The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-11-10
SKAT MADE OYER In AMERICA
GERMANS ADOPT orr WAY or
BIDDING AND STORING.
The aSRme sinpII1ed by the New Sysae'h
Table or values NJ Altered 10y Anheri-
can PlRSers-An Easy Way OT ADJUST
Ing the scores at nle Games Eld.

-Eable or values nS ANereu w N"'eVE
can PlaSers-An Easy Way Or ADJUST
Ing the scores at the Games End.
1T is wonderful. = remarked an English
visitor at a New York Card club, now
you Americans can improve a game which
We conservative English would never
think Of changing"
Americans improve games because they
are not afraid 10 try new methods and
because they are quick TO detect the faults
In a game a. 1t comes from the country
OF its origin and 10 devise a satisfactory
remedy for them.
They took whist and reduced IL 10 q
science instead OF a scramble to see h
would hold the most honors In trumps.
They took the Persian game Of az mas
and made il over into draw poker. They
took the rather poky game Of bf2ique
and made out Of it one Of the most popular
games OF cards in the United States, auction
pinochle with a widow.
BIT probably the strongest evidence
Of the correctness of American Judgment
in such matters liz the recent adoption by
the German Skat League OF the American
methods Of bidding and scoring az the
great national game Of Germany. sSat.
IL YOU nuu lOlu a NtClHiuh q Nv" y'Ni'
ago that the United States would take
the game and weed out all it's weak spots
and improve its good points 80 as to reduce
its complications to a simple. straighttor-
ward game which any person could1earn In
five lessons he would have laughed at you.
Improve skat! The great German game!
The finest game If cards in the world,
az superior TO whist and bridge as poker
is to matchiOg pennies! Improve II? You're
talking nonsense"
Yet that has been lone and the improve
ments have been so manifest that the
National Skat Leagie Of Germany has
chucked it's system OF bidding and scoring
and adopted the American. Players here
nave 30 simplihed the elements Of the game
itself that il il now possible 10 consider
II IA a dangerous rival to the popularity
Of bridge.
There are still in New York old school
players who stick 70 the old gnme. But
the next annual congress Of the North
American Skat League ia to I've held in
New York city in June, and the players
will nave to follow the new rules, 10 they
may as well learn them. After a fair trial
il il safe 10 say they will never return to the
old way again.
A originally played. according to the
laws adopted by the skat congresses in
AltenhurG, Leipzig and Dresden, all the
bidding was by suits. Beginning with the
lowest game, frage, now no longer played,
the PLAYERS Outbid one another in the order
Of the suits; hearts being better than dia-
mopds, and then spades and then clubs,
Having exhausted the frage bids, they ran
the solos the gamut Of four suits, with the
nullo sandwiched in between the spades
and clubs. and then they got to grands, and
finally to the open games.
This was not only a tedious and compli-
Gated business. hut the American players
soon discovered that it did not carry out
the true principles Of the game; because the
player with the most valuable game did
not always get the chance TO play il. Any.
one holding a spade solo with six m%atadores,
schneider announced. wo IN % points !.
could NOT bid any higher than a simple
spade solo, which would he Ovcrbid 10y a
uuIlO, then worth only 20 points.
The first step therefore in the improve
mento of the game waste abolish this bidding
by suits and to introduce the system of
bidding hy the point value Of the game
the player proposed TO try. This had the
great additional advantage of C%oncealing
from opposing bidders the suit the player
~purposed declaring.
But in making this Improvement the
Americans fixed the values Of the game
40 tina they should retain their old rank.
This made IL necessary 10 give the value
twenty-three TO the nullo, so that il should
still come between the SPADE and the club
solo, the lowest 81 AIDE being worth ~ and
the lowest club "a
This again comT elled them 10 advance
the or en- nullo TO 40 and then to make the
grand solo half way between tho turned
grand, which was II, and the open grand.
which was "a; so they put the solo NJ Is.
When gucki Rrands were introduced
they could not push the other grands ont
Of place, 70 they put the gucki in the same
place as the solo. a mistake which was soon
recognized in practice. A a gucki grand
is made with h. aid of, the sIlt cards,
there was no reason WHY II should be any
more vsluable than n turned grand, and
at the American Skat Congress- in 81. Louis
in 1909 the value OF a gucki grand was fixed
at twelve.
The next thing 10 remedy was the nulIo.
The moment a player bid twenty-three and
then passed every one at the table knew
what he held.
This was a serious defect. and. there
being no reason why a nullo should come
between the two black suits when tho rank
of the bids no longer too any notice of
suits the nullo was nut at twenty and null
ouveTt NJ forty, so that one could not tell
what the player was bidding on.
The guclii nullo. unlike the gucki grand.
was found to give the player too great an