Skat, 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.
Typical Skat trick from a French-suited pack
Skat players in an Erfurt park in 1967
A player puts the Skat down on the table
A trick-taking game is a card or tile-based game in which play of a hand centers on a series of finite rounds or units of play, called tricks, which are each evaluated to determine a winner or taker of that trick. The object of such games then may be closely tied to the number of tricks taken, as in plain-trick games such as contract bridge, whist, and spades, or to the value of the cards contained in taken tricks, as in point-trick games such as pinochle, the tarot family, briscola, and most evasion games like hearts. Trick-and-draw games are trick-taking games in which the players can fill up their hands after each trick. In most variants, players are free to play any card into a trick in the first phase of the game, but must follow suit as soon as the stock is depleted. Trick-avoidance games like reversis or polignac are those in which the aim is to avoid taking some or all tricks.
A trick of four cards. North led the 10♠. Usually all players must follow suit and play a spade unless they have none. East does so with the K♠. South does not have a spade, so plays the J♦, and West the 7♥. In a notrump game, east wins the trick, having played the highest card of the suit led (unless the game is an ace–ten game, with 10 being higher than the king, making north win the trick). However, if diamonds or hearts are trumps, south or west respectively win.
"The Four Friends Playing Ombre" (1888) by Malthe Engelstedt
Bridge is played between two partnerships
A 6 of cups is tucked under the deck in a game of Brisca, to show that cups is the trump suit