It is popular in its native Switzerland as well as the rest of the Alemannic German-speaking area of Europe, Italian South Tyrol and in a few places in Wisconsin, Ohio, California, Oregon and Washington USA.

[2][3] The most common variant of Jass is Schieber (in Vorarlberg also known as Krüzjass), which is played by two teams of two players each.

The Swiss suits are Rosen (roses) Eicheln (acorns), Schilten (shields) and Schellen (bells).

[9] Jass is essentially a game of points which are scored for three features known as Stöck, Wiis, Stich, respectively, "marriages, melds, tricks".

The privilege of declaring trumps is passed around the table in counter-clockwise direction for each subsequent match (variant: each deal from the second onwards is made by a member of the side which won the previous deal, so that the losing team has the advantage of making trumps and leading first.

[dubious – discuss]) The player who may nominate the trump suit may pass (schieben) the privilege to his partner, who must then exercise it.

There are a number of conventional expansions of the type of play that can be chosen beyond the four trump suits, and modifications to the value of the tricks.

Most commonly: The trump Jack, also called Puur, counts 20 and is the highest card in the game.

The tactical elements of the Schieber derive mostly from the situation of two players each needing to cooperate without seeing, or being allowed to communicate about, the hand the other is holding.

Whoever 'brings home' (Heim bringt) the respective trick takes the top card from the stock.

The advantage is that this variation changes very little about how the game works, which makes it easier to learn quickly.

Undertrumping is only permitted if the led suit is not held (this is the usual rule in reverse Jass games).

The so-called table melding (Tischweis) poses an additional difficulty in order to achieve as few points as possible.

As an additional rule, it can be agreed that the players have to change their seats after each round based on the points achieved so far.

The basic idea of this variant is to make the game more difficult yet more interesting by incorporating a quiz.

The name of this type of Jass refers to the fact that, as with NASA pilots, several tasks have to be performed simultaneously.

After two rounds (with everyone dealing twice), the loser is determined based on the lowest total number of points.

In Pandur, four players usually play, but only three are active in the game, and each in turn sits out the hand to which he deals.

The scorekeeper deals first, giving 8 cards to each player in batches of 4s from a 24-card pack made by stripping out all ranks below Nine.

I addition to the usual melds, a player may announce a sequence of six or a quartet of Nines, each counting 150 points.

If successful, the soloist wins a number of game points equivalent to the bid divided by 50 (maximum 6).

A normal game of Jass, except that it is played with hands of six cards rather than nine, hence the Sechser ("Sixer") in the name.

A Jass variant that is similar to Schieber, Sidi Barani is a game for 4 players, with the difference that it is not specified who can choose the contract.

The player who first reaches nine penalty points (or another number if agreed) loses the game and pays the forfeit.

Players bid the number of points they hope to win and the highest bidder names a card of his choice.

Handjass, also known as Butzer, Schläger, Sackjass or, in South Tyrol, Sockn,[15] is a game for 2-5 players—every player for themself (cut-throat).

This can be done to avoid taking a negative game point and is an important strategic consideration as one gets closer to going out/winning.

The game is played without trumps and a Bell may only be discarded if a player can no longer follow suit.

If Schellenjass is played with French-suited cards, Hearts are chosen as the relevant suit, the game is then called Herzjass.

Other, older Jass variants include Fischentalerjass, Bäretswilerjass, Schaffhauserjass, Raubjass, Zebedäusjass and Zugerjass.