pinochle vs cards

pinochle and cards both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
pinochle	Yes	No	No	No
cards	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, cards is a hypernym of pinochle; that is, cards is a word with a broader meaning than pinochle:

pinochle: a card game played with a pack of forty-eight cards (two of each suit for high cards); play resembles whist
cards: a game played with playing cards

Other hypernyms of pinochle include card game.

pinochle (noun)	cards (noun)
a card game played with a pack of forty-eight cards (two of each suit for high cards); play resembles whist	a game played with playing cards