Officers' Skat barracks, but not at the skat table, so often there was no third man." As a result, a variation of skat for two players was derived. The name coachman's skat ("Kutscherskat") comes from the fact that coachmen were supposed to have whiled away their waiting time with this game, while their gentlemen went off to a social event, there being often 2 coachmen (including the postilion per coach. The cards were laid out between the coaches on the coach box. Officers' Skat Officers' Skat ("Offiziersskat"), is a trick-taking card game for two players which is based on the rules of
Skat (card game) tricks and players must agree whether a game lasts for a certain number of deals or until one player scores a certain number of game points. Scoring is similar to normal Skat. 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 shares most of its rules with its modern European counterpart with the addition of a few different games and an alternate system of scoring. "Tournee Skat" is declining in popularity. Most tournament Skat players in North America play the modern game described above.