Settling Up
The Spielwert (game value): Grundtarif (base stake), Schneider, Schwarz, and Laufende.
At the end of the game a bit of money changes hands: the losers pay the winners. How much is the Spielwert (the game value) — a Grundtarif (base stake), then a few bonuses for good play. Here you learn how the number adds up, so the settlement after a game is no longer a riddle.
Open the lesson in the app
Sauspiel cheap, Solo dear
Every game has a Grundtarif (base stake) — that’s where it starts. A Sauspiel is cheap, because two play against two. A Solo or Wenz, where one goes it alone against three, is clearly dearer.
- Sauspiel — 10
- Wenz — 50
- Solo — 50
The numbers are “Pfennige” at the Stammtisch — whether it’s about cents, beer or just honour makes no difference. The reckoning stays the same.
Under 31 costs extra
If the losing party falls well behind, it’s Schneider — that adds 10 extra to the Spielwert. Watch out, the line is a bit lopsided: the declarer is Schneider at 30 or fewer (the opponents then have 90+), the opponents already at 29 or fewer — one point sharper, because the declarer also needs more to win (61 against 60). (This is the “Schneidergrenze”, the Schneider line you already touched on in “Count to 61”.)
No trick — schwarz
Fatter still: if a party gets not a single trick, it’s schwarz (black). Rare, but when it happens there’s another 10 extra — on top of the Schneider, because without a trick you naturally have no 31 points either.
Schwarz is always also Schneider — so with a schwarz, two bonuses come together.
The highest trumps in a row
The Laufende are the top trumps in an unbroken run — from the very top (der Alte, the Eichel-Ober) downwards. If your party holds the highest three, four … back to back (or — the other way — none at all of the top ones), they count from 3 upwards. Each Laufender brings 10 — at most 14 in a Sauspiel (there the party can hold every trump), 8 in a Solo, 4 in a Wenz.
from 3 they count two Laufende? — nothing yet. Only from 3 is there a bonus.
An example: Sauspiel, Schneider, three Laufende
Say you win a Sauspiel, the opponents stay under 30 (Schneider), and you had three Laufende. Then the Spielwert adds up like this:
| Grundtarif (Sauspiel) | 10 |
|---|---|
| Schneider | + 10 |
| 3 Laufende | + 30 |
| Spielwert | 50 |
That’s exactly what the settlement looks like after a real game — only that the app already adds the numbers up for you.
Two against two — or one against three
In a Sauspiel it’s two against two: each of the two losers pays one Spielwert, each of the two winners gets one — net one Spielwert per head.
In a Solo or Wenz one stands alone against three. So the declarer collects (or pays) from each of the three one Spielwert — for him all together 3× the Spielwert.
Legen, Kontra, Re
Three things multiply the finished sum, right at the end: each Legen ×2, a Kontra ×2, a Re ×2. Four Legen plus Kontra plus Re is ×64. A Tout, by contrast, multiplies inside — it doubles the base tariff itself, before anything is added up.
And the multiplier is reported, never re-applied — the lines in the settlement are already multiplied and still add up to exactly the Spielwert. A Ramsch is priced altogether differently: it has no base tariff at all, but a flat price of its own. More on that in the house-rule lessons.