Cards and game theory at the table

Much of the German card table is still in use away from it, and aus dem Schneider sein is the clearest case. In Skat, the side that has taken thirty card points or fewer is Schneider, and the game is scored at a higher value against it; once it has passed thirty it is aus dem Schneider — perhaps still beaten, but no longer humiliated. The idiom keeps exactly that shape. A firm that has landed the order it needed ist aus dem Schneider: not rich, not safe for ever, but past the point where things could only get worse. « Out of the woods » is the nearest English, though it has no scoring behind it. And because the line is drawn at thirty, the phrase has a second, joking use: somebody who has just turned thirty is said to be aus dem Schneider as well.