Skitgubbe

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Cards and deal
3. Phase 1: collecting cards
4. Between the phases
5. Phase 2: getting rid of cards
6. The end: who is the skitgubbe?
7. Tips for beginners
8. Variants

Overview

Skitgubbe (say "SHEET-gubbeh") is a Swedish card game with two phases. In the first phase you win tricks of two cards to collect as many good cards as possible. In the second phase everyone tries to get rid of the cards they collected by beating the card on the table – or picking it up. There is no winner, only a loser: the last player who still holds cards is the skitgubbe, roughly the "dirty old man".

• Players: 3 is best; 2 or 4 also work (see Variants).
• You need: one standard 52-card deck, no jokers – and paper and pencil if you want to keep a tally of losses.

Cards and deal

Cards rank in the usual order, A (high) K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 (low).

The dealer deals 3 cards to each player, one at a time, clockwise. The rest of the deck is put face down in the middle as the stock. Play goes clockwise; the player to the dealer's left leads first.

Phase 1: collecting cards

The aim is to end up with as many strong cards as possible, because you must keep all of them for phase 2. Suits do not matter in this phase.

1. The trick: the leader plays any card. The player to their left plays any card to complete the trick – only these two players take part. The higher rank wins and takes both cards, placing them face down in front of them. There is no need to beat the card led. If you are second, you may deliberately play low and hand your opponent the trick.
2. Draw at once: after playing, each of the two players immediately draws the top card of the stock, so both hold 3 cards again.
3. Next lead: the winner leads the next trick, and the player to their left plays second. So a player who wins twice in a row keeps facing the same opponent.
4. Bounce: if both cards have the same rank, leave them on the table. Each player draws a card, and the same player leads again, the other answers. Whoever wins now takes all the cards, including the bounced ones. If they are tied again, the same thing happens again.
5. Taking a chance: on your turn, instead of playing from your hand, you may turn over the top card of the stock while more than one card remains there. You must play it – you cannot keep it. Use this when your hand is poor: it is a gamble, and it does not change your hand.

Example: Anna leads a 7. Ben holds K, 4 and 3. He does not want to waste the King on a 7, so he plays the 3 and gives Anna the trick. Both draw a new card. Anna leads the next trick; Ben must play to it again.

The last card of the stock

Whoever draws the last card of the stock does not look at it and does not put it in their hand. They lay it face down beside them. Its suit will decide trump for phase 2.

The players go on with the cards in their hands until the player whose turn it is to lead or answer has no card left to play. Phase 1 is now over. If a trick was still unfinished, the players take their cards back.

Between the phases

1. The player who drew the last card turns it face up. Its suit is trump for phase 2, and they add the card to the cards they have collected.
2. Everyone picks up the cards they won in tricks and adds their remaining cards in hand. All of them are now in your hand. The 52 cards are shared unevenly – some players have many, some few. A player with no cards at all is out already and takes no part in phase 2.

Phase 2: getting rid of cards

The player who drew the trump card leads any card into the middle.

The player to their left must now either beat the card on top of the pile or pick it up. There is no passing and no ducking.

• Beating: play a higher card of the same suit. A card that is not trump may also be beaten by any trump. A trump can only be beaten by a higher trump.
• Picking up: if you cannot or will not beat the card, take that top card into your hand. Only that one card – not the cards below it.

Then it is the next player's turn, who has to beat what is now the top card. Each new card lies on the previous one.

How a trick ends

• Completed: the trick is complete when there are as many cards in it as there were players still holding cards when it began. With three players, three cards: lead, beat, beat. The last player to play sets all the cards aside, face up in a discard pile, and leads the next trick. If they played their last card, the player to their left leads instead.
• Emptied: if the last card on the table is picked up, the table is empty. The player to the left of the one who picked up leads a new trick.

Example (three players): Anna leads 9♦. Ben beats it with J♦. Carla has no diamond higher than the Jack and no trump, so she picks up the J♦. Now it is Anna's turn again: she must beat her own 9♦ – she plays Q♦. Ben plays A♦. Three cards lie on the table: the trick is complete. Ben sets the pile aside and leads.

As players run out of cards, the number of cards needed to complete a trick drops. Once only two players still hold cards, a trick is complete after two cards.

The end: who is the skitgubbe?

A player who plays their last card is safe and leaves the game. The game goes on until only one player still has cards – that is the skitgubbe, the loser. If you like, they make a goat noise, buy the next round of coffee, or deal the next game.

Keep a tally of losses and play as many rounds as you like. Whoever has been the skitgubbe least often is the winner of the evening.

Tips for beginners

• In phase 1, high cards and long suits are what you want: Aces, Kings and several cards of one suit make phase 2 easy. Low cards are ballast – you will have to pick up or beat with them later.
• Do not chase every trick. When you are second and hold only middling cards, playing low costs you little and keeps your good cards for a better moment.
• Taking a chance is worth it when your hand is weak, but remember that the gamble can also give the trick to somebody else.
• In phase 2, save your trumps and high cards for the moments when you cannot avoid beating something, and get rid of low cards of a suit the others are short of first.
• Do not pick up too eagerly: every card you take is a card you must get rid of again. Yet picking up a single low card is often cheaper than spending a trump.

Variants

All of these are optional – agree on them before the game.

• Everyone plays to each trick (phase 1): in many groups all players play to every trick, and a player may play one card or two or three of the same rank; the highest rank wins, ties are played off again, and afterwards everyone may add ("sluff") more cards of the same ranks as those already in the trick. After every play you draw back up to 3 cards. This is at least as common in Sweden today as the two-card version.
• Sequences in phase 2: you may play an unbroken run of cards in one suit (for example 9-10-J) as a single play. Whoever has to pick up takes the top card and every card in an unbroken sequence with it.
• Two players: the same rules, but a trick is complete after two cards and the players just keep alternating; deal 3 cards each as usual.
• Four players: the same rules. Phase 1 works exactly as with three; in phase 2 a trick needs up to four cards.
• Rubbish cards: in some groups, a player with fewer than 5 cards after phase 1 gets low cards (2 to 5) shared out from the other players' hands.
• Trump turned up (older, rare): a trump card is turned up before phase 1, and in phase 1 the highest trump wins the trick – or, if no trump is played, the highest card of the suit led.