Officers' Skat Officers' Skat Officers' Skat ("Offiziersskat"), is a trick-taking card game for two players which is based on the rules of Skat. It may be played with a German or French card deck of 32 cards which, from the outset of the game, are laid out in rows both face down and face up. As in Skat, tricks are taken and card points counted to determine the winner of a round; game points are then awarded to decide the winner of a game. It is also called Two-player Skat ("Zweimann-Skat" or "Skat zu zweit"), Sailors' Skat ("Seemannsskat"), Farmers' Skat ("Bauernskat"), Robbers'
Pinochle may also be used. There is an increased possibility that when one team declares trump another team may have an equal number of trump also, which may lead to an interesting game. An optional scoring rule rewards 1,000 points for a quadruple pinochle—four jacks of diamonds and four queens of spades in a meld. Alternate end games One variation on winning allows a team or individual to win instantly from any score by taking all the tricks in a hand. To win in this fashion, the winning player or team must play very skillfully to prevent opposing players from taking