Psellos
Life So Short, the Craft So Long to Learn

The Schnapsen Log

July 27, 2012

As Luck Would Have It

Martin Tompa

Peter’s friend Lore has joined the two of you for a cozy afternoon at your favorite daytime hangout, the Café Abeles. Today’s special is Linzertorte and, of course, lots of hot coffee and cards. You are preoccupied with the fact that you haven’t yet scored a single game point against Lore, though in the back of your mind there is also the concern that Peter will get the last piece of Linzertorte.

Unseen cards:
J
K
♣ J
TKQ

Your cards:

T
♣ TK
AJ

Trump: A
Stock: 1 face-down card
Game points: Lore 3, You 7
Trick points: Lore 41, You 46
On lead: Lore

With no hesitation Lore pulls out the marriage to show you, returns the king to her hand, leads Q, and goes back to her Linzertorte. Plan your play. When you think you have a good plan, you are welcome to read my analysis.

© 2012 Martin Tompa. All rights reserved.


Comments

blog comments powered by Disqus

About the Author

Martin Tompa

Martin Tompa (tompa@psellos.com)

I am a Professor of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington, where I teach discrete mathematics, probability and statistics, design and analysis of algorithms, and other related courses. I have always loved playing games. Games are great tools for learning to think logically and are a wonderful component of happy family or social life.

Read about Winning Schnapsen, the very first and definitive book on the winning strategy for this fascinating game.

Subscribe

Getting Started

Links for Schnapsen and Sixty-Six

Links in German

Links in Hungarian

Recent Columns

September
Sidestep a Few Landmines, Sep 2
June
Two Last-Trick Problems, Jun 27
May
More Extremes of Luck, May 21
April
Grasping at Straws, Apr 4
March
A New Scheme for Remembering Cards, Mar 23
September
As Luck Would Have It, Sep 9

Archives

2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012