamonds always outrank one another.

In actual practice, the Simple game is seldom or never played, its
value being so small, but it is most useful as a preliminary exercise
in the mechanical details of the game, and I am of the opinion that
every person who wishes to be a Skat-player should begin by playing
nothing but Simple games, until he is quite at home with the order of
dealing, bidding, playing, the rank of the suits, the method of
reckoning matadores, and the ways of keeping the score.




TOURNEE

Or, Turning up the Trump


We come now to another method of determining the trump. Instead of the
Simple game, in which the player takes both the Skat cards into his
hand and examines them before making his final decision as to the game
he will play, the successful bidder turns up one of the Skat cards,
whichever he pleases, and the suit to which it belongs is the trump
suit for that deal.

This involves a certain amount of risk, of course; because the card
turned up may not be adapted to the hand at all, and it is therefore
unwise for a person to bid Tournee unless he is willing for at least
any one of three suits to turn up. The following are fair examples of
hands on which Tournee might be bid:


C  J Q 9                          C  J Q 9
S  J 10                           S  J 9 8
H  J Q 9                          H  J Q 9
D  J 10                           D  10
No ace, but 4 Js.                 3 Js, and 3 suits.

C  10 Q                           C  ----
S  A                              S  A 10 9
H  J A 10 Q                       H  A 9 8
D  J K Q                          D  J A Q 8
All suits strong. 2 Js            Even if you turn a Club, outside
and 2 aces.                       cards should win.

C  A                              C  J K 7
S  A 10 K                         S  A K
H  A 9 8                          H  J A 9
D  10 K 7                         D  K Q
All suits strong, but no Js.      An ideal Tournee hand; all suits.


Because the Tournee is more risky than the Simple game, it has a
higher unit value, the suits being worth:

    D 5; H 6; S 7; C 8.

The multipliers remain the same, so that a player turning up a club
and winning his game with two matadores would score 3 x 8 = 24 points.

As Skat is now played, Tournee is the lowest game allowed, and as the
lowest Tournee, diamonds, must be worth 10, that is the smallest game
that a player can win or lose.


Bidding for Tournee

There are two methods of bidding in Skat; that by suits, which has
already been explained in connection with the Simple game, and that by
values or figures. Bidding by suits is no longer permitted by
first-class players, nor in any of the big Skat tournaments, and in
the following pages all the bidding will be by figures. In many parts
of Germany they still adhere to the bidding by suits, and it is
occasionally met with in other countries, so that every player should
understand it.

The various changes in some of the bidding values, and the reasons for
them, will be discussed in their proper place. For the present the
following brief explanation of bidding by numbers must suffice.

The idea in Skat being to let the player who has the most valuable
game have the privilege of trying it, it is obvious that this idea was
very badly carried out in bidding by suits; because, although one
might be willing to play clubs with one matadore, another might be
willing to play hearts without four. While clubs is the better suit,
and would outrank a bid of hearts, the 2 multipliers in clubs make the
game worth only 16, whereas the 5 multipliers in hearts make it worth
30, or almost double.

For this reason, in the modern game, all bidding is by numbers, and
each player who makes an offer, instead of naming any suit, starts
with some figure which is well within the value of the game which he
intends to play. The figures also enable him to conceal his true
purpose, because he can bid 10 and jump to 15, as if he were thinking
of diamonds, when his intention is to play clubs at 16.

The lowest possible game being worth 10, the lowest bid must be 10,
and it is usual for M to begin with that figure. In this he is safe,
if he has anything at all, because no matter what suit he turns up, he
cannot have overbid his hand.

If V says "Yes," which means, "I have ten myself," M must go higher,
and it is the rule that in progressing he shall name some figure which
is the value of an actual game. He cannot bid 11 or 13, for instance,
because there is no such game value. He must bid some multiple of a
unit value or pass.

V may continue to answer "Yes" as long as he thinks he has as good a
game himself; or he may say "Yes" as a bluff, hoping to induce M to
overbid his hand, but such a proceeding is dangerous. Eventually
either V or M must pass, and as soon as one does so, H enters the
field, but he is not allowed to make any bid which is not higher than
the last named by the player who holds the privilege. If M has said
16, and V has said "Yes," H must bid more than 16. It is necessary to
remember the figure at which the player gets the game, as it will
often be found that he has overbid his hand. If he has, he loses his
game.

As an illustration of this bidding for Tournee, take the following
position of the cards:

                    C  K
                    S  10 9
                    H  K Q 9 8
                    D  Q 9 8

C  A Q 8              M          C  J 10 9 7
S  ----                          S  J A K Q
H  J A 10 7        V     H       H  ----
D  J 10 7                        D  A K
                      D

        In Skat; S 7 and 8.

M has no game, so he passes without a bid. H starts out with the
conventional 10, to which V makes the usual reply, "Yes." H advances
to 12 and V still holds it, as he has two Jacks and two aces, always a
fair Tournee hand. H is now driven to taking a chance on turning one
of the black suits, so he bids 14. This V is afraid to risk, because
if he turns a spade he must lose, and if H turns anything but a spade,
V will probably be strong enough to beat him, so V passes.

There is another reason why V should be cautious. Although his game is
"without" 2, and he would therefore have 3 multipliers, he might find
one of the higher J's in the Skat, which would reduce the value of his
game. H, on the contrary, is certain of his multipliers, because he
has them in his hand, and anything that he finds in the Skat can only
increase the value of his game, if he wins it. If necessary, he could
bid up to 21, 3 x 7. If he gets the play for 15 or 18 he will not have
overbid his hand even if he turns a diamond or a heart. As it happens,
H turns a spade, and lays out the club 10 and diamond K.

In bidding by numbers, the successful bidder must win a game which
adds to his score at least as much as he bid. It does not matter how
much more he wins, but he must not get less, or he loses, not what he
bid, but what he would have had to win to make his bid good. An
illustration will probably make this clear.

Suppose a player bids 12 and turns a diamond. As the unit value of a
diamond Tournee is only 5, he must have three multipliers of some kind
in order to reach 15, because if he wins a game of only 10 he has
overbid his hand. If he fails to win a game of 15, he loses 15, not
12, which he bid, because 12 is not the value of any diamond game
which would have made his bid good. See Law No. 61.

Had he bid 12 and turned a heart, the lowest value of which is 12, he
could not have lost any more than he bid unless he lost a game on
which he stood to win more than 12. But suppose that after turning a
heart he lost his game and it was found that he was playing "without"
3, his game was worth 4 x 6 = 24, and he would have to lose 24, even
though he bid only 12.

The point is that the player must lose what he would have won if he
had succeeded in making good his bid.

As to the hands on which Tournee may be bid.

As a rule, it is unsafe to bid a Tournee without any Jacks. Counting
aces and Jacks together as one each, the hand should equal 4 to be a
safe Tournee bid. This would include all such combinations as 3 Jacks
and 1 ace, 2 Jacks and 2 aces, or 1 Jack and 3 aces. To bid Tournee, a
player should have three suits in his hand, any of which he would be
willing to make the trump with the assistance of another card from the
Skat, which would be the turn up, of course.

Tournee should seldom be bid on two suits; never on one, because it is
so improbable that the turn-up will fit the hand. The illustrations
already given are fair examples of safe Tournee bids, and others will
be found in the Illustrative Hands.




LAYING OUT FOR THE SKAT


It is very important that the player should early make himself master
of the principles of laying out for the Skat.

The advantage of being able to lay away certain cards is, that cards
which would or might be caught by the adversaries if kept in the hand
of the player, are absolutely safe, and certain to count toward the
all essential 61, if they are laid away in the Skat. At the same time,
it must not be imagined that cards should be laid away simply because
they are valuable, because they might be more valuable as
trick-winners and lead-getters. It is not because they are valuable
that they are laid away, but only because they are in danger. It would
be just as foolish to lay away a 10 that was perfectly safe, as if
would be to put the Jack of clubs in the Skat.

This is particularly true of aces, and it is an axiom among
Skat-players never to lay an ace, except the ace of trumps, unless the
10 of the same suit is laid away with it, and then only when both
cards are in danger.

It sometimes happens, when the Tournee is unfortunate, that the high
counting trumps are in evident danger, there not being Jacks enough
to cover them from attack. The best thing to be done with them in such
cases is to put them in the Skat.

Illustrative Hand No. 2 is a good example of this principle carried
out in practice.

With 2 J's and 3 aces H has a very safe Tournee bid, but he is
unfortunate in turning up the only suit of which he has none in his
hand. With so few trumps, it is evident that his high ones are in
danger; because if he leads J's the adversaries will play small cards
and keep their J's to capture the counting cards. But J's will not win
his other high cards while the players can follow suit, and as the
suits are not long, there is every probability that they will be able
to follow suit. The plain suits being in less danger than the trumps,
the trumps are put in the Skat.

Illustrative Hand No. 2

Spade Tournee, by Hinterhand

                    C  8 7
                    S  K Q
                    H  K Q 9 8
                    D  10 Q

C  K Q                M          C  J A 10 9
S  J 9 8 7                       S  ----
H  J 10            V     H       H  A 7
D  9 7                           D  J A K 8
                      D

              In Skat; S A 10.

M passes; H bids 10; V passes. H is the player.
H turns a spade, and lays S A 10 in the Skat.

TRICK    V    M    H     +    -

 1      SJ   SQ  *CJ     7
 2      CQ   C7  *CA    14
 3      CK   C8  *C10   14
 4      D7   DQ  *AD    14
 5      H10  H8  *HA    21
 6      D9  *HK   H7          4
 7     *HJ   SK   JD          8
 8     *S9   H9   C9         --
 9     *S8   D10  D8         10
10     *S7   HQ   DK          7

H gets 70 in play and 21 in Skat, 91; schneider.

1 for game, 1 for schneider, with 1, = 3 x 7 = 21 points.

With regard to the play of this hand, V knows it is bad policy to lead
unguarded 10's, even if there does not seem much chance to save them;
but it is good policy to lead trumps when you are long in them,
especially if you suspect that the Tournee is a weak one. A trump lead
often prevents the player from saving what few trumps he has by
ruffing the adversaries' good cards. By beginning with a J, V prevents
the player from getting home any counting trumps.

Upon getting into the lead, there is nothing for H to do but to make
his aces, beginning with the suit in which he has the 10 also, and
following it with the ace which is accompanied by the K, hoping to
drop the 10.

By judicious laying away and prompt leading, the player not only wins
his game, but makes his adversaries schneider.

High cards of plain suits are often in danger from the fact that the
suit is long, and is therefore likely to be ruffed by the adversaries.
If the player is very strong in trumps, a long suit is an advantage,
because it must win tricks or force out trumps that cannot be caught;
but when the player's trumps are weak, he cannot expect to save high
cards of a long plain suit, and if they are not trumped he may be
forced to discard them. In such cases, it is better to lay these good
cards in the Skat. With A 10 K, for instance, both A and 10 may be
laid away, as the K still commands the suit.

It sometimes happens that both the high trumps and the high cards of a
plain suit are in danger. In such cases it is better not to guess
which to lay away, but to save one of each.

Illustrative Hand No. 3 is an example of such a case. V has not much
of a game, but as he gets the play for nothing, he does not risk
anything, and there seems no better policy than to try a Tournee. It
is unfortunate, but his side cards are strong, even if he has but four
trumps.

Illustrative Hand No. 3

Heart Tournee by Vorhand

                    C  9 8
                    S  J 10 7
                    H  J K
                    D  A Q 7

                      M
C  J A 10 K Q                    C  7
S  A K Q 9         V     H       S  8
H  10                            H  Q 9 8
D  ----               D          D  J 10 K 9 8

                 In Skat; H A 7.

M and H both pass, and V is the player. V turns a heart, and lays H A
and C 10 in the Skat.

TRICK    V    M    H     +    -
  1     H7   HK  *DJ          6
  2    *H10  D7   DK    14
  3    *SA   S7   S8    11
  4    *CA   C8   C7    11
  5     CQ   C9  *HQ          6
  6    *CJ   HJ   H9     4
  7     CK   DQ  *H8          7
  8     S9  *DA   D8         11
  9     SQ  *SJ   D10        15
 10     SK  *S10  D9         14

V gets 40 in play and 21 in Skat; 61, winning his game. Hearts worth
6; 1 for game; "with" 1, = 2 x 6 = 12 points.

V cannot lay away both his high trumps in this case, because he has a
plain suit which is in even greater danger, on account of its length.
He therefore divides his precautions, and lays away one trump and one
club. Observe that he does not lay away the ace of the plain suit,
even if it would count a point more, because the play of the 10 would
at once betray to his adversaries what he had put in the Skat. He does
not care how soon they find out that he does not hold the ace of
trumps.

V opens the hand with a small trump, on which he knows the adversaries
cannot get home any high counting cards. What he hopes for is the
opportunity to ruff a diamond, and save his 10.

H wins his partner's trick, so as to get the player between them, and
then leads his longest suit through him. He begins with the K, so as
to protect his 10 by forcing out the ace, if the player has it. After
trumping this trick, V tries to catch the spade 10. Failing in that he
"runs" with his clubs. H, on getting in again, sees that the player
must be weak in trumps, so he leads trumps through him, and V is
fortunate in getting home just points enough to win his game.
Judicious laying out saved him.

When there is no special danger in the trump suit, and none of the
plain suits are particularly long, the player should lay out counting
cards which are doubtful trick-winners, even though they may not be
in absolute or evident danger. Unguarded 10's are particularly
desirable cards to lay away, and next to them come 10's of suits in
which the player does not hold the ace. It does not follow because you
have both 10 and K that you will force the ace with the K and make the
10; because a sharp adversary will not give up the ace until he is
sure he cannot catch your 10.

It is usually better to lay away a blank 10, or one that is singly
guarded, than a high trump; because the trump may be saved by ruffing;
but the 10 is hopeless. If you can lay away a whole suit by putting
the 10 and another in the Skat, you are in a very good position to
save your high trump by ruffing that suit.

Illustrative Hand No. 4 is an example of this system of laying out for
the Skat. With 2 J's and 2 aces, V has a very good Tournee hand. The
10 of trumps being in no danger with two J's and two smaller trumps to
guard it, he puts the 10 of diamonds in a place of safety, getting rid
of an entire suit at the same time. Even if a player is not anxious to
save any of his high trumps by ruffing, a missing suit is often useful
in allowing him to discard worthless little cards, which, if kept,
would have to be played to the adversaries' high cards. This is just
as good as ruffing, and sometimes even better.

Illustrative Hand No. 4

Club Tournee, by Vorhand

                    C  A 9 7
                    S  J 10 Q 7
                    H  7
                    D  K Q

                      M
C  J 10                          C  8
S  A K             V     H       S  9 8
H  J A K 9                       H  10 Q 8
D  10 9               D          D  J A 8 7

                 In Skat; C K Q.

M and H both pass. V is the player. V turns a club, and lays D 10 9 in
the Skat.

TRICK    V    M    H     +    -
 1     *CJ   C7   DJ     4
 2      CQ  *CA   C8         14
 3     *HK   H7   HQ     7
 4      HJ  *SJ   DA         15
 5     *C10  C9   D7    10
 6     *HA   S7   H8    11
 7      H9   DK  *H10        14
 8      SK  *S10  S9         14
 9     *CK   DQ   D8     7
10     *SA   SQ   D8    14

V gets 53 in play and 10 in Skat; 63, winning his game. Clubs worth 8;
1 for game, "with" 1, = 2 x 8 = 16 points.

In the play, V begins with the best trump, so as to be sure of two
rounds. H gives up the lowest J, just as he did in Illustrative Hand
No. 1, and M makes the same play as in that hand, leading his short
suit up to the player. V does not play his ace, but holds the command
of the suit, winning the trick with the K. At trick 4, there being
only two trumps to come, the 9 and a Jack, V leads the Jack, which
will force out the trump more cheaply than leading the K. All these
little points are valuable, and one should never waste the 4 points
that a K is worth when the 2 points of a J will do as well.

On this trick, H discards, or "fattens" his partner's trick, with the
ace of diamonds, in preference to the 10 of hearts, because when a
player has had an opportunity to lay away cards in the Skat, it is
always more likely that he has laid away the suit of which you have
the ace, than the suit of which you have the 10. H knows that M has no
more hearts, because with two or more he would have led the higher
cards first.

In order to avoid putting his partner's possible counting cards in
danger, and also to avoid leading away from his own spade 10, M must
put the player in with a trump. At the end, as the player has the game
won, even if he loses the K of spades to the 10, he must play the K.

When the player holds 10 and small in one suit, and a single small
card in another suit, it is bad policy to discard the 10 and small,
because the adversaries can pile up 21 points on the trick in which
you have one small card. But if the singleton is laid away, keeping
the small card of the 10 suit, the most they can get on that card is
15 points. All these little details need attention in Skat.




LEADING IN TOURNEE


One of the golden rules in Skat is, that the player should always lead
trumps. The Germans express this by the adage, "Fordern ist die Seele
des Spiels."

The trump lead is the best when the player is strong, because it
protects his good cards in plain suits. It is the best when he is
weak, because it gets out two adverse trumps for one of his own, and
if it accomplishes nothing else, it conceals his weakness from his
foes, as in Illustrative Hand No. 3. Had H suspected any weakness, he
could have defeated the player very easily by returning the trump lead
at once.

With the best trumps, it is just as well to have one or two rounds
immediately; but the player should be careful not to leave one
adversary with the best trump on the third round and his partner with
none, or the partner will be able to fatten the trick. With only the
best trump, or the two best, and not enough to exhaust trumps, it is
safer to lead the best trump first and then a small one, so as to
retain the command of the trump suit, as in Illustrative Hand No. 4.

The method of leading Jacks will be gone into when we come to Solos,
in which their management is much more important than it is in
Tournee.


Adversaries' Play

The adversaries should try above all things to get the player between
them, or "in the middle" as it is called. This keeps him guessing as
to whether or not he should try to win tricks with cards which are not
the best of the suit, or should trump tricks which are not valuable,
or should discard counting cards on them. When the player is in the
middle, he has not the advantage of being able to get rid of losing
cards on tricks that he does not want; tricks that have not enough in
them to be worth trumping. He is also in doubt about the advisability
of trumping with good counting trumps, because he may be over-trumped
and lose them.

In order to keep the player in the middle, if possible, long suits
should always be led through him by the adversary sitting on his
right, because if the player will not go in on the first lead, the
long suit can be continued, placing him at a still further
disadvantage.

When the player is not in the middle, it is better to lead short suits
up to him, because either that is the partner's long suit, or the
leader of it can trump it if it is led again by the player himself, or
through the player by the partner. Illustrative Hands Nos. 1 and 4 are
good examples of leading a short suit up to the player in this
manner.

Illustrative Hand No. 5 is an example of leading a long suit through
the player, who in this case happens to be in the middle at the start.
Every time that V gets into the lead again, he goes through with that
terrible long suit of clubs, on which the player in Mittelhand has to
fritter away his trumps.

Illustrative Hand No. 5

Diamond Tournee, by Mittelhand

                    C  10
                    S  J A 10 K
                    H  J K 9 8
                    D  J

                      M
C  A K Q 9 8 7                   C  J
S  ----            V     H       S  Q 9 8 7
H  7                             H  A 10 Q
D  Q 9 8              D          D  A K

                  In Skat; D 10 7.

M bids 10. V and H both pass. M is the player. M turns a Diamond, and
lays C 10 and S 10 in the Skat.

TRICK    V    M    H     +    -
 1     *C7   H8   HA         11
 2      CK  *DJ   S7     6
 3      DQ   HJ  *CJ          7
 4     *D8   SK   S8          4
 5      CQ   D7  *DA         14
 6     *D9   SA   SQ         14
 7      C9  *D10  S9    10
 8      H7  *SJ   DK     6
 9      CA   H9  *HQ         14
10      C8   HK  *H10        14

M gets 22 in play and 20 in Skat, 42; losing his game.

Diamonds worth 5; 1 for game, "without" 1, = 2 x 5 = 10 points.


In this hand, M lays out two 10's for the Skat, because his 10 of
trumps is in no danger, while the singleton 10 of clubs is, and the
spade suit is too long to hope to win tricks with both A and 10 of it.

In leading, observe that V, while selecting his long suit, does not
begin with the ace of it, because he has so many that it is certain M
has laid away the 10, if he ever held it. If H has the 10, M will
trump the ace and catch the 10 at the same time.

M does not want to trump such a worthless card as the 7 of clubs, so
he discards, and H fattens his partner's trick with the ace of a suit
of which he also holds the 10. V does not lead the ace for the second
trick, for fear M would put on the best trump, and shut H out, but he
leads a counting card. This M trumps, so as to force a J from H. The
trick is not worth over-trumping, and H does not want the lead. Upon
being forced in on the next trick, and having no short suit to lead up
to the player, H avoids giving up his advantage in the red suits, of
which he holds command and "tenace" (a term which will be explained
in a moment), and leads a suit in which he has neither ace nor ten.

At the fifth trick, M cannot afford to ruff with the best trump,
because he will probably lose his 10 if he does, and he sees that he
must lose both his hearts in any case, so he allows himself to be
over-trumped. Had he trumped in with the J, he would have been made
schneider.

The partners should try to lead in such a manner as not to bring each
other's high counting cards into danger, but to force out the command
of their long suit as soon as possible, leading the K from 10 K and
others, as in Illustrative Hand No. 3. It is not wise to begin with
the ace of a suit which is long, because in Tournee the player has
almost certainly laid away that suit and is ready to trump it.

If the player in Tournee has already followed to two suits, the
adversaries should be wary about leading or playing high counting
cards of the third suit, even if they are not long in it; because it
is very seldom indeed that the player will have cards of all three
plain suits left in his hand, unless he has the ace of the third suit.

If the player has been in the lead and has not led trumps, especially
if he leads aces and tens of plain suits, the adversaries should lead
trumps at the first opportunity, especially if they can lead through
the player. There must be some disadvantage in leading trumps, or the
player would do it. The difficulty usually is to get into the lead
when the player keeps on with such high cards; but if it can be done,
and the player's trumps caught, the adversaries will frequently
succeed in making tricks with their suit and forcing the player to
discard his counting cards on those tricks.

When one adversary is in the lead, his partner must use some judgment
in fattening. The discard of an ace usually shows the 10 of the same
suit, as in Illustrative Hand No. 5; or else the one who fattens has
reason to believe that the player has laid away the 10, as in
Illustrative Hand No. 4, in which H fattens with the diamond A,
although he has not the 10 with it. Partners should seize every
opportunity to fatten with unguarded tens, and with counting cards of
suits which the player has already trumped, or renounced in.




TENACE


There are certain combinations of cards which it is very undesirable
to lead away from if it can be helped, and it is very important for
both the player and the partners to understand the value of a
"tenace," and the necessity of keeping the second-best of a suit
guarded.

A tenace is the best and third-best of the unplayed cards, when held
by the same player. If the suit has not been led at all, the tenace
would be A K. If the ace has been played, the 10 and Q become a
tenace, as in Hinterhand's hearts, Illustrative Hand No. 5.

The advantage of a tenace lies in the fact that if the suit is led up
to it, both A and K must win tricks, because if the 10 is not played,
the K wins the first round and the A is still the best of the suit. If
the 10 is played, the ace wins it, and the K remains the best of the
suit.

If the player holding the tenace leads it, the ace is the only trick
he is sure of.

The second-best of a suit, guarded, is good for a trick if it is led
up to; because if the ace is played to shut out the 10, the 10 becomes
the best of the suit. If the ace is not played, the 10 wins.

When a player holds both these combinations, a tenace and a
second-best guarded, each in a different suit, it is better to give
up the second-best suit than to lead away from the tenace. We shall
come to an example of this presently in Illustrative Hand No. 10, in
which V leads his singly-guarded 10 of diamonds in order to keep his A
K of spades, which the adversaries will have to lead up to.

If the suit in which the player holds tenace is led through him, he
may either finesse the K, hoping the 10 is on his right, or he may put
the ace on at once for fear of its being trumped if he keeps it too
long. The card led and the general situation will usually guide him as
to which to do, but the position is always difficult and is a good
illustration of the disadvantage of being in the middle, a position in
which it is to the interest of the adversaries to place the player as
often and as long as possible.

When either of the adversaries holds a tenace, it is not likely to be
of much use unless it can be inferred that the player has cards of
that suit, because if the player in a Tournee held a 10 which was
insufficiently guarded he would probably have laid it away. In any
case, he would be very unlikely to lead the suit himself, knowing that
tenace was out against him. As a partner always plays after you, there
is no use trying to prevent him from making the 10, and if you have
both A and K it is usually better to put the ace right on, or you may
lose it. If the 10 is on your right, it is either too well guarded to
be caught, or your partner will be able to trump it.




PASST-MIR-NICHT

Does Not Fit


A very popular variety of the Tournee, although not always played, is
to allow the successful bidder to choose one of the Skat cards by
drawing it toward him, but without turning it up until he has examined
it to see if it fits his hand. He does not even show the card to the
other players, but he must not mix it with his hand in any way. If it
suits him, he turns it up, and that is the trump, and he then takes up
the other Skat card, just as in any ordinary Tournee.

But if it does not suit him, he says so, or he can simply signify the
fact by putting it into his hand without showing it, which will compel
him to turn up the other Skat card and to abide by its decision, even
if it is of the same suit as the first.

The unit value of a Passt-Mir-Nicht is precisely the same as that of
the ordinary Tournee, if the player wins it; but if he fails to win
his game he loses double. Whether it is a failure to get 61, or a
failure to make good his bid, does not matter; in either case he loses
double if the first card does not suit him, and the second is the
trump.

Suppose the player has risked a Tournee with only two suits, say
clubs and spades, and the two best Jacks. The first card he picks up
is a heart, which he puts into his hand without showing it. Then he
turns over the other Skat card, and it is a diamond. He must play a
diamond Tournee with two, which costs 3 x 5 = 15. If he wins his game,
he scores those 15 points; but if he loses it, he loses 30. The value
of his game is always calculated just as it would be in an ordinary
Tournee, and it is only when he loses it that he loses double. The
adversaries should be careful to note the occasions on which the
player has turned up the second card, as the double charge is often
overlooked at the end of the hand, when it comes to putting down the
score.

Many persons think it better to risk the loss of the game, if the
first card does not suit them, than to risk double on the chance that
the next card will win for them. They argue that if the second card is
different from the first, you cannot get more than one trump out of
the Skat. If it is the same as the first, you might as well have
turned up the first one. While this sounds well, if the player is
sound in his bidding, and does not offer a Tournee unless he has a
fair chance in three suits, the second card will either suit his hand
or it will give him two trumps in his weak suit, which may enable him
to win his game, even in a suit which he does not want.

It is a mistake to force one's self to play a game that does not fit
the hand, just because one is afraid of losing double, although some
prefer certain loss to speculation. Illustrative Hand No. 17 is an
example of a case in which the bidder should have played
Passt-Mir-Nicht, instead of risking the game he did play. Had he done
so, he would probably have made the adversaries schneider, instead of
being himself made schwarz.


Tournee Grand

If the successful bidder turns up a Jack, whether it be the first card
or a Passt-Mir-Nicht, he has the privilege of saying whether the suit
to which the Jack belongs shall be the trump, or whether Jacks only
shall be trumps.

As his decision must depend largely upon a proper understanding of the
possibilities of winning a game in which Jacks only are trumps, the
reader is advised not to trouble himself with this declaration of
Tournee Grand until he has mastered the principles of play which will
be found farther on, in the chapter devoted to Grand. After some
examples of natural or Solo Grands, and their proper management, will
be found one or two illustrations of Tournee Grands.


Abandoned Hands

A player who has made a bad Tournee on the first card is allowed to
strike his colours without playing a card, if he is afraid of being
made schneider. If he abandons his game as hopeless in this manner, he
is charged with the loss of the game, with whatever matadores he holds
or does not hold, but he cannot be charged with the loss of schneider,
even if the adversaries can demonstrate that they must have made him
schneider. All he can lose is what he would have lost if he had played
the hand and got home something between 31 and 60 points.

As a rule, it is an evidence of bad judgment in bidding, or that the
player has been bluffing in refusing, when he has a hand that must be
abandoned without a struggle. Illustrative Hand No. 6 is given as an
example of what a little nerve will sometimes accomplish.

Illustrative Hand No. 6

Spade Tournee, by Vorhand

                    C  K 9
                    S  J A K 8
                    H  10 K 9
                    D  J

                      M
C  A 10                          C  J Q 8 7
S  ----            V     H       S  10 Q 9
H  A Q 8                         H  J 7
D  A K Q 9 8          D          D  7

                  In Skat; S 7, D 10.

M bids 10 and passes. H passes. V is the player.
V turns S 7, and lays D A 10 in the Skat.

TRICK    V    M    H     +    -

  1    *D8   H10  D7    10
  2    *CA   C9   C7    11
  3    *C10  CK   C8    14
  4    *HA   H9   H7    11
  5     S7  *SA   S10        21
  6     H8   S8  *CJ          2
  7     D9   HK  *CQ          7
  8     DQ   SK  *HJ          9
  9     HQ  *DJ   SQ          8
 10     DK  *SJ   S9          6

V gets 46 in play and 21 in Skat, 67; winning his game. Spades worth
7; 1 for game, "without" 10, = 11 x 7 = 77 points.

The turn is unfortunate, so much so that the player does not care to
risk the second card, which might be of the same suit. There is not
much danger of his being made schneider, so that there is no necessity
to abandon the hand to save a trifle of 7 points, when there is a loss
of 77 staring him in the face.

The player's only hope, in such a case, is, of course, to save himself
by a feint. The 7 of diamonds is out in the hand of one adversary or
the other. If H is the player that holds the card, and V leads the 8,
M will inevitably fatten what looks like a certainty to be his
partner's trick. If he does, and V can get home the 30 points he has
in his own hand, that will be enough, with the 21 that he has laid
away in the Skat, to win his game.

It is needless to say that almost any one would have been alarmed at
the prospect of being caught "without" 10, and would have played this
hand as a Passt-Mir-Nicht; but it shows what is possible in Skat.




SOLO

Playing Without the Skat Cards


If it is unsafe to bid Tournee without some strength, in two or three
suits at least, and if the Simple game is not allowed, it is obvious
that the player with only one good suit in his cards could not bid at
all, although he might have a very fine hand.

In order to provide for this contingency, any one having a hand which
is strong enough to name the trump "out of hand," as it is called, and
cards good enough to play against the partners without the assistance
of the Skat, can bid Solo.

An indifferent Solo is often better than a risky Tournee.

According to the official laws, the Solo player cannot touch the Skat
cards until the play is finished. The matadores then found may largely
affect his score. In the modern game, he takes up the Skat cards, just
as in a Gucki Grand, to be described later. This gives him an
opportunity to lay away counting cards that are in danger, and also to
count his sequence of matadores with certainty, before he names the
trump. This method of play is called Gucki Solo.

These drawbacks naturally make Solo much more difficult than Tournee,
and demand much stronger hands. The compensation for the risks the
Solo player takes are accordingly greater, the unit values of the four
suits being

    D 9  H 10  S 11  C 12

The matadores remain the same in rank and value and the games are
calculated in the same way, a spade Solo with 2, for instance, being
worth 1 for game, "with" 2, = 3 x 11 = 33.


Announcing Schneider and Schwarz

The Solo introduces another element which is not possible in either
the Simple or the Tournee, and that is the player's announcing in
advance that he will hold his adversaries down to less than 30 points,
making them schneider. He may even announce that they will not win a
single trick, which will make them schwarz. The announcement must be
made before a single card is played.

While the player in Simple or Tournee may accomplish either of these
results, as we see he did in Illustrative Hand No. 2, when he made his
opponents schneider, he is not allowed to announce it beforehand
unless he plays the whole hand through without seeing or touching the
Skat cards. If he needs the assistance of the Skat, either in
determining the trump or in allowing him to lay away, he cannot
announce either schneider or schwarz.

To win a schneider, the adversaries must not get more than 29 points.
If they get 30 they are "out of schneider." To win a schwarz, the
losing side must not get a single trick. It does not matter whether
there are any points in the trick or not; if they get one they save
the schwarz. If it is the player that is made schwarz, he loses what
he has in the Skat.

Unless the Solo-player is very sure that he can accomplish what he
announces, he is very foolish to make the promise, because, if he
fails to do all that he announces, he loses what he might have made.
If he announces schneider, he must make 91 points, or he loses the
value of the game that he would have won had he succeeded; it is no
use to make 61.

As a compensation for the risk that he takes upon himself in such
announcements, he is allowed certain extra multipliers, which increase
the value of his game if he wins it. They also increase the amount of
his loss if he fails to do what he promises. The adversaries cannot
announce anything.

The value of the various games, including the announced ones, run from
1 to 5, as follows:

    For winning the game, 61 points 1

    For making schneider, without announcing it 2

    For announcing schneider and making it 3

    For making schwarz, without announcing it 3

    For making schwarz, after announcing schneider 4

    For announcing and making schwarz 5

These game values are added to the number of matadores, and the sum of
the two is used as a multiplier. Suppose that the player says he will
announce schneider in a club Solo, and that he succeeds, holding three
matadores. He counts his game thus: 3 for schneider announced, "with"
3, = 6 x 12 = 72 points.

The opportunity to announce schneider comes much more frequently than
might be imagined, and it is often scored without having been
announced. A good player will always go over in his mind the cards he
must give to the adversaries, and will calculate just what points they
can take home on those tricks. If he thinks these will not reach 30,
he announces schneider.

Illustrative Hand No. 7 is a fair example of a perfectly safe
schneider announced. The player knows that he cannot possibly lose
more than one trick, because there are only eleven trumps in the pack,
of which he holds eight, and he has the three best trumps with which
to draw the three others. After the adverse trumps are drawn, he
cannot lose his ace of diamonds.

Illustrative Hand No. 7

Club Solo, schneider announced, by Vorhand

                    C  10 K
                    S  10 K Q
                    H  K 8
                    D  J 10 Q

                      M
C  J A Q 9 8 7                   C  ----
S  J               V     H       S  A 8 7
H  J 10                          H  Q 9 7
D  A                  D          D  K 9 8 7

                  In Skat; H A, S 9.

M bids 10 and then passes. H passes. V is the player. V plays Club
Solo, schneider announced.

TRICK    V    M    H     +    -

  1     *HJ  C10  S7    12
  2     *JS  DJ   D7     4
  3     *CJ  CK   H7     6
  4     *CA  H8   H9    11
  5     *CQ  HK   HQ    10
  6     *C9  SQ   S8     3
  7     *C8  DQ   D8     3
  8     *C7  D10  D9    10
  9     *DA  SK   DK    19
 10     *H10 S10  SA    31

V gets 109 in play and 11 in Skat, 120; winning schwarz. Clubs worth
12; 4 for schwarz after announcing schneider, "with" 3, = 7 x 12 = 84
points.

The only risk he takes is, that all the hearts are in one hand, or
that one player will discard all he has on the trump leads. If his
partner has the ace, and puts it on the 10, the one who has no hearts
may be able to fatten the trick with an ace or a 10, either of which
would put them out of schneider. The probability of such a thing is
too remote to deter the player from announcing schneider, which will
give him an extra multiplier. As it happens, the card he fears is in
the Skat, so that he makes "schwarz after announcing schneider,"
giving him still another multiplier.

With regard to the play of M in this hand, it should be observed that
he puts the 10 on the first lead, on the chance that H has a J,
because if he has not, the 10 is lost, no matter what M plays. On the
second trick he gives up his Jack, hoping to save his king if V should
think it was in the Skat. V goes right along with his winning cards,
hoping that if one player should happen to hold both aces, he would
not know which to keep at the end.

Occasionally, a player will meet with painful surprises in the outcome
of his announced schneiders. Illustrative Hand No. 8 is an example of
what sometimes happens. Unless there are five trumps against him in
one hand, it looks as if the only trick the player could possibly lose
was the Q of hearts, and even if one adversary can fatten it with an
ace, 24 points is all the trick should carry with it.

Illustrative Hand No. 8

Club Solo, schneider announced, by Hinterhand

                    C  A Q
                    S  9 8 7
                    H  10 K 9 8 7
                    D  ----

                      M
C  10 9 8                        C  J K 7
S  10 Q            V     H       S  J
H  ----                          H  J A Q
D  K Q 9 8 7          D          D  J A 10

                  In Skat; S A K.

M passes. H bids 10. V passes. H is the player. H plays Club Solo,
schneider announced.

TRICK    V    M    H     +    -
  1     DK  *CA   D10        25
  2    *C10  HK   HA         25
  3     DQ  *CQ   DA         17
  4     S10 *H10  HQ         23
  5     D7   H9  *DJ     2
  6     C8   H7  *HJ     2
  7     C9   H8  *SJ     2
  8     D8   S7  *CJ     2
  9     D9   S8  *CK     4
 10     SQ   S9  *C7     3

H gets 15 in play and 15 in Skat. Instead of making the schneider he
announced, he is himself made schneider. Clubs worth 12; schneider
announced, 3 "with" 4, = 7 x 12 = 84 points.

Unfortunately for the player, M has none of the suit first led, and
hastens to save his high counting trump. Then he cautiously leads a K,
not a 10, from his long suit, through the player. On this his partner,
V, saves a counting trump and lets his partner ruff another diamond. M
now has the best heart and leads it, giving V a chance to fatten with
the 10 of spades, and that ends the slaughter.

In this case, it will be observed, the player loses only what he
announced; that is, the adversaries do not get any more for having
made him schneider than they would have for just getting out of
schneider themselves. Had they made him schwarz, after he had
announced schneider, they would have added another multiplier; just as
they would if they made him schneider when he had not announced
anything but the ordinary game.

Although the adversaries can never announce anything, they always add
a multiplier if they make more than the player is nominally attempting
to make, whether the game is Simple, Tournee or Solo. Suppose it is a
heart Solo, with 2. If the player wins it, he scores 3 x 10 = 30; but
if they make him schneider, he loses 4 x 10 = 40. If they make him
schwarz, he loses 5 x 10 = 50.

If the adversaries do not make more than the player is nominally
attempting to make, they cannot add any multipliers. If the player has
not announced anything, it is assumed that he is playing for game
only. His adversaries must make more than game to add a multiplier;
that is, they must make schneider.


Bidding

In bidding by suits, if a person wishes to go over a Tournee he simply
says "Solo," which means that he will play a Solo of some kind. If V
says "Yes" to this, the bidder must go on and ask him, "Is it hearts?"
for it must be as good as diamonds if it is a Solo at all. It is not
uncommon for a person to get the play in a spade Solo with one when
the bidder has a heart Solo with six, schneider announced; but in suit
bidding there is no provision for this possibility. That is why
bidding by numbers is now insisted on, at least in all important
games.

In bidding by numbers it is supposed that the unit values are such
that any Solo bid will be numerically better than any Tournee bid. The
lowest possible Solo is diamonds, with or without 1, worth 18. It is
extremely improbable that any player of good judgment could outbid
this with a Tournee, because he cannot go on to 20 unless he is
risking a black turn-up "with" 3, and if the diamond Solo is "with" 1,
how can any other person be "with" 3? Both of them cannot have the
best Jack, and as already pointed out in dealing with Tournee bids, no
good player would run up his bid when he was "without," because of
the danger of finding one of the higher Jacks in the Skat.

When Skat is played strictly according to the official laws, the Solo
player cannot touch the Skat cards, and is always in danger, when
bidding "without," of finding better Jacks in the Skat. The modern
game, as mentioned on page 84, allows the Solo player to take up the
Skat cards before announcing his game, and thus leaves him free to
call anything that he can make that will cover the amount bid, whether
it be a Solo or a Grand.

Very few Skat-players, even those of considerable experience, have any
definite idea of what constitutes a good Solo hand. They may know one
when they see it, but they do not know what it is that they see; that
is to say, they cannot formulate any rule by which the beginner may be
guided. Not a single writer on the game attempts to give any such
rule, not even Herr Buhle, a defect which I shall attempt to remedy,
because I think that if the conditions of the problem are examined
separately, the difficulty will soon disappear, and from the
principles disclosed, the rule will easily emerge.


Position

A person's position at the table with regard to the lead has a great
effect on the value of his game, especially in Solos. We have already
seen that the adversaries always try to get the player between them,
and when he is compelled to start in that position, as Mittelhand, he
is at a disadvantage from the very first. For this reason, M is looked
upon as the worst of all positions for any kind of game unless he has
exceptionally strong cards.

Vorhand is the best position in a Solo when his trumps are strong,
because they can be led out immediately for the purpose of exhausting
the adversaries. But with weak trumps, and especially with missing
suits, which the player wants to ruff without fear of being
over-trumped, Hinterhand is a very good position, especially as he can
discard worthless cards if the trick is not worth trumping.

The beginner should impress this firmly on his memory: With strong
trumps, which you want to lead at the first opportunity, it is better
to be the leader, that is, Vorhand, than to trust to getting into the
lead; but with weak trumps, some of which you want to ruff good
counting cards with, without danger of being over-trumped, it is
better to be the last player on the trick; that is, Hinterhand.

If the reader will turn back to Illustrative Hand No. 8, he will see
that the disaster which overtook H would have been impossible had he
been V instead, with those cards. In that hand H thought that if he
did not obtain the lead on the first trick with an ace, he would trump
himself in.


The Eight Rule for Solos

After making due allowance for his position at the table, the novice
will find it very useful to have some sort of mechanical guide which
shall enable him to estimate the comparative value of a Solo hand. If
it fails to reach an easily ascertained standard, he can reject it, if
it reaches or surpasses that standard, he can bid on it with safety.

After analyzing a vast number of Solos, with a view to discovering
some principle which should be common to all, so that by impressing
this general principle upon the memory a person can dispense with a
large number of rules and exceptions, I have found that those Solos
which almost invariably win will be found to stand the following
simple test.

Count the number of cards in the suit you purpose making the trump,
including the Jacks, and add the number of aces and tens in plain
suits that are probable trick winners, and if the total is eight or
more, the hand will be a fair Solo bid.

In counting tens, it must not be forgotten that if they are likely to
be lost, they should not be included.

I have dealt out hands at random, and whenever I have come across one
that came up to this standard, I have dealt the remaining twenty-two
cards a dozen or more separate times and examined the result of a
Solo. The result has more than confirmed my original opinion that the
principle is sound.

If the reader will refer to the various Illustrative Hands which are
Solos, Nos. 7 to 12 inclusive, he will see how this rule may be
applied. In No. 7, the player can count his hand up to 9; 8 trumps and
1 ace. In No. 8, the player had 6 trumps, and 3 aces and tens, which
should have all been good for tricks; so that his hand was worth 9,
and in Vorhand would have been invincible. In No. 9, the player cannot
count up to 8, and he loses his game. In No. 10, the player knows that
his Solo is very weak, but he plays it in preference to a risky
Tournee, trusting to a fortunate distribution of the cards and his own
advantage as Vorhand to pull him through. In No. 11, the player can
count his hand up to 8 with 6 trumps and 2 aces and tens. In No. 12,
the player has 5 trumps and 3 aces and tens; a total of 8. This
perfectly sound declaration is defeated only by the very fine play of
an adversary.

The following are a few examples of good sound Solo bids:

C  J A Q 9 8 7              C  ----
S  J A 10                   S  10 Q 9 8
H  K Q                      H  A 10 7
D  ----                     D  J A 10

Clubs. Counts 8.            Spades. Counts 9.
Good in any position.       Good Hinterhand.

C  A                        C  J 10 K Q
S  A 10                     S  A 10
H  K Q 9 8 7                H  ----
D  10 K                     D  J Q 9 8

Hearts. Counts 9.           Diamonds. Counts 8.
Good in any position.       Better than clubs.

The heart Solo will be found particularly interesting if the remaining
twenty-two cards are dealt at random, especially if the Solo player is
Vorhand. The diamond Solo, it will be seen, will not count to 8 in any
suit but diamonds.

Old Skat-players are continually warning the novice against what they
call "seven-trump Solos". What they mean is, hands in which there are
seven trumps and nothing else, that is, no tricks in plain suits, in
other words, hands which will not count up to 8.

When a player, especially a beginner, finds seven trumps in his hand,
the temptation to declare a Solo is hard to resist, and occasionally
these seven-trump hands go through, especially if the trumps
themselves are particularly strong, or the partnership opposed to them
is particularly weak.

Illustrative Hand No. 9 is a fair example of how these seven-trump
hands go to pieces, especially when they start out by being in a bad
position.

Illustrative Hand No. 9

Club Solo, by Mittelhand

                    C  J K Q 9 7
                    S  J K
                    H  J K
                    D  Q

                      M
C  A                             C  10 8
S  Q               V     H       S  A 10 8
H  A 10 9 8 7                    H  Q
D  J A K              D          D  10 9 8 7

                  In Skat; S 9 7.

M bids up to 36 before V passes. H passes. M is the player. M declares
a club Solo.

TRICK    V    M     H    +    -
  1    *HA   HK    HQ        18
  2     H10 *HJ    D7   12
  3     DJ  *SJ    C8    4
  4     CA  *CJ    C10  23
  5     SQ   SK   *SA        18
  6    *DA   DQ    D10       24
  7     DK  *C7    D8    4
  8     H7  *CK    D9    4
  9     H8  *CQ    S8    3
 10     H9  *C9    S10  10

M gets 60 in play, 0 in Skat, losing his game. Clubs worth 12; 1 for
game, "with" 3, = 4 x 12 = 48 points.

The play has several instructive points in it, some of which will be
referred to again. When the player has not had an opportunity to lay
away his dangerous cards, there is not the same risk in leading good
counting cards from long suits as there is in a Tournee, therefore V
starts with the ace of his five-card suit. His partner playing the Q
marks him with no more, as there are only seven hearts in play, so V
goes on with the 10, hoping H can over-trump M. This compels M to ruff
in with a valuable trump, so as to be sure of getting the lead.

The player then proceeds to pull down all the adverse trumps, in which
he is quite successful; but in spite of this his side cards are not
strong enough to win the game. Every one of his trumps takes a trick,
yet he stops short at 60, missing his game by a nose.

After dropping the trumps, M leads the spade K as if he were trying to
establish a trick in that suit, intending to discard the diamond if
the spade is returned. But H has kept count, always an important thing
to do, and he knows that unless his partner has the ace of diamonds,
the game is lost. If the player has no diamond he can afford to
discard a non-counting heart and still win the game; but if he has a
diamond at all, it must be the K or Q, and if V has the ace of
diamonds, the trick must be worth at least 24 points, which is just
enough to defeat the player. This hand shows the importance of keeping
an accurate mental count.

It is not to be expected that a player will never make a bid unless he
has a perfectly safe game, but he should at least have some reason
to believe that the circumstances are favourable for a venture. The
absence of any opposing bids, the dislike to wasting a good hand, or
the hesitancy about risking a Tournee with only two suits, any of
these things may prompt a player to take a chance, and Skat is full of
rewards for the courageous player if he stops at the bounds of
rashness. To play, one must bid, and old Skat-players have a saying
that the man who plays the most games will win the most points.

Illustrative Hand No. 10 is a good example of a doubtful Solo which is
better than a risky Tournee, in a situation which indicates that there
is no great strength opposed to the player, as no one bids anything.

Illustrative Hand No. 10

Heart Solo, by Vorhand

                    C  J 10
                    S  Q 9 8 7
                    H  8 7
                    D  A Q

                      M
C  ----                          C  A Q 9 8
S  J A K           V     H       S  10
H  J 10 K Q                      H  A 9
D  J 10 7             D          D  K 9 8

                  In Skat; C K 7.

M and H both pass. V is the player. V declares heart Solo, which is
better than a risky Tournee.

TRICK    V    M    H     +    -
  1    *DJ   H7   H9     2
  2     HJ  *CJ   HA         15
  3    *H10  C10  CA    31
  4    *SJ   H8   C8     2
  5     D7   DQ  *DK          7
  6    *HQ   S7   CQ     6
  7     D10 *DA   D8         21
  8    *SA   S8   S10   21
  9    *SK   S9   D9     4
 10    *HK   SQ   C9     7

V gets 73 in play and 4 in Skat, 77; winning his game. Hearts worth
10; 1 for game, "without" 1, = 2 x 10 = 20 points.

With three Jacks, not the best, the rule is to lead them until the
best one falls. M does not put the best Jack on the worst in the first
trick, because he wants to get the player in the middle, if H has a
Jack. The second trick M must win, to save his partner's good counting
cards, if he has any. Then he leads a singleton, still hoping his
partner can get into the lead. Knowing that the 10 must be a
singleton, because his partner would never lead it if it were guarded,
and having neither K nor 7 himself, H puts on the ace. After drawing
the trumps, the player's best chance is to get his spade tenace led up
to. If he can coax the ace of diamonds on the 7, he may make the
adversaries schneider. V must trump the third lead of clubs to
prevent M from fattening the trick.


Choice of Games

It often happens that the player has a choice of suits in which to
declare Solo. In Illustrative Hand No. 8, for instance, he might have
named any one of three suits, and still have had six trumps, headed by
four Jacks. The reason he selects the club is because it is the only
suit in which he can announce schneider, and is therefore the most
valuable game; schneider announced 3, "with" 4, = 7 x 12 = 84. If he
names diamonds, he is 1 for game, "with" 6, = 7 x 9 = 63 only. In
hearts, 1 for game, "with" 5 = 6 x 10 = 60 only. As we shall see
presently when we come to Grand, the unit of which is 16, his game in
that would have been worth 80 only. In Illustrative Hand No. 7, on the
contrary, there is only one possible declaration, clubs.

It is not often that a Solo player can choose between more than two
suits, however, and the following rules will be found useful in
guiding him to a judicious selection:

    1. Between two games, choose the safer.

    2. Between two equally safe, choose the more expensive.

    3. Between two equally risky, choose the cheaper.

    4. Between two equally long suits, select the weaker.

One or two hands from actual play will probably show the application
of these rules better than anything else.

Take the following cards in Vorhand:

C  J A 10 Q
S  A K 9 8
H  J
D  J

While the club looks tempting, it is not as safe as the spade, because
with clubs for trumps it is possible to lose two tricks in trumps and
two in spades, and the game is not by any means an absolute certainty.
If spades are declared and the Jacks are led right out, one trump is
all that is possible for the adversaries to win, unless one of them
has three clubs to the K. While it is improbable that the club Solo
would be lost, it is possible, and surprises are common in Skat; but
it is impossible to lose the spade Solo. Many players would even risk
announcing schneider on the double chance that either the trumps are
not all in one hand; or that the club Q wins a trick.

Take the following cards in Vorhand:

C  J
S  J A 10 9
H  J 8
D  A 10 7

Both Solos are equally safe, so that the more expensive spade should
be selected.

Take the following cards in Hinterhand:

C A 10 8 7
S A
H J
D A 10 9 8

The player cannot risk a Tournee with only two suits and one Jack, and
one Solo is about as safe as the other. Although he will have five
trumps in either suit, and hopes to ruff hearts with the ace or 10,
the Solo is not particularly strong with six trumps out against it and
the plain suit so long that it is liable to be trumped. Between two
equally risky games, it is better to choose the cheaper, and declare
diamonds.

Take the following cards in Hinterhand:

C J A 10 K 9
S J A 9 8 7
H ----
D ----

The clubs are the more valuable suit to declare, but the spades are
worthless unless they can be established in one lead. Every card in
the club suit will be good for a trick as soon as the adverse trumps
are forced out. With such hands, one should always make the weaker
suit the trump, especially with the two best Jacks, because even if
there are five trumps in one hand against you, it is practically
impossible to lose the game if the weaker suit is declared.

Illustrative Hand No. 11 is a very good example of selecting the
weaker of two suits for the trump. In spite of the best defence the
adversaries can make, the player wins his game easily.

Illustrative Hand No. 11

Club Solo, by Mittelhand

                    C  J Q 9 8 7
                    S  J A 10 K Q
                    H  ----
                    D  ----

                      M
C  A 10                          C  K
S  8               V     H       S  9 7
H  J A K Q 8 7                   H  10 9
D  J                  D          D  A 10 K 9 7

                  In Skat; D Q 8.

V passes when M bids 33. H passes. M is the player. M declares a club
Solo.

TRICK    V    M    H     +    -
  1     HA  *CQ   H9    14
  2     DJ  *SJ   CK     8
  3     HJ  *CJ   S7     4
  4    *CA   C7   H10        21
  5     HK  *C8   S9     4
  6     S8  *SA   S7    11
  7    *C10  S10  D9         20
  8     HQ  *C9   DK     7
  9     H7  *SK   D10   14
 10     H8  *SQ   DA    14

M gets 76 in play, and 3 in Skat, 79; winning his game. Clubs worth
12; 1 for game, "with" 2, = 3 x 12 = 36 points.

The player not having laid away any cards in the Skat, V leads the ace
of his long suit, and M trumps with a counting card. With the two best
Jacks and neither ace nor ten of trumps in his hand, the player must
lead the Jacks. It is useless for the player to lead his long spade
suit while there are any trumps out against him; but unless he leads
trumps he cannot tell that one or both of the outstanding trumps are
not in the Skat.

At trick 5, observe that V does not lead his last trump, although it
is the best, but goes on with the established heart suit, because if M
does not trump it, H will fatten. If either the 8 or 9 of trumps is in
the Skat, the player must lose his game. M leads his high counting
spades, so as to force V to trump before his partner gets courage
enough to fatten, if V has a trump, which neither M nor H can tell
from the play.


Leading

The most important thing for the player in a Solo is to lead trumps at
every opportunity, unless he finds that all the trumps are against him
in one hand. Under those circumstances he should avoid wasting his
strength, making his winning cards instead, and leaving the trump lead
to the adversary.

Experience has shown that with certain combinations of Jacks, it is
best to lead them in a certain way, partly because there is an
advantage in the leads themselves, and partly because some Jack leads
invite the adversaries to err.


Leading Jacks

With all four Jacks, it is best to begin with the lowest, or to lead
the club and follow it with the heart or diamond, as if the leader did
not hold the spade Jack. The object of this lead is to coax the second
player to fatten the trick for his partner by throwing in a high
counting card in a plain suit, if he has no trumps after the first
trick. As it is more likely that a player will be able to follow suit
at least once, the club Jack followed by the heart is the better lead,
because if the diamond Jack wins, it will be obvious to the second
hand that his partner has no Jacks. Nothing is gained by coaxing the
second hand to throw in a high counting trump early, as it can be
caught in any case in four leads.

With the three best Jacks, follow the same plan, either beginning with
the heart Jack, or leading the club and then the heart, as if the
spade Jack were against you.

With three Jacks, not the best, lead them until the best Jack is
forced out.

With two Jacks, the manner of leading them depends on which they are,
and also somewhat on the value of the other trumps. The Skat-player
should practise these various leads with a pack of cards until he is
quite sure that he knows each variation, because on the proper
management of two Jacks many a Solo depends.

With the club and spade, lead the spade first.

With the spade and diamond, lead the diamond first. That is the best
chance to establish the spade Jack.

With the spade and heart lead the spade Jack, to prevent the second
hand from fattening, because he will probably think you hold the club
Jack also.

With the heart and diamond, lead one of them only when you hold both
ace and ten of trumps.

With two Jacks which are not the best and the A 10 of trumps only, do
not lead trumps at all, but play your winning cards in other suits.
This rule applies more often to Tournees than to Solos.

With only one Jack, and the A 10 and a number of small trumps, lead
the small trumps first, as there are no high counting trumps in the
hands of the adversaries that they can get home.

This is a very important rule, and many beginners lose valuable points
by neglecting it and leading out the Jack, under the mistaken idea
that they will get all the Jacks out of their way, forgetting that the
Jack they sacrifice is worth 2 points. Skat is too delicate a game to
waste anything in this way.

Illustrative Hand No. 12 is a good example of leading trumps small
when the player holds only one Jack with the A and 10.

Illustrative Hand No. 12

Diamond Solo, by Vorhand

                    C  J K 7
                    S  K
                    H  A K
                    D  J K Q 7

                      M
C  A 10                          C  Q 9 8
S  J A             V     H       S  Q 9 8 7
H  8 7                           H  J 10 Q
D  A 10 9 8           D          D  ----

                  In Skat; S 10, H 9.

M bids 10 and then passes. H passes. V is the player. V declares
Diamond Solo.

TRICK    V    M    H     +    -
  1     D8   DK  *HJ          6
  2    *SA   SK   S9    15
  3     D9  *DQ   H10        13
  4     H7  *HA   HQ         14
  5     H8  *HK   CQ          7
  6    *CA   C7   C9    11
  7    *C10  CK   C8    14
  8    *D10  D7   S7    10
  9     SJ  *CJ   S8          4
 10     DA  *DJ   SQ         16

V gets 50 in play and 10 in Skat, 60; losing his game. Diamonds worth
9; 1 for game, "without" 1, = 2 x 9 = 18 points.

Upon getting into the lead, H selects his longest suit, which has the
additional advantage that it contains neither ace nor ten. If the
player holds both those cards, no harm is done and the partner may
ruff. If the player has the ace, the partner's ten is freed, if it is
guarded; if it is not guarded it will be caught in any case.

V, on getting in, leads another small trump, hoping to find each
player able to follow suit. On this trick H avails himself of the
opportunity to fatten with his singly-guarded 10 of hearts. This shows
M that it is useless to hold the tenace in hearts, A K, so M leads
hearts. After that, M leads a low club, knowing that his partner has
not the 10, or has it well guarded.

At trick 8, V leads the 10 of trumps, to tempt M to win it. If M has
only one Jack, and the other is in the Skat, V loses nothing, no
matter what he leads; but if M has two Jacks and a small trump, he
would play the small trump on the spade J, which is worth only 2
points, so as to be sure of winning the last two tricks.

M has kept mental count, however, and he knows that this 10 will not
be enough for him unless his partner can give him a 10, which is very
unlikely, or he would have done it on the second heart lead. As M has
all the K's himself, the most his partner can have is a Q, and that is
not enough, because the Solo player must be all trumps unless he has
the 10 of spades. By passing this 10 of trumps, M gets home just
enough to reach 60, defeating a very strong diamond Solo, well played.


The Adversaries' Play

In playing against a Solo, the adversaries must never forget that
there is a better chance to make their aces than there would be in a
Tournee, because the player has had no chance to lay away a suit in
the Skat. Not only will the player often be compelled to follow suit
with one or two small cards, but he will sometimes be caught with
unguarded tens.

As a rule, the adversaries should make their aces and change suits
frequently, so as to prevent the player from discarding. It is very
important to keep the player from getting rid of his losing cards
cheaply by discarding them on tricks that are not worth trumping. To
prevent this, one adversary will often put an ace or a ten on a trick
which he knows the player can trump, just to make him trump instead of
discarding.

As in all games, the partners should try to get the player between
them. When the partner on the right of the player has a long suit,
especially one which the player has already trumped, he should try to
get the lead, so as to continue that suit, if possible, and his
partner should allow him every opportunity to get into the lead.

If the suit is headed by the ace, always lead the ace first. In
Tournee, it is not safe to begin with high counting cards of long
suit, because the player has almost certainly laid that suit away; but
in Solo, if you do not lead your aces, the player may get rid of the
suit very cheaply. Illustrative Hand No. 9 shows the advantage of this
opening.

Suits headed by A 10 are always good leads against a Solo player, even
if it is certain that the second round will be trumped, because it is
better to lead the high counting card and force the trump, than to
lead a small one and let the player discard.

From suits headed by 10 K and others, the K is the best opening,
because it will either win the trick or force out the ace and
establish the ten.

When an adversary has no long suit headed by A 10 or by 10 K, it is
safer to lead a suit in which he has neither A nor 10; for the reasons
explained in the notes to Illustrative Hand No. 12. If the player has
the 10 insufficiently guarded, it is often caught by this lead, when
the partner has the ace.

Toward the end of the hand, it is often advantageous to make the
player lead, especially if it is suspected that he holds a weakly
guarded 10, or that he is likely to ruff with a high counting trump.
In case of doubt, a trump lead is the safest, forcing the player into
the lead, as in Illustrative Hand No. 4, or else a valuable card which
he cannot afford to pass if he has none of the suit.

If your partner discards on a trick which he knows you will win, or
which is already yours, instead of fattening it, it is usually an
indication that he wants to ruff the suit he discards, or at least
that he would like you to lead it. If you see him throw a small trump
on a trick which has already been trumped by the player, you may be
sure that he has no more trumps, and is getting ready to fatten the
trick for you if trumps are led again.

A very important rule for the partners in playing against Solos is to
give up their highest cards on their partner's tricks, and their
lowest cards on the player's.

If you lead an ace, for instance, and your partner plays the 7, it
should be a certainty that he has no more of that suit; because with
any other with the 7, even the 8 or 9, he should play the higher
first.

If it is the player's trick, however, to which your partner plays a Q,
it should be certain that no smaller card of that suit is in his hand;
therefore the 7 8 9 are in the hand of the player or in the Skat.

Tenaces are more valuable in the hands of partners opposed to a Solo
than against a Tournee, and when they are held, and it is probable or
evident that the player still has cards of that suit, the tenace
should be held over him until he is either compelled to lead into it
or unguard his own hand. Illustrative Hand No. 5 is a good example of
such a position, H keeping the tenace in hearts over M. In
Illustrative Hand No. 10, M holds up his ace of diamonds, finessing
the Q, because he knows his partner must have the K, if not the 10, so
that they hold a tenace between them. If the player had both 10 and K,
he would lead the K to clear the suit.


Second Hand Play

It is usually good play to put J on J if the player leads any J which
is not the club J, but it is not necessary to put the best J on the
worst, because the partner may be able to win the diamond J and get
the player in the middle. If the partner cannot win the first lead,
the best J must be put on the second round of trumps or the partner's
high counting trumps, if he has any, may be lost. This situation
arises in Illustrative Hand No. 10.

When the second hand holds a J which is just one better than the one
led by the player, he should cover, putting the spade on the heart,
for instance, so that his partner may give him a counting trump which
might otherwise be in danger.

When the second hand holds only the A 10 of trumps, with the spade J,
it is better to give up the ace of trumps on the first trick, so as
to be sure of winning the second with the Jack. But if the Jack held
by second hand is a red one, and the club Jack is led, he should not
be in too great a hurry to give up the counting trump, but should play
the J, because his partner may win the second round of trumps with the
spade Jack, as it is unusual to lead the club J when the player holds
both the black Jacks in his own hand.

Under the same circumstances, if the lead is the spade J, it is better
to give up the counting trump at once, and keep the red Jack, because
unless your partner has the club Jack, your high trump is gone, no
matter what you do.

If the player leads a suit, second hand should not be in too great a
hurry to put on the ace, unless he has the 10 also, but should give
his partner a chance to get into the lead, putting the player in the
middle, at the same time holding over him the ace of the suit which he
seems to be trying to clear.

If it is the partner that leads, and the second hand has the ace, he
should put it on at once, no matter what he holds, not only so as to
get the player in the middle, but to take the only chance there is of
catching him with an unguarded ten. Second hand should not put on a
10, unless his partner leads the ace, or that card has been played.
Even when the ace is led by the partner, it is not always wise to give
up the 10 if the player follows suit, because it may clear his K. It
is not likely that the partner would lead the suit if he had the
tenace in it, A K, unless the situation demanded it. If the leader is
evidently anxious to make his ace, his partner may as well save his
ten at the same time, especially if it saves a possible schneider or
wins the game.

When the second hand holds the 10 Q of a suit, and the K is led
through him, even by his partner, he should put on the 10, so as to
establish the Q. If it is the player who leads, both K and A may win
tricks. If it is the partner, the player would probably pass the K,
and wait for your 10, and your partner would not get a chance to
fatten on your established Q.

When the partner leads small cards and second hand does not hold the
ace, he should cover the trick with the K if he holds it, or with the
Q if he has both K and Q. This will get the player in the middle if he
refuses to win the trick, and it will also avoid the danger of the
player's winning the first trick too cheaply and still holding the ace
of it. If second hand can cover with a non-counting card, and still be
sure that the player will not be able to win the trick cheaply, he
should do so. An example of this occurs in Illustrative Hand No. 1,
when M leads the club.

If the player leads a small card and second hand puts on the 10, his
partner should not be too anxious to win this 10 with the ace unless
he holds the K also, or is particularly anxious to get the lead or
save the 21 points.


Fattening

In a Solo, an adversary should not fatten with an ace unless he has
also the 10 of the same suit, or unless he sees that the player has no
more, or the suit is so long that it cannot go round more than once,
or when the 11 points save a possible schneider or win the game.

It is important to seize the first opportunity to fatten the partner's
tricks with unguarded tens, and with any counting cards of suits which
the player has either discarded or trumped.

It is always better to get rid of a suit than to fatten with cards
which are not in any apparent danger. The advantage of getting rid of
one worthless little trump, so as to be ready to fatten the next trump
trick, has already been pointed out. This should be done only when it
is probable or obvious that the partner can win a trump trick, of
course.

If the second hand has no trumps, he should be careful not to fatten
with valuable cards when the player leads a red Jack through him. The
Jack may be a feint, or if it is not, the value of the trick may
compel the partner to give up one of the black Jacks to win the trick,
when it might have been much more to his advantage to let the player
lead again. If the second hand's high cards are trumps, and they are
unguarded, he may as well take the chance that his partner can win
the first round when a red Jack is led, because if the player is long
in trumps, the partner may not be able to hold up.


Trumping

The adversaries cannot be too quick about trumping in with an
unguarded ace or ten. Illustrative Hand No. 7 is a good example of
this, and its effectiveness.

When it is doubtful whether the player or your partner will win a
trick, trump it only when it puts the player in the middle for the
next trick.

Partners should not deceive each other by trumping with an
unnecessarily high card which is not of greater value than another.
With two Jacks, for instance, trump with the lower, because to trump
with the higher denies the other.

The partners should not allow themselves to be over-trumped too
cheaply. "Do not send a boy to the mill," is an old maxim in card
games. If the partner leads a suit of which second hand has none, and
he thinks the player will trump it, he should put on the club J if he
has it, especially if the trick saves or wins the game. It at least
has the advantage of getting the player in the middle. H does this at
the sixth trick in Illustrative Hand No. 6.

If you have reason to think that the player can follow suit, while you
can trump, trump with the best counting trump you have, especially if
it is in danger. The player himself always saves his counting trumps
in preference to ruffing with the small ones. An example of this will
be found in the first trick of Illustrative Hand No. 11.

When an adversary is strong in trumps, he should not be too anxious to
over-trump or to win trump tricks with nothing in them, or with not
enough in them to do him any good. The play of M in Illustrative Hand
No. 12 at the eighth trick is a case in point.




GRAND SOLO

Jacks the Only Trumps


When the player has one particularly long suit, say six or seven
cards, his natural wish is to make that the trump, because the
smallest trump will win the highest counting card in a plain suit.
Having none of a suit, he knows that if the adversaries lead it he can
ruff it.

This is distinctly unpleasant for the adversaries, who may find
themselves with several aces and tens, none of which is good for a
trick, because the player will trump them. If the reader will look
over the Illustrative Hands already given, especially the Solos, it
will be seen that the partners usually lose about three aces and tens
on each deal. If there were any way of cutting down the supply of
trumps, most of those cards might have been saved.

If it is the player that has these high cards, he is naturally anxious
to save them, and he does so by exhausting the adversaries' trumps as
rapidly as possible. If he has not trumps enough to accomplish this,
he usually comes to grief. When he has high cards in several suits,
but no long suit, it is simply guesswork to select one of those suits
for the trump; because an unfortunate distribution of the cards may
easily lose him his game. A player must never forget that when he
names any suit for the trump, he turns more than a third of the whole
pack into trumps.

Let us take, for example, some such selection of cards as the
following in Vorhand:

C  J A 7
S  J 8 7
H  A 10
D  A 10

Although this is a pretty strong hand, it is easily conceivable that
the game might be lost, no matter what suit was picked out for the
trump, because there must be seven trumps out against the player.

What a player would like to do, when he has good cards like these, but
not enough of one suit to make it the trump, would be to limit the
number of trumps in the hands of the adversaries, or to play the hand
practically without any trumps.

This he can do by declaring a Grand, which means that the four Jacks
shall be the only trumps, and that there shall be four plain suits of
seven cards each.

If we make Jacks the only trumps in such a hand as the example just
given, with the advantage of the lead, it is obviously impossible for
Vorhand to lose his game. Nothing can stop him from reaching 61 before
he loses a trick.

Holding the two best Jacks himself, he can catch all the other trumps
in the pack in two leads, after which all his aces and tens are sure
winners. He already has 57 points in his own cards, and if he gets
nothing from his adversaries but the two Jacks, that will make him 61.
If they have not the Jacks, they must be in the Skat, where they
equally count for the player, so that he gets to 61 no matter where
the remaining Jacks are.

It is not often that a player holds cards strong enough for a Grand;
but he is frequently tempted to risk one when he has a better Solo. On
the other hand, a player will sometimes declare Solo on cards which
are perfectly safe for a Grand.

It is important that the novice should clearly distinguish among the
various classes of hands or games.

With two Jacks, and moderate strength scattered among three or four
suits, it is a Tournee; but with great strength in two or three suits,
still with the two Jacks, it is a Grand. With all the strength massed
in one suit, it is usually a Solo.

The unit value of Grand is 16 points.

It is impossible to have more than four matadores in Grand, because
there are only four trumps in the pack; but as the game is played
without touching the Skat cards, the player may add to his multipliers
by announcing schneider or schwarz, just as in Solo. The greater
number of possible matadores, and therefore multipliers, in Solo, is
often overlooked by beginners, who do not stop to consider the
comparative value of the two games, Solo and Grand, when either is
possible.

Take the following cards in Vorhand:

C  J 10 Q 9 7
S  J
H  J
D  A 10 K

With these cards, it is quite true that two tricks in clubs are all
that it is possible to lose, and that a Grand cannot be lost. But a
Grand, with 3, is worth only 4 x 16 = 64 points; whereas, if the
player calls a Solo in clubs, he can announce schneider with absolute
certainty, and then he will have 2 more multipliers than he could get
in Grand, his game being worth 6 x 12 = 72.

Many persons are carried away with the idea that Jacks make a Grand;
but such is not the case. Take the following cards in Vorhand:

C  J
S  J 9 8 7
H  J A 10
D  J 9

This is not by any means a safe Grand, as we shall see when we come to
the rules for bidding, because if one adversary happens to have all
the spades, his partner can fatten every trick, and the adversaries
can easily reach 71. But play these cards as a spade Solo, schneider
announced, and the hand is absolutely invincible, making it worth 7 x
11 = 77 points. There are only four trumps against the player, and the
four Jacks must draw them all, so that the only trick it is possible
to lose in a Solo is the diamond.

To declare a heart Solo on these cards, just for the sake of the six
matadores, is to invite defeat. If a seven-trump hand, with no outside
tricks in it is weak, what about a six-trump hand with nothing else in
it but 7's 8's and 9's?


Position

The position of the player is a most important consideration in Grand,
more so than in any other game, because of the danger of being forced
to trump when there are so few trumps in play.

Vorhand has an immense advantage in playing Grand, because of his
control of the trump situation, and that is the position in which
Grand is most commonly attempted. The difference which the player's
position may make can best be illustrated by a concrete example. Let
us take the following cards:

C  J 7
S  J 7
H  A 10 8
D  A 10 K

If these cards are in Vorhand, he has an invincible Grand, because all
he has to do is to lead out his Jacks and then make the five tricks
in the red suits. It is impossible for him to lose more than three
tricks, and when the time comes for him to lose them it will be found
that there are not counting cards enough left in the pack for the
adversaries to pile on these three tricks to net them 60 points; as
will be evident if the experiment be tried with a pack of cards.

But now let us give these same cards to Mittelhand, and let V lead a
black suit. M must trump the second round, and if he finds the two red
Jacks in one hand against him, he may lose his game very easily. Put
the same cards in Hinterhand, and the same danger arises, and from the
same cause: the player cannot get out the trumps.

Let us take another example, giving the player the red Jacks, so that
he cannot lead them for the purpose of catching the other Jacks:

C  A 10 K
S  ----
H  J
D  J A 10 K 8 7

Give these cards to Vorhand, and it is an invincible Grand. Instead of
leading the Jacks, on the chance of bringing down the other two
together, he begins with his long diamond suit and keeps it up until
one of the black Jacks trumps it. No matter what is led next, he gets
in and forces out the other Jack. The adversaries cannot pile enough
counting cards on those two tricks to take them to 60, even if they
ruff both the player's aces.

But put these cards in Mittelhand or Hinterhand, and it would be folly
to declare Grand on them. In either of those positions the player
would be compelled to play a diamond Solo without 2, worth 27 points,
instead of the 48 that a Grand would bring him.


Bidding

As a rule, it is easier to win a poor Solo than a doubtful Grand; but
occasionally a person will be forced up to a Grand by the bidding of
another player. The number of points that any one can afford to bid on
a Grand are reckoned up in precisely the same manner as for a Solo,
and the same danger exists in bidding "without" when the number of
matadores is part of the figure which is offered for the play. When a
player has the matadores in his hand, he can count upon them as
certain multipliers; but when he is "without," he would be prudent to
stop at 32.

The principal cards in Grand are aces and tens, and when you have any
seven of them, you have a fairly safe bid. This would include all such
hands as four aces and three tens; or four tens and three aces; but
any Grand without Jacks is dangerous, especially if there is a strong
Solo bid against it.

With two Jacks, no matter which ones, V can play Grand with only two
suits; but either M or H must have three suits to play with only two
Jacks. When we come to Illustrative Hand No. 16 we shall see the
disastrous consequences of violating this rule. With only one Jack,
any player must have four suits.

V can play Grand with the two best Jacks and five certain tricks,
provided the tricks are in two different suits. He can win a Grand
with the two best Jacks and four tricks, provided these four are aces
and tens, and there is not more than one Q in the tricks he must lose.

A safe and simple rule for the novice to follow is to add the number
of sure tricks to the number of winning Jacks, and if the total equals
seven, it is a safe Grand, provided the three losing cards are not
worth anything.

It is essential that the power of a seven-trick hand should be
thoroughly understood, and that the importance of the three losing
cards being worthless should be impressed on the memory, because with
this standard to guide one, it is not a very difficult matter to
decide upon the merits of a proposed Grand. An illustration will
probably make the point clearer. Let us take these cards:

C  J 7
S  J 7
H  A 10 K Q
D  A 7

Now take the rest of the pack and sort out all the most valuable
counting cards in it and pile them on the three 7's, which the player
must lose after he has made his seven tricks. You will find that three
tens, two aces and a king are the best you can do, 56 points only.

But observe that if two of the losing cards in this example hand are
not 7's, but Q's or K's, it is possible, although highly improbable,
for the Grand to be lost, because the tricks won by the adversaries
are made just so much more valuable by the addition of these Q's and
K's that they can get together 62 points. If only one Q had to be
given up, it would not matter, as they would still stop at 59, but a K
might be fatal.

In order to illustrate the importance of the rule that the tricks in a
Grand must be in two different suits if the player has only two Jacks,
unless they are the two best Jacks, let us change the last example a
little by adding the 9 of hearts and taking away the ace of diamonds.
It is now possible for the adversaries to get 63 points by piling the
aces and tens of three suits on the player's three 7's.

Whether the three losing cards in a Grand are in the same suit or in
different suits, does not matter, because if the player must lead both
his Jacks to catch the other Jacks, he is out of the game after he has
made his five tricks in suit, and the adversaries take the rest of the
tricks, no matter what the player's small cards are.

Even if the player has three Jacks, he must still have seven sure
tricks, that is, four in addition to his Jacks, if the Jacks are the
best, five, if the best is against him. These tricks should still be
in two suits. If the example given is still further changed, putting
the Jack of hearts in place of the Q, but still leaving out the ace of
diamonds, the hand is still an invincible Grand. Change it still
further by replacing the K of hearts with the J of diamonds, and it is
still invincible.

Although not absolutely certain, it is pretty safe to play a Grand
with three Jacks and an established suit of four cards, provided the
three remaining cards are worthless. With only three cards of an
established suit, and the four Jacks, the game may be won, but it is a
risk.

Illustrative Hand No. 13 is an example of such a game. V has four
Jacks and three cards of an established suit, and does not care to
risk a club Solo even with seven matadores, because it is possible for
the adversaries to get 63 points on his small cards. He might play a
heart Solo, but he could lose that in the same way if all the trumps
were in one hand. If the cards are so disposed that they could beat
him on a Grand, they could probably beat him on a Solo, so it is a
case of choosing the cheaper of two games, both risky. As it happens,
this is one of the seven-trump hands that would have gone through.

Illustrative Hand No. 13

Solo Grand, by Vorhand

                    C  8 7
                    S  A 10 K 8
                    H  9
                    D  10 K Q

                      M
C  J A 10 K                      C  Q 9
S  J               V     H       S  Q 9 7
H  J 8 7                         H  A 10 K Q
D  J 7                D          D  A

                  In Skat; D 9 8.

M and H both pass. V is the player. V announces Grand Solo.

TRICK   V    M    H     +    -
  1   *SJ   H9   S7     2
  2   *CA   C7   C9    11
  3   *10   C8   CQ    13
  4   *CK   S8   S9     4
  5    D7   D10 *DA         21
  6    H7   SA  *HA         22
  7    H8   S10 *H10        20
  8   *DJ   DQ   HK     9
  9   *CJ   DK   SQ     9
 10   *HJ   SK   HQ     9

V gets 57 in play, 0 in Skat, losing his game. Grand worth 16; 1 for
game, "with" 4, = 5 x 16 = 80 points.

It is a nice question as to how much the adversaries can be misled by
the manner of leading Jacks. They always suspect the player to have
four when he plays a Grand and leads the diamond Jack first. They also
know that the spade Jack is often led to prevent the second hand from
fattening, and many good players assume that it is best to fatten in
just that case. In this hand, M knows that it is more important to get
rid of a suit than to fatten, so he discards a heart. Had he fattened
the first trick, he would not only have given V the game, but he would
have been unable to fatten his partner's tricks later on. After
leading out all his clubs, V can either try to force discards with the
Jacks, or he can lead the singleton diamond, hoping to discard on the
second round of that suit, or to ruff a spade. It is always advisable,
when still able to trump, to get rid of a suit in this manner, because
then you can either trump or discard.

It is very unfortunate for the player that the lead goes to H, because
if M had held the ace of diamonds, he could not have led the hearts,
and V would have been able to ruff a spade worth something, or to
discard a heart, winning his game.

It is not to be supposed that players wait for certainties before
bidding on Grands, but at the same time a Grand is an expensive affair
if it goes against the player, and he should be pretty sure. If the
rule is fixed in the memory that with seven sure tricks in two suits,
no matter what these tricks are, you have an invincible Grand if you
have the two best Jacks among your tricks, and the lead, provided your
three losing cards are not worth more than a Q, by making allowance
for the weakness of other positions, and taking into consideration
that you may have to trump yourself into the lead, it will not be
difficult to estimate the cards necessary for a Grand, no matter where
the player may sit.

The chief point is for the player to understand the risks he is taking
when he declares a Grand that is not safe. If there is no strong
bidding against him, and especially if he is Vorhand, he may try a
Grand with only five or six tricks in his hand, and without even the
best Jacks. Experience will soon teach the player how widely he may
depart from the path of safety upon occasion.

Illustrative Hand No. 14 is an example of playing a Grand with only
five tricks, and not all of them sure. The advantage lies in the
position.

Illustrative Hand No. 14

Solo Grand, by Vorhand

                    C  K 8 7
                    S  9
                    H  9 8 7
                    D  A Q 9

                      M
C  J A 10                        C  9
S  A 10 Q 8        V     H       S  J K 7
H  J 10 Q                        H  A K
D  ----               D          D  J 10 K 7

                  In Skat; C Q, D 8.

M passes. H bids 10 and then passes. V is the player. V announces
Grand.

TRICK    V    M    H     +    -
  1    *CJ   S9   DJ     4
  2    *SA   H7   S7    11
  3    *S10  H8   SK    14
  4    *CA   C7   C9    11
  5     C10  C8  *SJ         12
  6     HQ  *DA   DK         18
  7     H10  DQ  *D10        23
  8    *HJ   D9   D7     2
  9    *SQ   H9   HK     7
 10    *S8   CK   HA    15

V gets 64 in play, and 3 in Skat, winning his game. Grand worth 16; 1
for game, "with" 1, = 2 x 16 = 32 points.

In the first place, V can lead the best Jack and see if both the
others fall. If they do not, he still has the chance that the other
may be in the Skat. In case it should be out against him, however, the
player must be very careful to force it out, and not to allow the
adversary that holds it to get into the lead on a plain suit and catch
the heart Jack.

After getting rid of his singleton, so as to be ready to fatten if the
opportunity offers, M gets rid of his hearts, keeping his twice
guarded K of clubs. At the fourth trick V must shift to clubs, or H
will get rid of any worthless clubs he may hold, instead of trumping.
If H refuses to trump the 10 of clubs, M will think he has no trump,
and V will take advantage of this and return to the established
spades, on which M will be afraid to fatten. When H leads the K of
diamonds, it is better to discard the Q of hearts than to trump it,
because two heart tricks must then be lost, unless the ace of hearts
is single. There is no use trumping the seventh trick, because the
adversaries are already out of schneider, and they cannot win another
trick after the 10 of hearts is discarded.


Leading

In Grand, the important matter is to drop the adverse Jacks, if there
are any, as quickly as possible, so that the player shall have no fear
of losing the good cards upon which he has bid his Grand.

If the player holds all four Jacks himself, especially with a weak
suit in his hand, he should begin with the spade, which is more likely
to deceive the second hand than the conventional diamond.

With three Jacks, not the best, it is safest to have the best out of
the way at once. If it is in third hand, the second hand may be
prevented from fattening if the Jack is led at once.

With two Jacks, the club and a red one, lead the club, on the chance
that both the others will fall. If they do not, force out the other
one, by leading cards which are worth trumping, and lead them before
the other adversary gets rid of the suit, or he will fatten.

With both the red Jacks, do not lead either, unless you have three
suits, and can afford to take the chance of knocking the black Jacks
together. With two suits only, force.

With only one Jack and all four suits, lead the Jack, no matter what
one it is. That is the best chance to knock three Jacks together on
one trick.

With no Jacks, begin by leading the aces of the suits in which you
have the tens also, but do not lead the tens until you have led all
the aces. This leaves you still the command of all the suits, in case
one of your high cards is trumped.

When the player sees that he must lose a trick in a certain suit in
which he can win some tricks himself, it is better to lose the trick
early, while both adversaries have the suit, because if the player
waits until one adversary has discarded the suit, or leads his own
winning cards first and is then compelled to lead losing cards, the
partner of the one that wins these later tricks will fatten. If this
plan of leading the losing cards first does not succeed, no method of
play would.

Illustrative Hand No. 15 is an example of managing a suit in this way.
M has three Jacks and three suits, and can stand a force. The only
tricks he should lose are the two small diamonds.

Illustrative Hand No. 15

Solo Grand, by Mittelhand

                    C  J
                    S  J A
                    H  J A 10 K
                    D  A Q 9

                      M
C  A 10 7                        C  K Q 9
S  10 K Q 9 8 7    V     H       S  ----
H  ----                          H     H  Q 9 7
D  7                  D          D  J 10 K 8

                  In Skat; C 8, H 8.

M bids 10. V and H both pass. M is the player. M announces Solo Grand.

TRICK    V    M    H     +    -

 1      S10  SA  *DJ         23
 2      D7  *HA   H7    11
 3      CA   D9  *D10        21
 4      S7  *H10  H9    10
 5      S8  *HJ   HQ     5
 6      S9  *SJ   C9     2
 7      C7  *CJ   CQ     5
 8      SQ  *HK   CK    11
 9      SK  *DA   D8    15
10      C10  DQ  *DK         17

M gets 59 in play; 0 in Skat, losing his game. Grand worth 16; 1 for
game, "with" 3, = 4 x 16 = 64 points.

V opens with the top of his long suit. There is only one other, the
ace, and he takes the chance that if the player has it, his partner
can trump. If H has the ace, he must have too many cards in other
suits ever to get a chance to fatten with it.

H, in leading up to the player, leads a suit in which he has neither
ace nor ten. He has the clubs and diamonds stopped. V gets rid of a
suit, so as to be ready to fatten.

The player knows he must lose a trick in diamonds, and it is better to
lose it now, before V gets another discard. Had M been able to make
this lead before V got that one discard, he would have won his game
easily. It is the double chance to fatten that does the damage.


The Adversaries' Play

The details of leading from certain combinations are practically the
same as in Solo, but it is more important in Grand to keep control of
the player's suit, if possible, and not to be in too great a hurry to
give up tens on partner's aces while the player still follows suit.

No matter what the position of the player, one should never lead a
short suit or a singleton against a Grand. Discard singletons, but
never lead them. When there are so few trumps in play, it is of vital
importance to force the player to ruff, or to establish a suit
against him by getting the ace out of his hand. The longer the suit is
the better.

Fattening is a great thing for the adversaries in Grand, and many a
game has been lost by their piling up the points in two or three
tricks. When the trick is doubtful, it is better to get rid of a suit
than to fatten, because the discard enables one to fatten with better
judgment later. In Illustrative Hand No. 13, M saves the game by
following this rule.

It is bad policy to fatten with cards that might stop a suit. Three to
the K may be valuable, and until it is evident that the K cannot win a
trick in itself, it should not be thrown away.

The same methods that prevail in Solo of giving your high cards to
your partner's tricks and your low cards to the player's, hold good in
Grand.




OPEN GRAND


Occasionally a player will be fortunate enough to have a hand of such
strength that he thinks he cannot lose a trick. Under such
circumstances he can announce that he will play it "open," that is,
lay his cards face up on the table before a card is led, allowing the
adversaries to study it at their leisure. They are, of course, not
allowed to consult as to what to do, nor can they dictate to the
player what cards he shall play or lead; but if they are mutually
satisfied that they cannot take a trick, they may say so, and save
themselves the trouble of playing the hand.

The unit value of an Open Grand is 24.

As it must be schwarz announced, there are 5 multipliers for that
alone, and as no Open Grand is possible without the two best Jacks,
even in Vorhand, the lowest value of any Open Grand must be 7 x 24 =
168. As the highest possible adds only two more multipliers, the
highest Open Grand must be 9 x 24 = 216. This is the highest possible
game in Skat.

If the player loses a single trick, even if there are no counting
cards in it, he loses everything. The Skat cards go to increase his
matadores, but they are otherwise of no value, because the game
depends on winning every trick; not on the count.

A Grand will sometimes make schwarz that could not have made it with
the cards laid on the table, because when they see the hand the
adversaries make no mistake about what to keep.

Here are a few examples of hands which are Grand Solo bids:

C  J 9 8 7                   C  J A 10 K 7
S  J 9                       S  J
H  A 10                      H  A Q 9 7
D  A 10                      D  ----
V only, and impossible to    V only, and impossible to
lose it.                     lose.

C  9                         C  J A 10
S  J 9                       S  ----
H  J A 10 9 8 7              H  J A 10 9 8 7
D  J                         D  J
Any hand, and impossible     Open Grand for V only. Certain Solo
to lose.                     Grand for any other.

If these cards are laid out, and the others distributed in as many
positions as the ingenuity of the reader can suggest, it will be found
that no distribution or play can defeat these hands.




TOURNEE GRAND


If the player who has bid a Tournee turns up a Jack, whether it is the
first card or the second, he has the privilege of playing that suit
for trumps, or of playing Jacks for trumps; that is, a Grand. Although
the decision is sometimes difficult, he should be able to judge the
possibilities of his hand pretty well if he has mastered the
principles of bidding and playing Grand Solo. In the Tournee Grand, he
has the immense advantage of being able to lay away dangerous cards in
the Skat.

The unit value of a Tournee Grand is 12.

As in other Grands, the matadores are limited to four, but schneider
or schwarz cannot be announced, because the Skat cards have been used.
If the Tournee is a Passt-Mir-Nicht, the player loses double if he
fails, whether he plays in suit or in Grand.

If the first card is a Jack, and it is not shown, the player cannot go
back to it after having taken the second. If he wishes to play Grand
he must decide to do so when the Jack is found, because if he puts the
Jack into his hand he must abide by the decision of the second card.
If that should also be a Jack, he can still have the choice between
the suit and the Jacks for trumps.

The choice naturally falls to the suit if the player is already long
in it. As pointed out in the "Choice of Games," it is always better to
select a weak suit for the trump, because the high cards in the other
suits are good for tricks in any case. Agreeably to this principle, if
the turn-up Jack belongs to the weak suit, it is better to play in
suit; but if it happens to be your strong suit, the others being weak,
you do not gain much by making that suit the trump; in fact, you may
have to put your trumps in the Skat for safety, as in Illustrative
Hand No. 2.

If the player is not long in the suit of the turn-up Jack, the great
question is his position at the table. If he is Vorhand, he has
everything in his favour for a Grand, especially if he has bid on two
Jacks and two aces, or one Jack and three aces.

For M or H, the Tournee is a very risky game if there is only one
other Jack in the hand, unless the rest of the hand is unusually
strong, or there are cards which can be very advantageously laid away
in the Skat.

Illustrative Hand No. 16 is a very good example of a Tournee Grand. V
gets the play without a bid and he has no Solo worth risking, so he
turns. After laying out the two 7's, his hand will check up to the
seven rule, as it has two Jacks and five other tricks. It is true that
two out of the three remaining cards are counting cards, but being of
the same suit as one of the tens, the adversaries cannot win either
of the two without making the other good for a trick. If the player is
fortunate enough to drop the other Jacks together, he cannot possibly
lose more than two tricks. Even if they are both in one hand, he can
force that hand to trump before it can force him to trump.

Illustrative hand No. 16

Tournee Grand, by Vorhand

                    C  10 Q
                    S  J 9 8
                    H  K Q 9 8 7
                    D  ----

                      M
C  J A 9 7                       C  K 8
S  K Q             V     H       S  A 7
H  A 10                          H  J
D  A 7                D          D  10 K Q 9 8

                  In Skat; DJ, S10.

M and H both pass. V is the player. V turns DJ, and announces Grand,
laying C7 and D7 in the Skat.

TRICK    V    M    H     +    -
  1    *CJ   SJ   HJ     6
  2     SK   S8  *SA         15
  3    *DA   S9   DK    15
  4     C9  *C10  CK         14
  5    *CA   CQ   C8    14
  6    *HA   H7   S7    11
  7    *H10  H8   D8    10
  8    *S10  H9   D9    10
  9    *SQ   HQ   DQ     9
 10    *DJ   HK   D10   16

V gets 91 in play, 0 in Skat, winning schneider. Tournee Grand worth
12, 2 for schneider, "with" 1, = 3 x 12 = 36 points.

H takes the first trick, so as to be sure of the 15 points it
contains, because if his partner has the ace of diamonds, and the
player refuses to trump the K, they are out of schneider. It is very
probable that the player has no diamond and will discard, because when
a player refuses to play in the suit turned up, he is usually short in
it.

The object of Vorhand's lead at the fourth trick is to make schneider,
if possible. He knows he must lose a trick in clubs, and if he
postpones it until H, who is marked with four diamonds, has discarded
all his clubs, H will fatten M's club trick with the 10 of diamonds,
which will save schneider. It is impossible for them to get more than
14 points on this club trick, unless H has no clubs.

It may interest the reader to lay out these cards and play the hand in
suit, diamonds. It will be found that the player loses his game, even
if he lays the A 10 of trumps in the Skat.

Illustrative Hand No. 17 is an example of the danger of playing a
Tournee Grand that does not come up to the requirements of an ordinary
Grand.

Illustrative Hand No. 17

Tournee Grand, by Mittelhand

                    C  ----
                    S  J A 10 K
                    H  A 10 K 7
                    D  K 7

                      M
C  K Q 7                         C  J A 10 9 8
S  Q               V     H       S  9 7
H  8                             H  J Q 9
D  A 10 Q 9 8         D          D  ----

                  In Skat; D J, S 8.

M bids 10. V and H both pass. M is the player. M turns D J, and
announces Grand; laying D K 7 in the Skat.

TRICK    V    M    H     +    -
  1     DA   DJ  *HJ         15
  2     SQ   SJ  *CJ          7
  3     CK   H7  *CA         15
  4    *CQ   S8   C8          3
  5    *D10  HK   HQ         17
  6    *DQ   SK   H9          7
  7    *D9   H10  S7         10
  8    *D8   S10  S9         10
  9     C7   SA  *C10        21
 10     H8   HA  *C9         11

M, not getting a trick, cannot count his Skat, and is made schwarz.
Grand Tournee worth 12; schwarz 3, "without" 1, = 4 x 12 = 48 points.

In the rules for bidding on Grands, it was pointed out that M or H
must have three suits if they have only two Jacks. In this case M
takes a chance, and loses rather heavily. Had he been more cautious
and played a Passt-Mir-Nicht he would have won his game easily; but
many persons seem to think that they can take liberties with a Tournee
Grand that they would not think of with a Solo Grand.

The length of his suit does not deter V from leading the ace of it
when playing against a Grand, even if it is a Tournee; because, if the
player has laid away the suit, he must trump it, and cards must be led
which are valuable enough to force him to trump and keep him from
discarding.

H sees that if V has all the diamonds, the surest way to get out of
schneider is to draw the player's remaining trump, which is better
than trying to force it; because, if the player can trump clubs he
cannot have three of them to the K, therefore all four of H's clubs
should be good for tricks. Observe how V gets rid of a suit on the
trump trick, so as to be ready to fatten.

The advantage of playing high cards on the partner's trick is apparent
in this hand. When V puts the K on his partner's ace, he is marked
with the Q, or only the 7, or no more. If he has the Q, he gets in to
make his diamonds. If he has not the Q, H loses nothing by leading the
8 instead of the 10.

The result of the play is that M does not win a single trick. As an
example of the importance of position in Grand, observe that if these
cards had been in Vorhand, the Grand would have been invincible; in
Mittelhand it loses schwarz!

As in Solo Grand, the player must be careful not to overestimate the
value of Jacks in a possible Tournee Grand. It is not the Jacks, but
the high cards in plain suits that make Grands, yet beginners are
constantly led into error by the idea that if they have all the trumps
they must have a very fine hand. If it were a Solo, this would be
true, and nothing could be better than ten trumps; but in Grand the
four Jacks are not so valuable without something substantial behind
them.

Suppose that Vorhand has the following cards, and turns up the Jack of
clubs:

C  Q 9
S  J A
H  J K 9
D  J 10 8

There are not seven tricks in this hand by any means, nor could there
be unless the other card in the Skat is the ace of diamonds. The blank
ace of spades makes the hand especially weak for a Grand. With such
cards the player should name the suit, clubs, as he has nothing to
hope from a Passt-Mir-Nicht.




GUCKI GRAND


It frequently happens that a player would be willing to attempt a
Grand, but for the fact that his losing cards are too valuable to
contemplate giving them to the adversaries. We have seen the
importance of having the smallest cards possible to give to the tricks
which the other side must win, and the danger of having anything so
good even as K's and Q's. When it comes to giving up 10's, with the
prospect of having afterward to trump worthless cards of the same
suit, or else stand by and see one partner fatten while the other
leads, the outlook is too discouraging to admit of attempting a Grand.

If the rest of the hand is so strong that the player can well afford
to lose an unguarded 10, as in Illustrative Hand No. 6, it does not
matter so much. It is when the loss of counting cards is likely to be
fatal to success that the difficulty arises. The part of the hand that
the player wants to play is an undoubted Grand, if he could only
exchange his counting cards in some of the suits for non-counting
cards. He would be perfectly willing to try a Grand if he could give
his adversaries two tens in exchange for two sevens before the play
began.

Modern Skat has provided for this contingency, as for all others. The
solution of the problem is the invention of the Gucki Grand.

The word is derived from "gucken," which resembles our word "to look";
but it has in it something of the idea of added pleasure, somewhat of
a surreptitious kind. Perhaps "peep" comes nearer to it, but there is
a shade of difference.

The advantage of Gucki Grand over Solo Grand is, that the player gets
an opportunity to put his dangerous cards in the Skat.

The unit value of a Gucki Grand is 12; the same as that of a Tournee
Grand, but with this difference: If the player loses his game, he
loses double, just as he does in playing a Passt-Mir-Nicht.

When the successful bidder wishes to play Gucki, he takes both the
Skat cards into his hand at the same time, without showing either of
them. After due consideration, he lays out two cards for his Skat. No
matter what cards he finds when he picks up the Skat, he must play
Grand, Jacks being the only trumps.

It is not necessary to announce beforehand that Gucki is to be the
game, because when the Simple game is not allowed the mere fact that
he takes up both the Skat cards at the same time announces his game
for him.

The lowest value of a Gucki Grand is "with" 1, and 1 for the game, = 2
x 12 = 24 points, and any player who has not bid more than that
amount may guck. If he is with or without two or more matadores, he
can, of course, bid more than 24, but if he bids "without" he runs the
same risk that he does in any other form of the game.


Bidding

Any hand which is good enough to count up to seven tricks, like a
Grand, is good enough to guck with, and it has the advantage that it
is not so much affected by the table position as a Solo Grand. In
counting the hand to see if it will reach the necessary seven, one may
reckon unguarded tens, because they can be laid away in the Skat,
where they will be safe from the attacks of the enemy.

Take the following cards in Vorhand:

C  J A 10
S  J K 7
H  A 10
D  10 7

As a Solo Grand, this game would be easily lost; as a Gucki it is
impossible to lose it. If the 10 of diamonds is laid away in the Skat,
no matter what else is found there or what spade or diamond is put
back there with the 10 of diamonds, the adversaries cannot pile
counting cards enough on the last four tricks to reach more than 57
points, as experiment will prove.

Some players have a habit of bidding Gucki whenever they find
themselves with four Jacks, but such a proceeding is just as dangerous
in a Gucki Grand as it would be in a Solo Grand. It will be found a
safe rule never to guck unless you have dangerous cards to lay away in
a hand which is otherwise a fair Solo Grand.

Gucki has about it more of the element of speculation than any other
of the games, and the novice is liable to be carried away by his
imagination as to what he will find in the Skat. A little boldness
does no harm occasionally, especially if there is no strong bidding
from the other players.

Illustrative Hand No. 18 is a fair specimen of a Gucki with a little
dash of speculation in it. If Mittelhand should find two small cards
in the Skat, especially two small diamonds, he would have to be very
fortunate with his black suits to win his game. When he finds the
third Jack, his hand jumps at once to the rank of the seven-trick
standard.

Illustrative Hand No. 18

Gucki Grand, by Mittelhand

                    C  A 10
                    S  J A 10
                    H  J 10 9
                    D  Q 9

                      M
C  K Q 9 8 7                     C  ----
S  ----            V     H       S  K Q 9 8 7
H  Q 8                           H  A K 7
D  J A 7              D          D  10 K

                  In Skat; C J, D 8.

M bids 10. V and H both pass. M is the player. M takes both Skat
cards, and lays out the H 10 9, for the Skat.

TRICK    V    M    H     +    -
  1     CK  *CA   S7    15
  2     DJ  *HJ   H7     4
  3     D7   D8  *D10        10
  4     C7  *SA   S8    11
  5    *DA   D9   DK         15
  6     C8  *C10  S9    10
  7     C9  *DQ   SQ     6
  8     H8  *S10  SK    14
  9     HQ  *CJ   HK     9
 10     CQ  *SJ   HA    16

M gets 85 in play, 10 in Skat, 95; winning schneider. Gucki Grand
worth 12; schneider 2, "with" 3, = 5 x 12 = 60 points.

It would be bad policy to weaken the diamond suit, which has the
advantage of length, in order to keep the small heart, now that M can
well afford to ruff hearts. As there is a possibility of establishing
a trick in diamonds, M may as well lay both the hearts in the Skat.

V leads his longest suit, and M is fortunate in getting into the lead
early. After drawing the adverse Jack, it is better to lead diamonds
immediately, before one adversary can discard the suit and get ready
to fatten. Even if they make every trick in diamonds, they do not
save schneider unless one of them can fatten. It should be observed
that V does not overtake his partner's 10 of diamonds, because he
knows the player must have more of the suit, and 21 points is not
enough to take them out of schneider. As H never has a chance to
fatten with his ace of hearts, he holds on to his tenace in that suit
as long as there is any chance that the player has hearts.


Laying Out

In laying out for the Skat in Gucki, it is better, if possible, to get
rid of an entire suit, keeping the best protected or the longest suit
intact. If this is not feasible, lay away one each of two suits. Lay
away all counting cards like blank tens or tens which are not well
guarded. It is never necessary to lay away the 10 of a suit because
the suit is too long, as in a Tournee, because there is not the same
danger of its being trumped, and a ten is a valuable trick-winning
card.

If the player has the 10 and small in one suit and a singleton in
another suit, it is better to lay away the singleton and the ten, as
explained in laying out for Tournee. It is a mistake to shorten up two
suits, if one of them might be made good for a trick. We have just
seen how the player avoids this error in Illustrative Hand No. 18.

The player should keep the tens of suits of which he has not the aces,
only when these tens are very necessary to get the lead or to stop a
suit. When the player has 10 and K, he should keep them both, so as to
be sure of a trick in the suit. It is a common mistake to keep a suit
headed by the ace without the 10 or K, and to lay away a suit in which
the cards are in sequence, especially the 10 of a 10 K suit.

Illustrative Hand No. 19 is an example of this mistake, which in this
case was expensive.

The player was right in laying out the blank 10 of spades, which is a
card that must be put in the Skat in any case. His idea in putting the
10 of hearts in the Skat was, that with all four Jacks he did not need
to stop the heart suit, as he could well afford to trump it,
overlooking the fact that he was keeping two losing cards in clubs,
neither of which was good enough to establish the other if there
should be three clubs in one hand against it.

Illustrative Hand No. 19

Gucki Grand, by Hinterhand

                    C  ----
                    S  Q 9
                    H  A Q 8 7
                    D  10 Q 9 8

                      M
C  10 K 8 7                      C  A Q
S  A K 8 7         V     H       S  J 10
H  9                             H  J 10 K
D  A                  D          D  J K 7

                  In Skat; C J 9.

M passes. H bids 10. V passes. H is the player.
H takes both Skat cards and lays out the S 10 and H 10.

TRICK    V    M    H     +    -
  1    *CK   S9   C9          4
  2    *DA   DQ   D7         14
  3     SA   SQ  *DJ    16
  4     H9  *HA   HK         15
  5     SK  *D10  DK         18
  6     S7   D9  *HJ     2
  7     S8   HQ  *SJ     5
  8     C7   H7  *CJ     2
  9     C8   H8  *CA    11
 10    *C10  D8   CQ         13

H gets 36 in play and 20 in Skat, 56; losing his game. Gucki Grand
worth 12; 1 for game, "with" 4, = 5 x 12 = 60; loses double, 120
points.

As the hand is played, H could not win his game. V starts out with his
long suit, of course, leading the K to force the ace and make the 10
good for a trick. H refuses to win the K, because his small clubs will
then be useless and likely to be caught, whereas he has tenace in
clubs with his A Q if he keeps them.

V judges from his partner's discard that H has nothing in spades,
because he would not keep the 10 Q, so that the player's strength
must be in the red suits, outside of his clubs. As V can make but one
trick in diamonds, he leads the ace at once. On this trick M is
careful not to give up the 10. Now V has to lead a card valuable
enough to force the player to trump. If V leads a small spade at this
stage, H will get rid of the K of diamonds and win his game. If V
fattens with the 10 of clubs at trick 5, the player wins his game. As
long as the player does not discard a club, V knows that his 10 is
good for a trick, as H must have A Q. But if H had refused to trump
the 9 of diamonds, discarding a club, then V would have fattened with
the 10 of clubs, because that would win the game for the adversaries.

If this hand is played over again, laying out the spade 10 and the K
of diamonds, and keeping the 10 and K of hearts, the player wins his
game easily, by leading the 10 of hearts at the fourth trick, so as to
be sure of making the K good, just as V does in Illustrative Hand No.
20.


Leading

When the player has both A and 10 of a suit, he should lead them right
out, so as to get them home before the adversaries discard, and also
to clear the suit, if there are any smaller cards in it. With A 10 K
it is good policy to lead the A and then the K, to coax a fatten from
the second hand. Some players begin with the K, but if the suit is not
very long this is a mistake, as the second hand will almost certainly
have at least one of the suit, and could not fatten on the first round
even if he wished to.

With the ace and small cards it is better to begin with the small card
and get the 10 out of the way at once. If the A is led first and
followed by the small card, one adversary may be able to fatten his
partner's trick by that time.

The management of the Jacks is the same as in Solo Grand, and there is
the same importance to be attached to forcing with a strong suit when
you have not the commanding Jacks.

When a player has kept a suit in which he has 10 K, he cannot afford
to lead the K to force out the ace, unless he has a small card as well
as the 10, because the adversary will not win the K, but will wait for
the 10, and by the time the player is forced to lead the 10, or it is
taken out of him by the ace, the other adversary will have gotten
ready to fatten. When the adversaries lead from this combination, they
lead the K, but when the player leads it, he must start with the 10.
If he cannot afford to do this, he should have laid the 10 in the
Skat.

Illustrative Hand No. 20 is a good example of this situation. The
player has not by any means a very strong Gucki hand, but there is
nothing much against him, and he has a fair chance if he finds
anything in the Skat and can lay out the 10 of diamonds.

Illustrative Hand No. 20

Gucki Grand, by Vorhand

                    C  K 8 7
                    S  K 9 8
                    H  10 K 8
                    D  7

                      M
C  J A 10                        C  Q 9
S  Q 7             V     H       S  A 10
H  J Q 7                         H  A 9
D  J 10               D          D  A Q 9 8

                  In Skat; S J, and D K.

M and H both pass. V is the player. V takes both the Skat cards and
lays out the S Q and H Q.

TRICK    V    M    H     +    -
  1     D10  D7  *DA         21
  2      S7  SK  *SA         15
  3      H7  S9  *S10        10
  4     *DK  S8   D8     4
  5     *CA  C7   C9    11
  6     *C10 C8   CQ    13
  7     *CJ  H8   D9     2
  8     *JS  CK   DQ     9
  9     *HJ  HK   H9     6
 10     *DJ  H10  HA    23

V gets 68 in play and 6 in Skat, 74; winning his game. Gucki Grand
worth 12; 1 for game, "with" 4, = 5 x 12 = 60 points.

To lay out two cards of one suit and keep two cards of another is
usually bad policy, especially when one has to guess which suit to
keep, so he lays out the two Q's and keeps the 10 and K of diamonds
together.

As one trick in diamonds must be lost, V loses it at once, before one
adversary gets ready to fatten by discarding the suit. He follows the
rule and leads the 10, not the K. If H should refuse to win this 10,
the player would make his six sure tricks at once, winning his game
before losing the lead again.

On the second round of spades, taking it for granted that M will have
to follow suit with a small spade, V gets rid of his losing heart, in
order to prevent the adversaries from making 21 points in one heart
trick. Even if H had led the ace of hearts instead of the 10 of
spades, he could not have saved the game.

This all looks very simple, because after the first trick the
adversaries cannot save the game, no matter what they do; but if these
cards are laid out and the hand played over again, letting Vorhand
lead the K of diamonds instead of the 10, it will be found that he
loses his game just as easily as he could have won it.

Whether the K of diamonds is led before or after leading the ace and
ten of clubs does not matter, because M will play the 7 and H will
hold up the ace. When H gets in on whatever V leads, M will be able
to fatten with the 10 of hearts and two K's, making them 61 points.


Adversaries' Play

In playing against a Gucki, the same rules must be followed that were
given for Solo Grand. Never lead singletons as an opening, but try to
get rid of them in the discards.

As the player has had an opportunity to lay away for the Skat, it is
unlikely that he has any unguarded tens in his hand, and it is
therefore better to fatten with a guarded ace than with a guarded ten.

Partners must not be in too great a hurry to throw tens on aces, if
the player has the suit, and especially if it is the only way of
saving the game or schneider. It is not so necessary for the partners
to throw tens on tricks that they know the partner can win, unless
these tens are in danger. A guarded ten may be just enough to stop the
player from getting his 61.

It is hardly worth while trying to catch the player's cards by leading
through him, as one would in Solo, because the player cannot be so
easily caught with unguarded cards as in Grand or Solo, since he has
had an opportunity to clear his hand by laying out for the Skat.

In Gucki, as in other forms of the game, it is always an advantage to
get the player in the middle, and to prevent him from discarding on
tricks which are not worth trumping.

The adversaries should adhere faithfully to the rule of giving the
highest cards of a suit to the partner's trick and the lowest to the
player. Nothing enables a partner to read the situation so well as
this simple convention in the play.

In playing against Gucki Solos, much the same principles should be
followed, it being especially necessary to remember that the player
has had an opportunity to lay away any unguarded tens. It is therefore
better to fatten with aces, if possible, and keep guarded tens.

It must also be remembered that perhaps a player who was bidding with
the intention of playing a Grand may have shifted to the Solo on
seeing the Skat cards; or perhaps he was bidding to play Solo, and the
Skat cards have made it appear a better Gucki Grand. The number of
points bid will often be a guide in determining this point, and in
guiding the play of the adversaries.




RAMSCH


This variety of the game is, strictly speaking, a Grand, because in it
the four Jacks are the only trumps; but it differs from Grand inasmuch
as each man is for himself, and the object of the game is to lose, not
to win.

No one can bid for a Ramsch, and the only player who can announce it
is Vorhand, and he is allowed to do so only when neither of the other
players will make a bid. In some places V is allowed to call for
Ramsch if no one has bid more than 10, because modern players usually
bid 10 whether they have anything or not, just to start things. But
the strict rules of the game require Ramsch to be played only when
neither M nor H will make a bid and V does not care to risk any game
himself.

Ramsch is intended as a punishment for those who sit back and refuse
to bid on good hands, preferring to let some other player over-exert
himself in a vain effort to win a game that is hopeless. When it is
discovered that one of these over-cautious players is in the game, the
best remedy for the evil is a few declarations of Ramsch, because in
Ramsch the player with a handful of good cards loses the game.

There being no partnership in Ramsch, each player takes in his own
tricks and the Skat cards are disregarded entirely. In some places it
has been the rule to make the winner of the last trick take the Skat
cards. Such a rule is not only ridiculous, but manifestly unfair,
because in Ramsch a player does not speculate on what is in the Skat,
but seeks to punish the player who will not bid on his hands.

Ramsch costs 20. There is no unit value to the game to be increased by
multipliers. The amount is simply charged to the player who has taken
in the most points, just as if he had lost a game that was worth 20.

If the result is a tie, the player who wins the last trick loses the
20.

If one player has not taken a trick, the Ramsch costs the loser 30,
instead of 20. Should it happen that two players did not take a trick,
it would cost the player who took all the tricks 50.

Although not often called for in play, Ramsch is a very interesting
form of the game, and requires considerable skill. It is not necessary
to keep any mental count of the points taken in, the principal thing
being to watch the fall of the cards and to infer what the other
players have.

The most important thing in opening the hand is to lead red Jacks, if
you have them, so as to avoid being forced to trump yourself in at the
end of the hand. This will compel the player with the higher Jack to
win the trick.

If you have either of the black Jacks, do not lead a J of any kind,
and do not play them unless you are obliged to follow suit when Jacks
are led; even then, you should not overtake another player's Jack
unless you are obliged to do so. Wait for an opportunity to trump some
worthless trick with the black Jacks. The club Jack is so often in the
Skat when no one bids that it is dangerous to lead the spade Jack.

In Ramsch, the player should try to get a missing suit as early as
possible, so as to be ready to discard high cards of other suits when
that suit is led. Even if a player has nothing more dangerous than a
K, it is just as well to be rid of it.

One of the best opening leads is a long suit that has small cards in
it, so that the adversaries shall not be able to bring the holder of
such a suit into the lead at the end. When one player remains with all
there is of a suit, all he need do is to see to it that he does not
get put in the lead with some other suit. A long suit is always more
dangerous when another player has cards in it which the holder of the
long suit might be obliged to win.

From two-card suits, it is better to lead the higher card first, such
as the K from K and 8; but from three-card suits, such as A Q 7, lead
the intermediate card first.

If you have cards that must win tricks, it is better to lead them
early, before one adversary gets ready to discard on that suit.
Singleton aces are good leads, if there is no prospect of discarding
them.

It is important to hold back small cards which you know will get rid
of the lead in case of emergency. You must expect the adversaries to
adopt the same tactics, therefore when you have a long suit without
the 7, you should lead it, so as to get the 7 out of their hands.

It is not always aces and tens that are the dangerous cards in Ramsch,
and one must be careful to get rid of 8's and 9's if the 7 of the suit
is still to come and probably in the hand of another player.

Illustrative Hand No. 21 will give one a very fair idea of the tactics
adopted in Ramsch. V cannot play Tournee with only one suit, and he is
not strong enough to risk a heart Solo. The best thing for his hand
seems to be Ramsch.

Illustrative Hand No. 21

Ramsch
                    C  A K 9 8
                    S  A K
                    H  Q
                    D  K 8 7

                      M
C  ----                          C  10 Q 7
S  9 7             V     H       S  J 10 Q 8
H  J A K 9 7                     H  10 8
D  J Q 9              D          D  10

                  In Skat; C J and D A.

M and H both pass. V is the player. Having no game he cares to risk,
he announces Ramsch.

TRICK    V    M    H     V    M    H
  1     HJ   SA  *SJ              15
  2     DQ   DK  *D10             17
  3     D9  *CK   CQ          7
  4     H9  *HQ   H8          3
  5     S9  *SK   SQ          7
  6    *DJ   C8   C7     2
  7     S7   CA  *S8              11
  8     HK   C9  *H10             14
  9     HA   D8  *S10             21
 10     H7   D7  *C10             10

V gets 2; M gets 17; H gets 88. Ramsch is worth 20 when all three
players take tricks, so H loses 20.

Having both the red Jacks, V leads one of them in order to get rid of
it cheaply and at the same time to get rid of the lead. M gets rid of
a high counting card in preference to the singleton, and H gets rid of
his singleton before trying the intermediate club.

Upon this trick V gets rid of the dangerous 9 of diamonds. If he
discards a heart he will immediately be put in with a diamond, and
after losing one heart trick to H, will have to win the next and every
remaining trick. Upon seeing the discard of the diamond, M infers
that the ace is not in play, and he sees that if he does not win this
club trick while it is cheap he may be compelled to win every other
trick if H has the 7 of clubs and the 10 is in the Skat. Before trying
to get rid of the lead, M clears his hand of the singleton heart and
the dangerous spade.

Trick 6 is the interesting part of the hand. H knows that if he puts
the 10 of clubs on the 8, he will certainly get a high counting card
from V. He also knows that as M has denied the club Jack and as there
are three clubs still unaccounted for, M must have at least one of
them. His only hope of escape is that M has the A and not the 9, and
that if M is allowed to hold the lead he will shift to a diamond and
give H a discard. If H deliberately takes this trick, he may not take
another trick after he returns the 7, but in the meantime he will
probably have taken in points enough to lose the game. As will be
seen, if the hand is played over again, H would get 74 points if he
put the 10 on this trick and returned the 7, because V would trump the
diamond and lead the 7 of spades.

H's calculations are upset by V's trumping the trick and leading the
spade. V does not think he will ever get a better chance to get rid of
his Jack, which he assumes must win a trick, as the club Jack is
probably in the Skat.

The outcome of a Ramsch is sometimes no less surprising than in other
forms of the game, and a hand that looks as if it were invincible may
go to pieces in the most remarkable manner.

Illustrative Hand No. 22 is a neat example of what sometimes happens
in Skat. V has no excuse for attempting any game, unless Simple were
allowed, and with his small cards and missing suit, his hand seems an
ideal one for Ramsch.

Illustrative Hand No. 22

Ramsch
                    C  ----
                    S  A 10 Q 8 7
                    H  10
                    D  A 10 K 7

                      M
C  J 10 Q 8                      C  K 9 7
S  ----            V     H       S  J K
H  J K 8                         H  A Q 9 7
D  Q 9 8              D          D  J

                  In Skat; C A, S 9.

M and H both pass. V is the player. Having no game he cares to risk,
he announces Ramsch.

TRICK    V    M    H     V    M    H
  1    *CQ   H10  C9    13
  2     DQ  *DK   SK         11
  3     D9  *D10  HA         21
  4    *D8   D7   HQ     3
  5    *HJ   DA   DJ    15
  6    *HK   SA   H9    15
  7    *H8  S10   H7    10
  8    *C10  SQ   CK    17
  9    *C8   S8   C7    --
 10    *CJ   S7   SJ     4

V gets 77; M gets 32; H gets 0. As one player has not taken a trick,
Ramsch is worth 30, which V loses.

V knows the danger of leading Jacks when you have either of the black
ones, and have not the lowest. He has the choice of opening between
hearts and clubs, and selects the club in order to exhaust it in the
other hands, if possible, so that another player shall not be able to
keep the 7 to put him in with later. As the cards lie, it does not
matter which suit V leads.

M gets rid of a suit on the first trick, and this discard makes V
afraid of the heart suit, and with good reason. He knows H can
underplay him in clubs, so he tries the diamond. M must win this
trick, so as to keep the 7 of the suit, with which to get rid of the
lead, or he will be compelled to win every other trick but those that
fall to the Jacks at the end, by which time tricks will be cheap. The
discard of the spade K makes his danger still more apparent, so he
takes the chance that V has still two diamonds and will be obliged to
win the second round. If M leads the 7 before getting rid of the 10,
V will put him right in again with the 8.

V's only chance to get out of the scrape is to lead the heart Jack. If
the club Jack is with the spades or with the diamonds, V may still
escape.




NULLO

No Trumps and No Values


We come now to a variation which has nothing in common with Skat, and
is evidently a graft upon the original conception of the game. History
tells us that Nullo came before Tournee, and also before Grand Solo
was played with Jacks for trumps. As the Grand was originally an
absolutely trumpless game, it may have suggested Nullo.

Nullo, under the name of Misre, is common to many of the older games
of cards, and is usually so popular that it has even been suggested as
an addition to the game of bridge. When Grand Solo was played without
any trumps, the J's ranked below the Q's, and it probably occurred to
some of the proverbial "poor card-holders" whom we have always with
us, that a no-trumper that was played to lose would be a good offset
to the no-trumpers that were played to win. Be that as it may, once
brought into the game, nothing has been able to drive it out. The
Nullo is here to stay.

The word "Nullo" better describes this variety of Skat than the word
"misre," for "Nullo" signifies the absence of anything tangible.

In Nullo, there are no trumps, no matadores, and no Skat. The suits
have no rank, the 10's come next to the 9's, the J's have no power,
and fall below the Q's. The pips on the cards have no value, and the
object is not to win, but to lose, and this object is not, as in
Ramsch, to lose less than another player; but to lose everything,
every trick and every point, so that you shall be absolutely null and
void; because winning a single trick means the loss of the game.

In spite of its being so widely different from other forms of Skat,
Nullo is decidedly interesting, and some persons would rather play
Nullos than eat; in fact, the game has a fascination for some minds
that it is difficult to explain; and the most cheerful people seem to
like it best.

The value of Nullo is 20 points.

As there are no matadores, no schneider and schwarz, 20 it must
remain. The only way in which the value of the game may be increased
is to play the hand open, like an Open Grand. As Nullo is declared by
a single player, as his game, against the two others, he can lay his
cards face up on the table before a card is played and let his
adversaries study them at their leisure before they play. They are not
allowed to consult, of course, or to offer any suggestions the one to
the other as to what should be done. If the player wins his game with
his cards open, he wins double: 40 points. As if to show that the game
was quite foreign to Skat, some Germans call it by a hybrid German
French name, Null-Ouvert. The French never use this term "ouvert" in
card games. They call hands played in this manner, "sur table".

In Northern Germany it is still the custom not to lay the cards down
until after the first trick, which gives the player a decided
advantage. This explains the wonderful hand by Prince Piombino in "The
Mascotte," who played an open Nullo with the whole heart suit and two
black aces in his hand. The Prince was Mittelhand, and Vorhand led a
diamond, on which the Prince discarded the ace of clubs. H had nothing
but clubs and diamonds, so the Prince could not be prevented from
getting rid of his ace of spades, even after they had seen his cards.
His luck in discarding the right ace on the first trick, to say
nothing of his winning such a game under any circumstances, is enough
to justify his title as a Mascotte.

The cards in Nullo rank A K Q J 10 9 8 7, the ace being the highest.
Any bid that does not exceed 20 can play Nullo, but if the bid is more
than 20 a Nullo must be played open, or it is lost.

The player who announces the game is opposed to the two others, and
the V leads for the first trick. The points in the cards are not
reckoned, for the moment the player takes a single trick, even with
nothing in it, his game is lost.

The game looks simple, but like many other simple things there is
more in it than appears upon the surface, and very few people play
Nullo well, especially when opposed to the declaring hand.


Bidding

It is not necessary to offer 20 immediately, even if the player knows
his game is worth just that amount; because by approaching this figure
gradually, the purpose is concealed, and the opposing bidder may think
the hand is strong, instead of weak, which will sometimes induce him
to relinquish a game which he might have persevered in had he known
that one of his adversaries had nothing in his hand. In bidding, it is
always well to begin with the conventional 10.

In estimating the hand for a possible Nullo, the J's should be put
with their suits, and the 10's should be placed between the J and the
9, so as to get a proper idea of the sequences of low cards in each
suit.

A long suit without the 7 is dangerous; because if one player
renounces, the other will lead the suit until he makes you win his 7.
A suit with only 10 8 in it is very weak. Nullo should never be
attempted with dangerous cards, such as poorly guarded K's and Q's,
unless there is a good chance to discard them on a missing suit. The
best hands on which to bid Nullo are those in which you have a missing
suit and only one dangerous card that you must get rid of by
discarding. To play Nullo with two dangerous cards is folly, unless
you are a Mascotte. If there are no dangerous cards in the hand, it is
obviously an open Nullo.


Position

Vorhand is the worst position for Nullo, just as it is the best for
all other games, unless the hand is to be played open. When the player
is V, he is compelled to lead some absolutely safe card, to which both
adversaries play the highest they have in the suit. They then get the
player in the middle, and he usually has an anxious time of it.

The best position for Nullo is Hinterhand, because he can play
intermediate cards, and just get under whatever his adversaries play.
He also gets a better idea of the situation when they open the game,
while they know less about what to do than when the player leads for
the first trick himself.

Here are some examples of hands on which one might bid Nullo:

C  10 8 7                         C  K Q 9 8 7
S  K 9 8 7                        S  ----
H  10 8                           H  Q J 9 7
D  7                              D  Q

Heart 10 is dangerous, and        A fair chance, as discard is
discard doubtful.                 probable.

C  K 7                            C  8 7
S  10 9 8 7                       S  K J 9 7
H  ----                           H  Q J 8 7
D  A K 8 7                        D  ----

Rather risky in two suits,        Play this Open. If V, lead
but tempting.                     a club.


Leading

If the player is Vorhand, the opening lead will often decide his fate.
With a singleton 8 or 9, it is better to lead it at once, before the
adversaries get discards, because while both can follow suit, one must
win the trick. With 9 7 only, it is better to lead the 9 than the 7;
because if you lead the 7 one player may win it with a high card, give
his partner discards, and then put you in with the 8.

The player should never lead a singleton 7 with the idea of getting
discards on that suit, because the adversaries will assume that he is
safe in that suit and will never return it, so that he cannot get the
discard he hopes for. This fact may be used to advantage when the
player holds a dangerous suit which he must lead, as when the others
end in 9 7. If the dangerous suit is K 7, for instance, lead the 7,
and as that suit will not be returned, the hoped-for discard may be
obtained.

The player should never lead six-card suits, because the remaining
cards may both be in the Skat.


Discarding

The player should carefully watch the fall of the cards and get rid of
those which are likely to prove dangerous in preference to discarding
those which are simply high. It is always well to get rid of a suit,
but one should never discard from a suit that is safe until everything
else is gone. It is useless to discard the A from an A 10 8 7 suit,
for instance.


Adversaries' Play

The position of the player makes no difference to the adversaries in
Nullo, and the strategy of their game is the same, no matter where he
sits, when it comes to their turn to lead.

The best leads are singletons, because they enable the player to
discard from other suits. For this reason it is often more important
to discard a singleton than to get rid of a high card.

With three cards, such as A Q 7, play the middle card first, and then
the 7. With two only, such as A 7, lead the ace first. The distinction
between these two leads will make it clear to the partner, when A 7 or
K 7 is the lead, that the leader has no more.

The adversaries should be very cautious about returning the player's
opening lead, if he is V, unless it is obvious that he can follow
suit.

It is most important to prevent the player from getting discards,
because if he can get one good discard, his game is usually safe.

Always return the partner's lead, or lead the suit he discards. The
adversary should scheme, if possible, to give his partner discards
without allowing any to the player.

When the player is V and leads a 9, second hand should not overtake it
if he is long in the suit, unless he cannot help it, because it may be
a singleton, and third hand may have the lower card, or the player may
have the 7 and third hand may renounce.

Illustrative Hand No. 23 will give one a very fair idea of the tactics
adopted in playing against a Nullo. The cards held by Hinterhand are
not quite safe, but they are tempting. The great weakness of the hand
lies in the fact that he is not likely to get any discards early
enough to be useful, and also that he has two 10 7 suits. If opposed
to less skilful players he would very likely have won his game easily.

Illustrative Hand No. 23

Nullo
                    C  8
                    S  A K 8
                    H  A Q 10
                    D  K J 10

                      M
C  A K Q 9                       C  10 7
S  Q J 9           V     H       S  10 7
H  J                             H  9 8 7
D  A Q                D          D  9 8 7

                  In Skat; C J and H K.

M bids 10 and passes. H bids 12. V passes. H is the player, and he
announces Nullo.

TRICK    V    M    H     +    -

 1      HJ  *HA   H9
 2      DA  *HQ   H8
 3      DQ  *H10  H7
 4      SQ  *DK   9D
 5      SJ  *DJ   8D
 6      S9  *D10  D7
 7      CA  *S8   S7
 8      CK  *SA   S10
 9     *CQ   C8   C7
10      C9   SK  *C10

Having taken a trick, H loses his game, 20 points.

V begins with a singleton, and M, knowing it to be V's shortest suit,
puts up his best card and continues the suit, in order to give his
partner discards. Observe that if H had held the K of hearts he would
have put it on the ace, so that card is marked in the Skat.

Having exhausted his hearts, M turns to the suit that his partner has
discarded, and leads that. V continues to discard his next shorter
suit, beginning with the highest cards.

At the sixth trick, M knows that the spade 10 is either in H or in
Skat. If V has the 7 of spades, H has the 10 and three clubs, but if H
has the 7, which is most likely, he has either the 10 with it, in
which case he is safe in spades, or he has three clubs. No matter what
the position may be, M can lose nothing by leading a low spade,
because he is confident that all the cards in H are black.

At the eighth trick, H has either two clubs and a spade, or three
clubs. If he has three clubs, one discard will do him no good. If he
has not three clubs, he must follow suit to another round of spades.

On the club, V wins with his higher card and returns the lower, and at
the eleventh hour H loses his game by being compelled to win a trick.


Gucki Nullo

This variation, which is not always played, allows the bidder to take
both the Skat cards into his hand and to lay out two cards before
playing the hand. This enables him to get rid of dangerous cards, if
he is fortunate enough, or his hand is such that he cannot find still
more dangerous ones in the Skat.

The game is still 20, but if lost, it counts double, like
Passt-Mir-Nicht. When the player takes up both Skat cards for a Nullo,
he must say "Nullo," to distinguish it from Grand.




TEST HANDS

It may be interesting for the reader, after having mastered all the
varieties of Skat, to try his skill on a few hands.

    No. 1.                          No. 2.
C  J A 10 8 7                   C  J
S  J 10                         S  J
H  J 10                         H  J K Q 8 7
D  J                            D  J A Q

Is this a Grand or Club         Is this a heart Solo or Grand,
Solo, for Vorhand?              for Mittelhand?

    No. 3.                          No. 4.
C  J Q 9 8 7                    C  J A 10 K Q
S  J A                          S  J 10
H  J A                          H  J
D  J                            D  J 10

Is this a Club Solo, schneider  Is this a Club Solo, or a Solo
announced, or Grand, for        Grand, or a Gucki Grand,
Hinterhand?                     for Vorhand?

    No. 5.                          No. 6.
C  9                            C  10
S  ----                         D  10
H  J A 10 K Q 9 7               H  10
D  J 7                          D  J A 10 K Q 9 7

Is this a heart Solo, a Grand   Is this a diamond Solo, or a
Solo, or a Nullo for Vorhand?   Gucki Grand, or a Ramsch,
                                for Vorhand?




VARIETIES OF SKAT


There are one or two variations of which one hears occasionally, but
which are not in the standard game. When played, they must be a matter
of agreement beforehand.

_Tournee Nullo._--When a player turns up a 7, whether it be the first
card or the second, he may announce Nullo. If it be the second card,
he loses double if he fails. The value of a Turned Nullo is 10 points
only.

_Revolution._--This is an open Nullo, but when announced, all three
players lay their cards on the table, and the two adversaries have a
right to exchange cards with one another as much as they please and
also to consult as to what might be done. If the player's game is
invincible, no matter what cards are out against him, the Skat not
being touched, he wins 60 points.

_Schiebe Ramsch._--In this the Vorhand takes the two Skat cards into
his hand and lays out two in their place. Mittelhand must take these
two and lay out two for Hinterhand, who takes them up and lays out
two of his own choice. In this form, the number of points taken in by
the player who has the most are charged to him as the value of the
game lost. If two tie, they each lose half, so that the total loss is
still equal to the highest number of points taken in.




MANAGEMENT OF SKAT
TOURNAMENTS


When a large number of players are engaged in any form of competition,
for social or charitable purposes, it is always desirable not only to
make the game enjoyable, but to keep it as closely to the lines of the
ordinary game as possible.

Leaving out of consideration the duplicate system of playing, which is
rather too troublesome and requires too much apparatus to regard it as
a good form of amusement for mixed gatherings, there are still two
very good but quite distinct methods of arranging Skat tournaments.

In the first method, the number of candidates for play is divided by
four, in order to ascertain how many tables of four each can be
filled. Supposing this number of tables to be ten, the management
picks out from the forty players ten who are known to be thoroughly
conversant with the game, and can be depended upon to keep the scores
correctly and to settle any disputes in accordance with the laws.

These ten experts draw lots so that each of them shall sit at a
different table, and each is the official score keeper and umpire,
"controller," at the table for which he happens to be drawn.

The remaining thirty players then draw lots from thirty ballots, of
which there are three duplicates of the same numbers, 1 to 10. Those
who draw the same numbers sit at the same table, the umpire already
drawn for that table making the fourth player.

In this method of playing, there is no change of position or of tables
during the entire course of play. It is usual to play twenty rounds,
or eighty deals, although any number divisible by four may be agreed
upon according to the time at disposal. Good players will usually
finish eighty deals in about three hours when there is no change in
the positions of the players.

Instead of keeping the score in the usual way, adding or deducting
each successive item to or from the former total of the individual
score, two separate columns must be provided for each player. In one
of these is entered separately and distinctly the amount of any game
he wins, and in the other the exact amount of any game he loses, and
all these entries are made in a line opposite the number of the deal,
which appears in the left-hand margin. As there can be only one entry
opposite each number, the umpire can always tell whose deal it is by
the number so far played. In addition to the eight columns required
for the four players there should be a column at the right for
"Remarks," the use of which we shall see presently.

In tournaments it is usual to offer prizes for at least two, and
generally for three, different achievements.

By adding up the column of points won, and deducting the total points
lost, the umpire ascertains the highest point score at his table, and
sets it down in a space provided for that purpose at the head of his
score-sheet. He then finds the greatest number of games won, after
deducting those lost, and puts that down. Sixteen won, after deducting
those lost, is a very good score in twenty rounds.

The various score-sheets being handed to the Committee for examination
and comparison, the player who has won the greatest number of points,
after deducting those he has lost, wins the first prize. The player
who wins the greatest number of games, after deducting those lost,
wins the first prize for that. Second and even third prizes may be
offered for either or both these results. If there is a tie for
points, it usually goes to the one having the most games, and if the
tie is for games, it goes to the one having the most points; but no
one player can win both prizes. If the result is still a tie for any
two prizes, the players cut for it, and the winner of the cut takes
his choice, the loser of the cut taking the prize that is left.

When the party is large enough, it is usual to offer a special prize
or prizes for winning the most difficult game; that is, the game won
"without" the greatest number of matadores. Any player winning a Solo
"without" six will usually get this prize, or at least tie for it. In
case of ties, the more valuable game wins, a spade Solo being better
than a heart Solo, for instance. A spade Tournee without 10 is a
better game than a heart Solo without 6. In case of ties, the players
cut for it.

Any game which is played and won "without" four or more, should be
noted in the column for "Remarks." It is no credit to a player to win
his game "with" a large number of matadores.

Sometimes a "booby" prize is offered as a consolation to the player
who loses the greatest number of points.

This is the form of game usually adopted for the big Skat tournaments
and there is generally an additional interest in playing for a nominal
stake, such as a quarter of a cent a point.

The objection to the arrangement just described is that there is too
much luck in the grouping of the players, because it may happen that
one very good player will find himself at a table with three who know
little or nothing about the game, which may give the good player an
unfair advantage. It is also unsociable, because the players have no
opportunity to meet any but the three at their own table. In addition
to this, it does not carry out what should be the chief aim of any
tournament or congress, to allow each player an opportunity not only
to meet but to play with and against as many and as various grades of
players as possible, so as to improve his own game by studying the
methods of others.

In order to bring about this meeting of each with each as far as
possible, there are various methods of moving the players after each
round or two, any of which may be adopted.

Instead of picking out umpires for the various tables, the tables are
simply divided into sections, with as many tables in each section as
there are rounds to be played, or some proportion of that number. No
section should contain more than ten tables, which will permit of
forty deals, because there is not time to play more than forty deals
in any form of the game in which the players move.

If there are fifteen tables, they may be divided into three sets of
five each, and eight deals, or two rounds, played at each table. With
small numbers of players it may be better to have only three at each
table, so that three deals shall be a round, and the movements may be
more numerous.

The players may sit anywhere to begin, but in large gatherings it is
just as well to issue tickets so ordered that the candidates for play
shall fill up the tables one after the other.

The score is kept in the usual way, on an ordinary score-sheet, but at
the end of each round, or at the end of the number of rounds agreed
upon, the scores are balanced and each player at the table puts down
his score on a separate slip, upon which he states the number of
points won or lost, and the number of games won or lost, in both cases
after deducting the one from the other, so that the points or games
shall be net. These slips must be OK'd by some other player at the
table, before they are gathered up by the chief scorer's assistant and
taken to the scoring table to be entered up on a large sheet prepared
for the purpose. Any remarks as to extraordinary games won must be on
the slips, and OK'd by another player.

At the end of the round or rounds agreed upon for each table, the
players always move in pairs, those sitting opposite each other at the
table being considered as the moving pair.

The players sitting N and S at each table do not move, but each and
every pair sitting E and W must move to the next table, taking the
place of those that leave that table to go to the next. In order to
facilitate this movement, the tables should be arranged in rows, as
far as possible, and it is convenient to have them all numbered.

By the time the E and W pair return to the table from which they
started, the agreed number of deals or rounds will be complete, and
the game will be at an end, every E and W pair having visited and
played with every N and S pair in their section.

A still better way of arranging the movement of the players is what
is known as, "Up the sides and down the middle." No matter how many
tables are in play in a section, the movement is always the same, and
if it is explained for three tables it will suffice for any number.
The movement is still by pairs, as before; but in this case only one
pair sits still during the whole game, and they do so simply as a
pivot for the movements of the others.

Let us suppose three tables to be in a section, and the pairs to be
seated as follows:

       F          E          D

    A  1  A    B  2  B    C  3  C

       F          E          D

The pivot pair in every case will be those sitting at Table No. 1, in
this case A-A. At the end of a round or rounds, those at the sides
move up toward Table No. 1, while those in the middle of the row,
except the pivot pair, move down toward Table No. 3. This will bring
E-E to Table No. 1; D-D to Table No. 2; and will take B-B down to
Table No. 3. There will then be only one vacant place for F-F to go to
at the table next them, to the place which B-B have just left, and C-C
will have to turn round at Table No. 3, getting on the side, ready to
begin their movement toward Table No. 1 next time.

The number of rounds to be played being finished, it will be found
that if another movement were to take place, it would bring the
players all back to their original positions. It will also be found
that each pair has met and played with every other pair, no matter how
many tables are in the series, because each must come up to Table No.
1 in regular order and play with A-A, and while they do this, the
others meet other pairs.

The following Table will show the number of rounds or deals required
for the various numbers of tables, with four players at each table:

    Players.  Tables.  Rounds.  Deals.

       12       3        5       20
       16       4        7       28
       20       5        9       36
       24       6       11       44
       28       7       13       52
       32       8       15       60

There are methods by which each individual may meet each other in a
different combination each round, but these are too complicated for
general use.




TECHNICAL TERMS


There are some expressions which one hears at the Skat table that
should be understood even by those who do not care to carry on the
conversation of the game in German.

Wenzels are the names for the four Jacks when they are trumps. In
Nullo they are Buben.

Zhlkarten are the cards that have a counting value, to distinguish
them from the 7 8 9, which are Fehlkarten.

Einstechen is to trump in.

Fordern is to attack by leading trumps.

Schneiden is to finesse, playing the king second hand when holding ace
and king.

Wimmeln is to fatten tricks. The English word "smear" is sometimes
used instead.

A Maurer is one who will bid only on certainties. When a player is
found to have held two or three wenzels and aces he is looked upon as
a maurer if he has not made a bid.

A Kiebitz is one of those who will not risk their money by playing,
but sit and look on, offering endless advice to players who do not
want it, and criticising plays by the result and not by principle.

It is sometimes useful to know the German names for the cards. These
vary considerably, and in some places they are known by one term, in
another place by another. Those that usually go together are here
placed in the same line.

      J      A     10     K     Q     9     8      7
    Wenzel. Daus. Zehn. Knig. Ober. Neun. Acht. Sieben.
    Bube.   As.   Zehn. Knig. Dame. Neun. Acht. Sieben.

The initials of these names are commonly used in notation, and when a
book begins with those in the first row, which are called the German
names, it usually preserves it, but if an occasional slip is found,
the initials will refer to the French notation, in the second row.
Jacks are sometimes called Bauern, Jungen, and Unten.

The suits have a variety of names, some referring to the colours, some
to the device. Those that are, or should be, kept together are shown
in column:

    C Tree.    Bran.  Kreutz.    Eicheln.  Eckern.
    S Pique.    Grn.   Schippen.  Laub.
    H Coeur.     Roth.   Hertzen.
    D Carreau.  Gelb.   Schellen.  Eckstein.  Ruthen.

In notation, an author may use the French terms, and preface the
denomination of the card by a suit mark; tr. p. co. car. Most of the
German authors, while they use the initials of the colours, Green and
Red, for spades and hearts, do not use Brown and Yellow for the clubs
and diamonds, but substitute Eicheln and Schellen; so that their
notation for the four suits is: e. g. r. s.

The word "Skat" is pronounced with the long "a," like the "a" in
father.


Transcriber's Note:

In the Illustrative Hands, * has been used to denote the winning card
in a trick, since it is impossible to underline characters in an ASCII
text file

1. although there are several inaccuracies in the German names and
   publications quoted throughout the book, these have been left for
   historic purposes

2. the word 'jack' or 'jacks' has been capitalized throughout, for
   consistency

3. the word 'dealer', where it refers to an individual, has been
   capitalized throughout, for consistency

4. many periods were omitted throughout the text, and have been replaced

5. page 58--'be' inserted into sentence '...on which Tournee may (be) bid.'

6. several of the Illustrative Hands were moved within the text, so as
   to bring them closer to the discussion of the hand

7. the words Skat, Solo, Tournee, Gucki, Nullo, Ramsch and Grand have
   been capitalized throughout

8. page 189--O K'd changed to OK'd


THE END




[End of _Foster's Skat Manual_ by R. F. Foster]
