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
Pinochle allowing the remaining players to follow the appropriate rules for the respective number of players. Check pinochle is a gambling variant of three-hand. It is the same as to 1000, except that players keep track of "checks". If playing for $1 stakes, each check gained means that the other two players owe a dollar. The following events cause a gain or loss of checks. Today "double-deck" pinochle is a popular form of the game, exclusively played by the National Pinochle Association, the American Pinochle Association, the Cambridge Pinochle Association, and in the "World Series of Pinochle". Double-deck pinochle is played