History of Skat History of Skat The history of the game of Skat began in the early 19th century in Thuringia. The game spread rapidly within German-speaking Europe and is now one of the most popular card games in Germany as well as being considered Germany's national card game. The early history of the game of Skat has not been fully researched. Many anecdotes about its origins cannot be proven and should be considered as legends. What is certain is that the game was developed between 1810 and 1817 in the Thuringian town of Altenburg from older card games. It was based on
Pinochle be used in only one meld of each type. Thus, a queen can be used in one marriage with one king, regardless of if the player has the other king of the same suit. However, a queen can be used to score a marriage and a pinochle if the player also has the correct jack. After the melds are displayed, the points are counted and each player totals their individual meld scores. Because all of these values are multiples of ten, one can arrive at simplified values by removing the trailing zero from each point total. For instance, a pinochle