The Schnapsen Log
Between a Rock and a Hard Place (solution)
Martin Tompa
“Let’s reconstruct the hands at trick 6, right after the stock was exhausted,” says Uncle Hans. He lays out the two hands on the table:
Emmi: (36 points)
♠ TK
♥ J
♣ AK
♦ —You: (32 points)
♠ J
♥ TK
♣ Q
♦ J
“You were on lead at this point,” Hans continues. “I’m sure you worked out that you cannot afford to let Emmi trump your ♦J, because that trick, plus her two other winners, gives her enough trick points. You led ♠J instead, and that didn’t work out. The reason it didn’t work is that Emmi has more cards in that suit than you do, and you’d like her to open up the suit so that she loses a tempo. For the same reason, leading ♣Q won’t work. That leaves only a trump lead. If you pull one round of trump, you’ll be on lead in this situation.” Hans removes a trump from each of the two hands:
Emmi: (36 points)
♠ TK
♥ —
♣ AK
♦ —You: (44 points)
♠ J
♥ K
♣ Q
♦ J
“Now, not a trick earlier or later, is the time to lead ♦J. Emmi can no longer trump it, so you don’t have to worry about her reaching 66. What will happen if you lead ♦J?”
“Oh, I remember this situation now,” you answer excitedly. “It’s what I think you called a tempo squeeze. Emmi is squeezed and has to pick a winner to discard.”
“And what do you do after she picks her discard?” Hans continues.
“I lead whichever suit she discarded, because she no longer has more cards in that suit than I do.”
“Exactly right, dear!” Hans rewards you with a big smile. “Let’s suppose Emmi discards ♣K on your ♦J; discarding her ♠K instead would be entirely dual. You continue by leading ♣Q, the suit she discarded. After winning that trick, Emmi is left on lead in this position.” Hans removes a few more cards from the table:
Emmi: (50 points)
♠ TK
♥ —
♣ —
♦ —You: (50 points)
♠ J
♥ K
♣ —
♦ —
“Emmi is now forced to open up the spade suit herself, and loses a tempo because of it. Your last trump will win the last trick,” Hans concludes.
“Oh, I wish I could have remembered that,” you say. “It’s such a pretty endplay.”
Hans points out, “The signature to look for is the presence of two 2-card suits that are winners in your opponent’s hand, where you have one card in each of those two suits, plus a trump. Your remaining card will be the squeeze card.”
© 2013 Martin Tompa. All rights reserved.
