Germany's national game: one declarer against two, and a two-card skat.
Germany's national card game and, by common agreement, one of the two or three best card games ever designed. Three players, one of whom plays alone against the other two every hand.
32 cards — seven up to ace in each suit. Ten cards each, and two face down as the skat.
Ace 11, ten 10, king 4, queen 3, jack 2, and nine, eight, seven count nothing. That is 120 points in the deck, and the declarer needs 61 to win.
In a suit game the four jacks are the top four trumps, ranking clubs, spades, hearts, diamonds, and they belong to the trump suit rather than their printed one. Below them come the rest of the chosen suit: ace, ten, king, queen, nine, eight, seven.
In grand only the four jacks are trump. In null there are no trumps and the ranking reverts to plain ace down to seven.
Players bid numbers from a fixed list. The winner becomes declarer, may pick up the skat and discard two, and then announces the game — a suit, grand, or null.
The game's value is a base number for the denomination multiplied by factors counting the run of top trumps you hold or lack. Bidding a number commits you to a game worth at least that much.
The player to the dealer's left leads. Follow suit if you can, otherwise play anything. Highest trump wins, otherwise the highest card of the suit led.
Declarer counts the card points taken, including the two cards discarded to the skat. 61 or more wins the game's value; fewer loses twice it. Null is won only by taking no tricks at all.