Here you can play the card game Skat online. Skat is one of the best card games for three players. The game is played with 32 cards. Each active player is dealt 10 cards and the remaining two cards form the skat. Each hand begins with an auction. The winner of the bidding becomes the declarer, and plays alone against the other two players in partnership. The declarer has the right to use the two skat cards to make a better hand, and to choose the trump suit. Some cards have point values, and the total number of card points in the pack is 120. To win, the declarer has to take at least 61 card points in tricks plus skat; the opponents win if their combined tricks contain at least 60 card points. Instead of naming a trump suit the declarer can choose to play Grand (jacks are the only trumps) or Null (no trumps and the declarer's object is to lose all the tricks). The value of the game, in game points, depends on the trumps chosen, the location of the top trumps (matadors) and whether the declarer used the skat. Declarer generally wins the value of the game if successful, and loses the twice the game value if unsuccessful. It is important to realize that in Skat the card points, which generally determine whether the declarer wins or loses, are quite separate from the game points, which determine how much is won or lost. The ranking of the cards depends on the game the declarer chooses to play. In a suit game irrespective of the suit chosen as trumps, the four jacks are the top four trumps, followed by the suit cards also as trumps. The other three suits each contain just seven cards ranking from high to low - ace, 10, king, queen, 9, 8, 7. In a grand game the only trumps are the jacks. In a null game there are no trumps. The first dealer is chosen at random; thereafter the turn to deal rotates clockwise. The dealer shuffles and the player to dealer's right cuts. The dealer deals a batch of three cards to each player, then two cards face down in the centre of the table to form the skat, then a batch of four cards to each player, and finally another batch of three cards each. During the auction each bid is a number which is the value in game points of some possible game. A player can either pass or bid a number. There is no advantage in making a higher than necessary bid so a player will normally either pass or begin with the lowest bid: 18. If you win the bidding you are entitled to pick up the two skat cards, add them to your hand without showing them to the other players, and discard any two cards face down. The order during the game play is clockwise. No matter who is the declarer, forehand always leads to the first trick. Players must follow suit if they can. A player with no card of the suit led may play any card. Note that in Suit and Grand games the jacks belong to the trump suit, not to the suits marked on them. For example if hearts are trumps, the jack of clubs is the highest heart, and has nothing whatever to do with the club suit. A trick is won by the highest card of the suit led, unless it contains a trump, in which case the highest trump wins it. The winner of a trick leads to the next.