This page presents tables of bidding values for four versions of the card game Skat; these were selected because the present author could find authoritative sources, or their translations. This page is not intended to be a comprehensive guide to Skat rules which, like its strategy, are complicated.

Rigorous players insist that the only legal bids are the values that can be obtained exactly from play. These are the values listed in the respective tables, and are indeed the whole point of this report. For instance, a bid of 19 would be rejected in any of the Skat versions discussed on this page.

The tables (specifically 1C, 2C, 3C, and 4C) are in a format that, as far as the present author knows, has never been produced with ink on paper. A possible explanation is that these tables contain so many blank spaces that they would be regarded as consuming wasteful amounts of paper. By contrast, blank spaces on a computer screen consume trivial amounts of memory, and this page becomes feasible.

Type 1. The first set of tables relies on the rules that are increasingly considered the international standard, formed by agreement (1998) between the Deutsche Skatverband (DSkV) and the International Skat Players Association (ISPA). This information is consistent with a table presented on Wikipedia, but is here arranged in what some players may find to be a more convenient format. (See Cats at Cards for a friendly introduction to the rules.)

Type 2. The second set of tables is based on the web site of the Texas State Skat League (TSSL), updated as recently as 2019. This version is quite similar to type 1 above.

Type 3. The third set of tables describes a version of the North American Skat League (NASL), as documented by Joseph Wergin in his 1975 volume Skat and Sheepshead. The NASL currently has little presence on the internet. (Cats at Cards for rules.)

Type 4. The fourth set of tables is taken from an older version of the rules used by the NASL, this one described by J. Charles Eichhorn in his 1898 volume American Skat.

Following type 4 are historical note 1 and note 2; and after those a modest proposal.

Bids above 100 are rare. In tournaments, the NASL has awarded special prizes for successful games worth 100 or more.

Helpful terms.

This page is written in very simple HTML for the convenience of players who want to adapt the tables for their preferred custom rules. The present author prepared it using an ordinary text editor; the format needs to be plain text.

Playing cards intended for Skat often employ the traditional German suits of acorns, leaves, hearts, and bells. However, Skat can be played with cards bearing the well-known French suits of (respectively) clubs, spades, hearts, and diamonds. Although French pips are usually printed in only red and black, special packs with different colors for the four suits are manufactured to help prevent mistakes in play. Appearing in the tables below is the four-color scheme preferred for Skat (approximately). Hybrid packs have also been produced.

Beyond that, German cards characteristically bear the ranks (high to low) of Ace (also called Daus), König, Ober, Unter, Ten, Nine, Eight, and Seven. These correspond to the French ranks of Ace, King, Queen, Jack, Ten, Nine, Eight, and Seven. Note that Skat, in most of its game choices, promotes the Jacks to the highest rank, and the Tens to a position between the Kings and Aces.

This report employs French suits and ranks, rather than German.

Naturally, there are many local variations on the rules, often differing only in the base values for Grands and Nulls.

A common variation affecting multipliers needs to be mentioned. Declaring "mit einem Spitze" means that the declarer expects to take the last trick with the lowest trump (a Seven at suit, a Jack at Grand). This adds a multiplier. However, the additional possible bidding values are not reflected in the tables below, because players would almost never bid so high as to need them.

If nobody bids, a game of Ramsch is often played. It is required by some sets of rules, and prohibited (at least in tournament play) by others. In the basic version, players play tricks aiming to take as few card points as possible. Most versions of Ramsch do not entail base values, multipliers, or bidding, so they are not covered here.

For useful background information, see David Parlett's pages. For more variations, read pagat.

Historical note 1. The First German Skat Congress was held in Altenburg, Thuringia, Germany in the year 1886, and was the first major attempt to unify the rules of Skat.

In the previous decades, Skat had been growing in popularity, but there was increasing divergence in the rules followed by various local groups. Prompting the Congress was a concern that Skat would disintegrate into a family of games so loose that two Skat players from different areas would not be able to find a set of mutually agreeable rules. The Congress was remarkably successful in its endeavor, and its effect is strongly felt even today.

The Wayback Machine contains Hans J. Dettmer's extract (2002) from K. Buhle's edition of those regulations. The original is of course written in German. An automated translation into English of a key passage reads thus:

"The 35 paragraphs of the General German Skat Regulations of 1886 published here comprise only foreword, contents and rules of the historical document."

Fortunately, Dettmer's extract appears to include the complete rules, and reflects a matter where players had not yet reached consensus: whether to use point bidding (as is the modern practice) or suit bidding. The extract also includes three scoring tables, giving a glimpse into the source of modern Skat rules:

• bidding values for 1-4 matadors
• bidding values for 5-8 matadors
• bidding values for 8-11 matadors

A few translations for the tables:

• Bezeichnung der Spiele = description of the game
• Grundwerth = base value ("ground worth")
• mit oder ohne = with or without
• anges short for angesagt = declared

Historical note 2. Also worthy of consideration is Professor Hoffman's English translation (1893) of A. Hertefeld's detailed German volume on Skat. Being published only slightly after Dettmer's, it describes similar versions of the game. In particular, the difference between suit bidding and point bidding is discussed.

Modest proposal from the present author. Under the rules of Skat, the four Jacks have a special role in games other than null. It is convenient to have a name for this, and wenzel was chosen. This proposal would allow any one of the ranks King, Queen, or Jack to serve as wenzels, to be chosen by the high bidder when declaring his game.

The rationale for choosing these three ranks in particular is twofold: they all have low, but not zero, point value; and they all bear pictures of people, while the other ranks have only pips. To help show the structure, here are the point values for cards won in tricks in Skat, in a classification by point range, symbols and wenzel eligiblity:

Here are some examples of declarations that would be possible:

By changing the rules to add possible bids, more hands that are feasibly biddable will be produced. As a result, the number of passed-out deals should go down.

If this proposal is implemented, there is no immediate necessity to adjust base values or multipliers (hence game values), although extended play may give a motivation to do so. One option there is to count one extra multiplier when Queens are wenzels; two extras for Kings. This would not seriously upset the current bidding structure.

The following four familiar categories of Skat bids (table 1B) would of course remain available for unchanged use:

• from Hand at Suit;
• with Skat at Suit;
• from Hand at Grand;
• with Skat at Grand.

Here is a suggestion for players who admit the Tournee bid, where one or both of the cards of the skat are turned up to establish trump:

• If the turn-up is a pip card, the trump is the suit of the turn-up, and the declarer chooses among Kings, Queens, or Jacks to be wenzels. (11 trumps total.)
• If the turn-up is a picture card, the cards of the same rank are the wenzels, and the declarer makes a choice:
  • Declare a game at grand. (4 trumps total)
  • Declare a game at suit, where the trump suit is the natural suit of the turn-up. (11 trumps total)

Note that if the turn-up is a pip card, the declarer has a choice of wenzel rank, but if the turn-up is picture card, there is no choice.

The related game Schafkopf provides much of the precedent for this suggestion.

The term wenz is a standard term in that game, where the Jacks have a similar function. Several etymologies indicte that wenz is a shortened form of wenzel, which itself carries similar meaning elsewhere the card-playing world. Helpful terms.

Of the six kinds of bids in table MP2, only the last is recognized in standard Schafkopf rules; but the others are frequently mentioned throughout the Schafkopf literature as variations, although their names vary considerably. (Standard Schafkopf rules also provide for Queens and Jacks to form one series of eight wenzels, Q♣ Q♠ Q♥ Q♦ J♣ J♠ J♥ J♦, but nothing similar is proposed here for Skat.)

The related game Doppelkopf offers even more variations.