North American Skat Rules?

[tutescrew]

An English language forum on Skat....what a concept. I hope activity here picks up!

Anyways, I do have a copy of Wergin's Skat book, which I enjoy perusing. His love of the
game (North American or "Wisconsin" rules) shows through on almost every page. Other than
a handful of websites that have the rules, there isn't much out there in the way of bidding
strategies, play of the hand, etc. in English. One of David Parlett's books has a couple of pages
on the topic, but that is all that I could find. Anybody here know of other sources?

Also, Wergin suggested in his book that his strategies would work well for the then current (mid 70s)
German version of the game, presumably something similar to what is played internationally today.
Does anybody still play the "North American" way, with tournees, gucksers, mandatory Ramsch, etc?

Is there a significant difference between bidding a tournee (base values 5,6,7,8) in American Skat, and a hand game (with a lower
multiplier than a solo game) the modern version of the game?

Phil

[mic]

Hi,

our SKAT-Link booklet @ http://skatlink.com/booklet.html contains a couple of pages on strategy.
Ron Link is considering to write a book on Skat - but this can take a while.

[skatlink1]

Yes Mike I am working on the book and it is taking some time,But I don't just want to write a few strategies down I want to write The book,and then if everyone knows all my tricks,see if I still can win some tournaments.All people have to do is Ask,I'll be more than happy to give good honest advise,and share some great strategies with them.
Phil
Last yr I got to play with a lot of Americans and I learnt a lot about how you guys play and your different styles of play.I learnt about Texas skat,sheephead,and tourney skat.And in all I believe its made me a better player.I say the more varyations one learns the stronger they get ,the trick is when to apply them.I always had troubles playing against American players because their defense was so strong.But once you realize why one plays or bids a certain way it becomes easier.Eg when I hear some one bid,21 or 32 or a weird # like that I now switch over to american style skat.You guys tend to what I call sreach defense open a few colours and see whats out there,also because of the styles of skat that you guys play at home you all tend to bid alittle weeker,I am not saying Maurer,just that often when you have a good null chance you'll just stop at 20,this is just habits that are hard to change over to in ISPA skat.you guys only bid on the skat to 20 where here we bid to 23 looking,giving us a real advantage.the same goes for Grands,you guys just naturally slow down your bid after 24 even though you ve got great grand potentail 48,null open are easy to get with americans.I don't like to stero tpye becuase you will get caught and you have some great, fun ,nice ,good players in the states and I really enjoy playing with you guys.I just feel that the other skat games you guys play make you bid alittle more conservative than the germans or Canadains.But on the more positive side of the American play style,you sure know how to make the most out a" hand "game.and play that better than most other countries .Too many times we sreach for the grand instead of bringing in the sure extra pts.