The Penguin Book of Card Games: Everything You Need to Know to Play Over 250 Games (71 page)

Suit bids For a safe suit bid you normal y need at least five trumps

including Ace or Ten, at least two side suits which are void or

headed by an Ace, and not more than five losers. If dealt such a

hand, you can reckon on playing it from the hand – for example:

4. J J AK9 AT8 Q9

This enables you to bid up to 36 (with 1, game 2, hand 3, times

clubs 12). The opposition wil probably take up to 20 in clubs and

28 in diamonds, giving you a safety margin of 12 card-points to

compensate for one partner’s dropping an Ace or Ten on his

partner’s winning trump.

For a ‘hand’ game, worth an extra multiplier, you general y need

six trumps plus a non-trump Ace or void. Consider it especial y if

you have a void, as taking the skat al too often produces just two

middling cards of that very suit, which you might as wel throw out

again. A hand game also entitles you to declare schneider in

advance though, to do this, you should be confident of winning nine

of the ten tricks.

The time to think of a skat game is when you need the draw and

discard in order to produce the sort of hand on which you would

have bid ‘hand’ if original y dealt it. For example:

5. J J AK9 K AT8 Q

In a hand game, the opposition could make 49 straight of in

spades and diamonds, and finish you of with the trump Ten. Here,

you need the skat to enable you to ditch the two dangerous

singletons, or one of them if the skat of ers support to the other.

Two points to watch in bidding suit games are Jacks and non-

trump Tens.

The danger beset ing a Ten is that of being caught by the Ace,

giving the opposition, in a single trick, one-third of the points

needed to win.

A Ten in hand is obviously safest when covered by the Ace, and

A Ten in hand is obviously safest when covered by the Ace, and

most dangerous when held singleton. With a singleton Ten,

therefore, you should consider playing from hand only if you can be

sure of winning most of the other tricks. It is not unknown for the

soloist, playing third to the first trick, to win it with a singleton

Ten; but of course it would be unwise to count on it. A singly-

guarded Ten is an obvious risk. On a low lead from your right, you

may play the Ten and have it captured by the Ace on your left; or

you throw the guard, and then lose the Ten to the Ace on a

subsequent trick. A twice-guarded Ten is safer, but stil risks being

trumped on the third round of the suit. If dealt one T-x combination

and taking the skat, it is usual y acceptable to keep it; if dealt two,

it usual y best to lay both Tens aside to ensure 20 towards your

card-points.

The danger of Jacks is that of bidding ‘without’ too many of

them. Suppose you have only the diamond Jack and take the game

at 36, reckoning yourself without 3, game 4, times spades = 44.

You turn the skat and find it contains, say, the heart Jack. Now your

game is devalued: you are ‘without 2, game 3, times spades = 33’.

Having bid 36, you are ‘bust’, and threatened with loss. The best

thing to do is to play on, hoping to win schneider. This wil give

you the extra multiplier you need to justify your bid. If you turned

a black Jack, you would be ‘with (or without) 1, game 2, times

spades = 22’ – worse stil . In this case you must look for other

ways of justifying your bid. Can you entrump clubs and win

schneider? If so, you wil score ‘with 1, game 2, schneider 3, times

clubs = 36’. If not, can you make a brave at empt at a grand (48),

or a clever discard for nul ouvert (46)? General y, it is unwise to

bid too high when playing without Jacks, unless you can assume

from the auction that the higher trumps are in one player’s hand

rather than lurking in the skat. Being double-crossed by Jacks in the

skat tends to disconcert inexperienced players. Experts take this

danger into account intuitively and are rarely caught out by it.

Grand bids To bid grand hand, you need at least five of the nine

power factors represented by Jacks, Aces, and the opening lead.