Skat (card game)
Typical Jack trick in Grand Skat, with the highest cards of the game laid out from left to right and front to back. | |
| Origin | Germany |
|---|---|
| Type | Point-trick |
| Players | 3 |
| Skills | Hand evaluation, counting, cooperation, bidding intelligence |
| Cards | 32 |
| Deck | French, German or Tournament-suited "Skat" pack |
| Rank (high→low) | J♣️ J♠️ J♥️ J♦️ (Grand Trump) J♣️ J♠️ J♥️ J♦️ A 10 K Q 9 8 7 (Side Trump) |
| Play | Clockwise |
| Playing time | 3–5 minutes per hand played |
| Chance | Low |
| Related games | |
| Schafkopf • Grosstarock | |
Skat (German pronunciation: [ˈskaːt]), historically Scat, is a three-player trick-taking card game of the ace–ten family, devised around 1810 in Altenburg in the Duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. It is the national game of Germany and, along with Doppelkopf, it is the most popular card game in Germany and Silesia and one of the most popular in the rest of Poland. A variant of 19th-century Skat was once popular in the US. John McLeod considers it one of the best and most interesting card games for three players, and Kelbet described it as "the king of German card games." The German Skat Association assess that it is played by around 25 million Germans – more than play football.