Officers' Skat as in a normal hand (face up to the player); this is called a 'half-open' ("halb-offenes") game. In Admirals' Skat, each player is given five cards face down, five face up and five in their hand. The remaining two cards are set aside as skat or "stick" ("Stock"). The trump suit and who plays first is then determined as usual by the skat with overbidding. This variant is also called "with overbidding" ("mit Reizen"). According to Grupp (1975), the name Officers' Skat ("Offiziers-Skat" ) came from the fact that "officers only socialised with the men when they were in the
Officers' Skat wins or loses, whereas game points determine how much is won or lost. Many people calculate the points using additional matadors ("Spitzen") as in Skat, so that in a game with all four Jacks and the Ace of trumps, the winner gets 5 matador points for a game value of 6 times the base value. The same goes for the calculation of "Unters" or Jacks not held. In addition there are also simplified forms of scoring: If agreed, a game can also be played where players can 'pass' instead of choosing trumps. If the actual declarer passes, the dealer can