Officer skat
Offiziersskat , even two-man Skat or two of skat , Seemannsskat , Bauernskat , Räuberskat or Kutscherskat called, is a card - trick game for two people, which the rules of Skat is based -Spiels. The game is played with a German or French Skat sheet with 32 cards and you play with partly open and partly hidden cards. As in Skat, tricks are taken and counted to determine the winner.
There are some local variants of the game that differ mainly in the number of cards revealed / hidden and the calculation of points.
Style of play
The game is played with two players who each have two rows of cards face down and two open rows of four cards each in front of them. Each player plays accordingly with 16 cards and over 16 tricks. Depending on the announcement, the game is played with a trump suit (suit game), without a trump suit (grand) or completely without trumps (junk). A zero game, as is the case with Skat, is also possible depending on the rule variant.
Hand out
The dealer shuffles the cards, the player must stand . The dealer then deals four cards to the other player (forehand or the “older one” or the announcer) and himself, each of which is placed face down in front of the player. Then the other player receives four cards face down on his face down. Now the other player has to define a card suit ( clubs 
, spades 
, hearts 
or diamonds 
) as a trump .
After the trump suit has been determined, the dealer also receives four open cards on his cards. He can call “ against ” if he believes that his teammate will not win the game. The remaining 16 cards are placed in front of the players as four more face-down and four face-up cards (see variants). If the dealer has announced “against” after receiving his first 4 face-up cards, the other player can, after receiving 4 more face-up cards, say “re” as an answer, signaling that he will win the game despite the contradiction.
Trumps
Similar to Skat, one of the four colors is set as a trump next to the pawns or jacks. Alternatively, the player can also announce a grand and thus only set the pawns as trumps. As in the game of suits in Skat, the four pawns are the top trumps in the order of clubs, spades, hearts and diamonds, followed by ace, 10, king, queen, 9, 8 and 7 of the specified suit.
The trump suit also determines the game value with 24 (grand), 12 (clubs), 11 (spades), 10 (hearts) or 9 (diamonds) points. There is also the option of opting for junk , i. H. the player who receives the fewest points wins.
The game
The player who determined the trump starts the game by playing one of his face-up cards. Trump or suit must be served by the opponent. Whoever cannot operate, ie is “skat” or “blank”, can discard a card (discard any card) or, if a suit has been led, trump (take a trump and win the card). The rules for color games, grand and junk, known from Skat, apply here.
After each trick, the cards that were previously face down are revealed. The one who won ("took") the trick plays the next card.
End of game and scoring
The game ends when all 16 tricks have been taken, after which both players score the cards they won. The game is won by the player who has scored the most points overall. Since the total value of all cards is 120 points, this applies to 61 or more points. The cards have the values of 11, 10, 4, 3 and 2 points (A, 10, K, D, B) known from Skat, the numerical values 7, 8 and 9 do not count. If both players have reached 60 points, the player who did not determine the trump wins (announcer).
The announcer receives points depending on the win or loss. These are calculated as in the normal games of Skat from the number of jacks that you have continuously or not, starting with the number of clubs plus 1, multiplied by the basic game value determined by the trump color (9, 10, 11, 12 or 24). If the opponent has less than 30 points ( Schneider ) or even no points at all (Black), they double the number of points (Schneider twice, Black four times). If the player calling the trump has lost, the total points are doubled and written down as negative.
Some calculate the points with further points , so that in a game with clubs, spades, hearts and diamonds as well as ace of trumps, the base value is calculated with 5, played 6 times. Equivalent also for the "without ..." calculation.
There are also simplified forms of game rating:
- a game won corresponds to the basic game value, doubled in Schneider, regardless of the trump pawns.
- a won game is settled with the number of points achieved.
- Every game won is worth 2 points. If Schneider or Black is played, there are 3 or 4 points instead. In the event of a tie, both players receive 1 point each.
variants
Fit
Depending on the arrangement, a game can also be played with passing when the trump card is announced. If the actual announcer passes, the dealer can determine a trump after both players have four open cards in front of them. If both players pass, the round is played as junk.
With the cards in hand (Harlequin Kat)
The peculiarity of the Harlequin Kat is the fact that you only know half of your own cards, but you also know half of your opponent's cards. The opponent does not see these cards, but all the others.
The advantages of harlequin skate are, on the one hand, that you need less space to play it, and on the other hand, in a greater tactical depth, since you know your opponent's cards before they see them.
The same rules apply as for officers' skat. However, the cards are not dealt on the table, but instead are put into hand as follows:
The cards are placed in a pile in the middle. The players now alternately draw a card. The first card is picked up as normal. The second card is not looked at, but put backwards behind the other so that it is only visible to the opponent. The third card is then picked up normally again, the fourth comes back upside down after the third, etc. Say: “One to see, one to turn!” The players pick up their first eight cards, four of which they see normally the other four can only be seen by the opponent. The starting player now announces trump. Then the remaining cards are drawn according to the same pattern, so that everyone now sees eight of their cards and eight of the opponent. If you play a card, you can turn over the card behind it that is turned towards the opponent.
After each player has received eight cards (four face down, four face up), you can deal the remaining cards for in hand ( half-open game).
With charms
Here you give each player five cards face down, five cards face down and in hand. The other two cards are set aside as a skat or “stick”. Trump and who plays are then determined with bids as usual with Skat. This variant is also called Admiralsskat .
Placed sheep's head
The launched sheepshead or placed on balance is traditionally the Bavarian sheet played, in which: - on the stores (boys) also the top (ladies) Trump - except for the Grand, which is called here Wenz. The games are not rated; at most, the number of games won is added up. Otherwise the rules are identical.
This variant is naturally widespread in the regions where Schafkopf is played more often than Skat.
designation
According to Grupp (1975), the name officer's skat comes from “that in the past, when officers only socialized with the men in the barracks yard, but not at the Skat table, the third man was often missing.” This led to a variant of Skat for two players.
The name Kutscherskat is derived from the fact that coachmen are said to have bridged their waiting times with this game while the gentlemen pursued a social event. The cards were placed between the coachmen on the driver's seat .
supporting documents
- ↑ a b c d Officer's Skat In: Claus D. Grupp: Card games. Falken-Verlag Erich Sicker, Wiesbaden 1975; Pp. 72-73. ISBN 3-8068-2001-5 .
- ^ A b "Skat too far" In: Robert E. Lembke : The great house and family book of games. Lingen Verlag, Cologne, no date; Pp. 230-231.
- ↑ a b c d Hugo Kastner, Gerald Kador Folkvord: The great Humboldt encyclopedia of card games. Humboldt, Baden-Baden 2005, p. 196, ISBN 3-89994-058-X
- ↑ a b "Officer's Skat" In: Erhard Gorys : The Book of Games. Manfred Pawlak Verlagsgesellschaft, Herrsching o. J .; P. 45.
literature
- Hugo Kastner, Gerald Kador Folkvord: The great Humboldt encyclopedia of card games. Humboldt, Baden-Baden 2005, p. 196, ISBN 3-89994-058-X ( Google Books)
- Officer's Skat In: Claus D. Grupp: Card games. Falken-Verlag Erich Sicker, Wiesbaden 1975; Pp. 72-73. ISBN 3-8068-2001-5 .
- "Officer's Skat" In: Erhard Gorys : The Book of Games. Manfred Pawlak Verlagsgesellschaft, Herrsching o. J .; P. 45.
