When you are lucky enough to travel to Skat tournaments, which are hosted by ISPA, you get to meet new people, learn a lot about the game and make new friends. Skat is played all over the world, naturally Germany is a big Skat nation, but it is also played in other countries, such as Poland, Belgium, Canada, France, Austria, Switzerland, South Africa, Spain, Argentinia and the USA, to name a few.

It combines the dealing and turn-based drawing/discarding game play of 31, with the hand rankings associated with 3 Card Brag. This game is a perfect combination of Scat and an English card-game known as. It is often compared with Bridge, Euchre and Rook, as it has some similar components. If a 3-player game ends 28, 26, 26 (knocker wins), the scores are 3pts, 2pts, 2pts, with the second two tying for middle score. What makes Skat so interesting is that, contrary to other card games, it requires a skill set that has to be learned over the course of a lifetime. The face cards (King, Queen, and Jack) all have a value of 10. The numbered cards carry their face value. Since the game aims to score 31, all you need to do is know the values of the cards. In 31, all the cards aside from the Jokers are used. The rule book was formed by a congress of Skat players in 1886, and last refined by the International Skat Players Association (ISPA) and the German Skat Federation in 1999. So, before we talk about the 31 card game rules, let’s go over how the cards work. It is a game that is traditionally played with either three of four players at the table and a deck of 32 cards (from 7 up to Ace). ​ The game of Skat was originally developed in Germany between 18.