The Penguin Book of Card Games: Everything You Need to Know to Play Over 250 Games (73 page)

power factors represented by Jacks, Aces, and the opening lead.

You therefore bid Grand hand on:

6. J J TKQ AT A98 and the lead

7. J J ATK9 7 98 A and the lead

8. J J J A TKQ9 AK, the lead unnecessary

If just short of these values, you may consider playing grand with

the skat. For example:

9. J J AK9 AT8 Q9

This is the hand identified earlier as a bid of clubs, hand. Given

the lead, you have five of the nine power factors, but five probable

losers – one Jack, and two each in clubs and diamonds. If the

auction forces you beyond 36 for your clubs bid, you may make the

mental switch to grand and raise to 48.

Nul bids For any nul bid, a void suit is an unbeatable advantage.

Any other suit should include the Seven, and no higher card than

Seven should be separated by more than one gap from the one

below it. Thus a holding of J-9-7 is unbeatable, and even A-J-9-7

would lose only if one opponent held the other four of that suit and

had the lead. A singleton Eight is not bad, especial y if you have the

lead and get rid of it immediately. With only one dangerous card,

you can play hand for 35, but not ouvert. For example:

10. KJ97 Q87 8 97

The Queen is the danger card, and you could be forced to take a

spade trick if you played ouvert. An alternative approach would be

to take the skat, dump the Queen, and then play ouvert for 46. But

if the skat yielded, for example, two high hearts, you could be lost.

A simple nul for 23, in which you take the skat and do not play

ouvert, is very chancy, and you should cal it only as a substitute for

drawing a bad skat on a lower bid. Some circles permit nul bids

only from the hand.

Play Skat is ful of opportunities for clever and subtle play. Here

are a few pointers.

As the soloist in a suit game, lead trumps at every opportunity.

With five or six trumps, it’s customary to lead high then low, then

high again, at empting to win the third trick in order to prevent an

opponent with probably no trump left from throwing a high

counter to a trump trick won by his partner.

From a side suit headed T-K, it is often best – sometimes even

vital – to play the Ten at the earliest opportunity. This forces the

Ace out, leaving your King in command at a time when the other

opponent is stil able to fol ow and hence unable to ‘stuf ’

(schmieren) a 10-point trick by dropping another Ace or Ten on it.

If you play the King and the Ace-holder ducks, you could lose 31 or

more card-points on the next round of the suit, giving the

opponents what is known as ‘half the rent’.

Always keep track of the number of card-points currently won by

both sides, and the number of trumps left in play. This takes

practice, but soon becomes second nature, and is wel worth while.

For example, when a suit is led which you cannot fol ow, don’t

automatical y trump. Always be ready to slough useless Kings and

Queens to dud tricks in order to void your side suits without giving

too many away, but remember you can do this with safety only so