Skwitz

Deal and play are anticlockwise. Each player antes 4 chips to the pot. The dealer shuffles until the cutter is satisfied, indicating this by cutting the pack or saying "it's good" (gut ist's). The dealer looks at the bottom card; if it is a matador, the cards are reshuffled.

The dealer then places 4 cards, in line and face up, on the table before handing the remaining stock to forehand, the player on his right. Each player in turn now draws the top four cards from the stock into his hand.

Once all the players have drawn their cards, the players, in turn and beginning with forehand, try to capture the table cards by matching or summing in accordance with the following rules:

• Matching. Any court or number card held by the player may capture one or more cards of the same rank, regardless of suit e.g. a Queen may capture one or more Queens from the table and a Five may capture one or more Fives.
• Summing. Any number card (2, 3... 10) may capture two or more number cards that add up to the number of the capturing card. Court cards have no numerical value so may not do this. Aces are only worth one so, again, cannot capture by summing.
• Multiple captures A card may make multiple captures e.g. an Ace may capture two Aces; a Ten may capture a Ten, a Seven and a Three.
• Skwitz If, in capturing cards, a player sweeps the table clear, he announces a "Skwitz!" for a bonus.
• Trailing. A player unable to capture any cards must trail by playing a card alongside the existing table cards.

Captured cards are placed face down in a pile next to the player who captured them. Each skwitz is recorded by turning one of the captured cards face up.

Once all the cards have been played, the dealer clears any remaining cards from the table and announces "these are the last" (dies sind die Letzten).

Payments are made during the game as follows:

• Capturing a matador: every other player pays 2 chips[lower-alpha 1] to the captor[lower-alpha 2] and 2 to the pot
• Making a skwitz: every other player pays 2 chips[lower-alpha 1] to the skwitzer[lower-alpha 2] and 2 to the pot

The rules also list numerous instances of breaches for which the penalty is invariably the payment of half the stake (2 chips) to each of the other players.

One point is scored for each of the following:

• Most cards
• Most Spades
• Each skwitz
• Each matador captured
• Last trick (i.e. the last player to capture a table card)

As soon as a player reaches the agreed number of points (usually 7) he may declare "Out!" (Aus!) when it is his turn to play, whereupon everyone else pays 4 to the pot and 4 to the winner.[lower-alpha 3] In addition, any player with no points is 'in the mud' (matsch) and pays 4 to the pot and 4 to the winner.[lower-alpha 3] However, a player on 7 points may opt to play on to try and earn more through capturing matadors and making skwitzes.

Once the payments for the "out" and matsch have been made, the current dealer passes the pot to the winner who places it beside him without emptying it and becomes the next dealer (this overrides the normal sequence in which the dealer rotates to the right if no-one has scored 7 points). If the same player wins again, he collects the contents of the pot after the payments for "out" and matsch have been made.