Skat was developed by the members of a local Tarock club, the Brommesche Tarok-Gesellschaft[4] around 1810–1813 in Altenburg, in what is now the State of Thuringia, Germany.

[9] The earliest recorded rules for "Scat" date to 1835, by when it was already popular in the Kingdom of Saxony, especially in the Duchy of Altenburg and the surrounding area.

The declarer needed 61 card points to win and there were bonuses for scoring 90 (Schneider), taking all tricks (Schwarz) and, optionally, for holding or lacking matadors in unbroken sequence from the top.

[10] The first book on the rules of Skat, Das Scatspiel: Nebst zwei Liedern, was published in 1848 by one of its inventors, secondary school teacher J. F. L.

[11] Nevertheless, the rules continued to differ from one region to another until the first attempt to set them in order was made by a congress of Skat players on 7 August 1886 in Altenburg.

These were the first official rules finally published in a book form in 1888 by Theodor Thomas of Leipzig.

[17] In addition, the global organisation, the International Skat Players Association, is primarily responsible for organising the World and European Championships, but its subdivision, ISPA Germany, like the DSkV, organizes its own German individual and team championship and leagues, among other activities.

[18] Skat is played on a lesser scale in countries bordering Germany including the Netherlands, Danish southern Jutland,[19] Poland and Austria.

[20] The member countries of ISPA are: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Denmark, France, Germany, Namibia, Netherlands, Paraguay, Poland, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, UAE, Uruguay, and the USA.

The declarer's goal is to take at least 61 points in tricks in order to win that round of the game.

Some players in Eastern and Southern Germany and Austria prefer traditional German packs with suits of acorns , leaves , hearts and bells , and card values of deuce (Daus), king (König), Ober, Unter, 10, 9, 8, and 7 in all four suits.

Since German reunification, a compromise Turnierbild ("Tournament Style") pack is used in tournaments that uses the shapes of the French suits but with corresponding German suit colors, green spades ♠ imitating leaves and gold diamonds ♦ imitating bells.

How the actual game value is determined is explained in detail below and is necessary to understand in order to know how high one can safely bid.

Each one increases the game level by another point: To summarize in tabular form: Cards in the trump suit are ordered as follows (this is important to know when counting the length of the matador's jack straight): J♣ is the highest-ranking card in a suit game and is called in German der Alte ("the old man").

Players are free to skip intermediate values, although it is common to always pick the lowest available call while bidding.

If Hand has been declared, the player may make additional announcements such as Schneider, Schwarz and Ouvert.

To win a suit or grand game, declarer needs at least 61 card points in tricks.

The aces and 10s combined make up almost three quarters of the total points; taking as many as possible of them is thus imperative for winning.

They will receive a negative score of −72 (36 is the lowest multiple of 12, the base value of clubs, greater than the 30 they bid; 36 times two is 72).

In league games, 50 points get added for each game that is won by the declarer and 40 points each get added to the tally of the defending team shall they win to lower the chance factor and to stress the skill factor.

There is no declarer in Ramsch; every player plays for himself, and the goal is to achieve as low a score as possible.

At first, this seems to be not too difficult, since the other players will initially try to take as few tricks as possible and to get rid of their high-ranking cards.

[11] Hobby players often add the following rule: 10s are lower in trick taking power than Queens and Kings, but still count as ten points.

If one player takes no tricks at all (Jungfrau, English: virgin), the points of the losing hand are doubled.

While not very widely spread this variation is a nice addition as it rewards the player who most rightfully did not bid.

Sometimes it refers to a custom whereby a declarer who loses pays into a pot which is claimed by the next winner of Grand Hand.

It is valued at 92 points which goes against the normal Skat principle that positive games should outrank negative ones since it is higher than a simple Grand Hand.

In Skat En Deux, the dealer bids against the non-dealer, opening with "pass" or "18" as normal.

Skat in the United States and Canada was played for many years as an older version of the game, also known as Tournee Skat, which was based on the original German game that used suit bidding rather than point bidding.

League games are organized worldwide: In the event of disputes, players may appeal to the International Skat Court in Altenburg.