Learn Skat: a free 7-lesson tutorial, then practise against bots
Skat has a reputation for being hard because bidding, game types and scoring all arrive at once. Grand Skat splits that into seven lessons on real cards, each with a short goal and feedback after every trick. The tutorial is free, in the browser and in the app, without an account. Afterwards you play the easy bot level, which gives you time to think.
Start the tutorial in the game (menu "Learn Skat") · Bidding table for reference
The seven lessons
- Cards and tricks. 32 cards, the card points from ace to seven, following suit and who wins the trick. With a quiz: click the card that takes the trick.
- Trumps and jacks. The four jacks rule the game: their order, trumping, and why the jack of clubs is the highest trump even in a Grand.
- Bidding. What a game value is, who bids against whom and when to pass. The full list is in the bidding table.
- The skat and the announcement. Picking up, discarding two cards, choosing the game, hand game or not.
- A whole hand. A suit game step by step up to the 61 points, with feedback after every trick.
- Grand and Null. Two short demonstration games where only the jacks are trumps, or nothing is.
- Scoring. Game value, matadors, Schneider and Schwarz, won or lost under the International Skat Order.
Each lesson takes one to three minutes. You can stop at any time and continue from the same place.
After the tutorial
- Easy bots at an open table, then medium, then the strong level. The strong level searches over the unknown cards with Monte Carlo and plays in a way that makes mistakes in discarding and bidding visible.
- Kontra and Re, Ramsch as table options if you want to learn the pub rules.
- Bidding voice-over: the calls run like at a real table, so you get used to "18, 20, 2, 0, 4, pass".
Skat coach (full version)
After every hand the coach shows what the strongest bot would have played in your place, trick by trick, and whether your bid was covered. That is the part other apps sell as a subscription; here it belongs to the one-time purchase of the full version. For learning, the free tutorial is enough; the coach is for week two.
Common beginner questions
How many points does the declarer need? 61 of 120. With 90 the opponents are Schneider, with all tricks they are Schwarz.
What do "with two" and "without two" mean? Matadors: the number of jacks the declarer holds in an unbroken sequence from the jack of clubs (with) or lacks in an unbroken sequence (without). Matadors plus one gives the game level, which is multiplied by the base value.
Can I switch the language? Yes, the tutorial exists in English, German and Polish; the menu remembers your choice.
Play for free at grandskat.com, Windows app in the Microsoft Store, Android in testing: become a tester. Legal notice in the Impressum.