German card game skat finds a home in Edmonton

When Kristina Huisman was introduced to a random card game in 2011 to pass the time during her night shift, she never could have fathomed that a decade later she'd be the Canadian Champion.

The game is called skat, a trump card game that originated in Germany back in the 1800s and remains the national card game.

Huisman had the honour of becoming a champion after winning last year's national championship. 

"It's a four-player game, it's a trick-taking game and a bidding game," Huisman explained comparing the game to Hearts or Euchre.

The game begins with 32 cards being dealt out with each player getting 10 cards. Two cards are placed in the middle of the playing table and is referred to as the skat. Players can bid based on the cards that they have in their hand and the highest bidder gets to take the two middle cards.

If that explanation doesn't make it clear, skat is a complicated game, but that is also what makes it great. 

"I think what I personally really enjoy about it is that I haven't yet mastered it, Huisman said. "I've been playing for 11 years, I played quite competitively, but there's always something new to learn or new to look at."

After a year of playing, Huisman went searching for a community of players. As it turns out, this complicated, obscure, German card game has found its way into Edmonton in a big way.

Much of that is to do with Ron Link, who is Huisman's mentor and has played the game for more than four decades.

He was first introduced to the game at 18 after he moved to B.C. and realized the drinking age was 19. That led him to a German club that didn't ask patrons for ID.

"They were playing this game skat, and pinochle and skat are pretty similar," Link said. "So then that was my Friday nights, go out and have some fun and meet new people."

"Once you play skat, and you really do love playing card games, all the other games seem so easy that you get addicted," Link said.

The Edmonton Skat club now has 40 members that play twice a week.

"Edmonton has the strongest skat club in all of Canada with the best champions and the biggest membership," Link said. "We have 21 different tournament winners and over 150 wins so we're a strong club in that in that aspect."

Those tournaments have taken these card players all over the world. Canada is currently the third largest country to play the game, behind Poland and Germany.

"I always brag that there are 500 people that I can stay with at their homes and not get a hotel room because once you learn this game you automatically kind of fit into the family," Link said.

At 31, Huisman is the youngest player in the club and the youngest Canadian Champion in history.

But despite the average age of her fellow players being 60 and up, she was welcomed immediately.

"Cards bring us together and we enjoy doing that, but then we also have an Easter supper or a Christmas dinner or we all go on road trips together," Huisman said. "I joke with them all the time because I'm young, maybe I have a better memory."

"But they're just great and I love to listen to the stories that they have, and then I'd love to make new memories with these guys as well."

A dozen Edmonton players will travel to Montreal on April 21 to compete in the Canadian Championship, where Huisman will defend her title.

"My hope and dream are to become the first ever person to win back-to-back, but it is a ton of pressure," Huisman said.

"I feel like when you have your name as the Canadian champion, people are gunning for you. Now they know that you can play, and they want to see what kind of tricks you can pull out of your bag."