Sheepshead or Sheephead is a trick-taking card game related to the Skat family of games.

Skat was developed by the members of the Brommesche Tarok-Gesellschaft between 1810 and 1817 in Altenburg, in what is now the Federated State of Thuringia, Germany, based on the three-player game of Tarock, also known as Tarot, and the four-player game of Schafkopf ( the American equivalent being Sheepshead ).

The very word Skat is a Tarok term deriving from the Italian word scarto, " scartare ", which means to discard or reject, and its derivative " scatola ", a box, or a place for safe-keeping.

Skat is a game for exactly three players.

At the beginning of a hand each player is dealt ten cards, with the two remaining cards ( the so called Skat ) being put face down in the middle of the table.

Often this does not become obvious before the player picks up the Skat, or even not before the end of the deal ( in case of a hand game, when the Skat is not picked up at all ).

It is not only determined by the 10 cards held, but also by the two-card Skat.

It is therefore not possible in general to determine the exact hand value before knowing the Skat.

* If it is a Hand game ( in which the Skat is not picked up by declarer )

# The Skat is not picked up by declarer ; this is called the Hand game.

As mentioned above, the cards in the Skat are to be included when determining the game level ( also in case of the Hand game, where the Skat is unknown until after the hand has been played out ).

* “ 35 ” for a Null Hand game ( the Skat is not picked up by declarer )

** If the Skat is not picked up, the hand value is 30 ( the base value will increase from 2 to 3 for declaring Hand ).

Note that hand value is not only dependent on the cards held ( and in the Skat ) but also on which actual game is being declared and the outcome of the play.

Without knowledge of the Skat, assuming Hand is not declared

The highest possible game level is 18, that is with ( or without ) eleven trumps in the hand including the Skat, plus the maximum of 7 for declaring, Hand, Schneider, declaring Schneider, Schwarz, declaring Schwarz and Ouvert.

Therefore, the lowest possible call is “ 18 ”, which is the lowest possible hand value in Skat.

The main Skat channel was also broadcast from Burgas, until the early 2000s ( decade ), when it was relocated to Sofia.

* Point counts in the card games Sheepshead and Skat

This notion of bidding was adopted from Triomfi, though it was from L ' Hombre that the idea of bidding was adopted into other card games such as Skat, and Tarot, which owes Hombre a good portion of its betting system as well.

In Germany, most decks contain neither card values below 7 nor Jokers ( as they are made for the national game of Skat ), however Mau Mau is playable with any deck.

It has been used to implement a secure version of the German card game Skat, achieving modest real-world performance.

The following special cases are only allowed in case of a Hand game ( declarer decides not to pick up the Skat ).

Assuming a trump suit of Hearts in a suit game, this hand will have a different valuation before and after the Skat has been examined.

This hand can be safely valuated at “ 40 ”— regardless of the Skat, a Hearts trump game will always be worth at least that many points.

After putting two cards back into the Skat, declarer then either picks a trump suit ( declaring a suit game ), declares a Null game, or a Grand game.

The game is also known as Joanna rides the short bus and is also known as Jo Jo potato head, Nickel Nock, Blitz, " Clinker ", " Klinker ", " Skat ", Cadillac in south Louisiana, Whammy!

This trend continues even to non-Tarot decks such as for the German game of Skat ( played with a deck of similar-value cards as in the French piquet deck used for Belote ; players in most of western Germany use French suits while players in Bavaria and eastern Germany use German suits ).

The rules of skat are governed by The International Skat Players Association and in Germany by the Deutscher Skatverband which publishes the Skatordnung.

In Germany, hearts ( Herz / Rot ), bells ( Schellen ), leaves ( Grün ), and acorns ( Eichel ) became the standard suits and are still used in Eastern and Southeastern German decks today for Skat, Schafkopf, Doppelkopf, and other games.

In some countries piquet decks are commercially available because they are used for other, nowadays more popular games, such as Belote in France and Skat in Germany.

The Grammy award-winning video for " Opposites Attract " featured an animated cat named MC Skat Kat.

Other examples include Belote and Skat.

Skat features prominently in Günter Grass's novel The Tin Drum and leads a trail connecting the plot.

The first text book on the rules of Skat was published in 1848 by a secondary school Professor called J. F. L. Hempel.

Nevertheless, the rules continued to differ by region until the first attempt to set them in order was made by a congress of Skat players on Saturday, 7 August 1886 in Altenburg, being the first official rules finally published in book form in 1888 by Theodor Thomas of Leipzig.

The current rules, followed by both the ISPA and the German Skat Federation, date from Jan. 1, 1999.

Note: Because of the many variations in the rules of Skat, the rules below are necessarily general, although rules not found in official German tournament play are marked as such.

He or she may peek into the hand of one other player ( if allowed to do so ) but never into the Skat.

The Skat always belongs to the declarer, and if it contains certain high cards () this will change the hand value.

The examples give a player's holding and the contents of the Skat ( which will be unknown to all players during the auction ) and how to derive that player's hand value.