Psellos
Life So Short, the Craft So Long to Learn

The Schnapsen Log

August 11, 2013

The Last Place You Look (interlude)

Martin Tompa

Here are winning lines of play if you lead K at trick 5, Emmi discards ♣Q, and you draw either J or A from the stock. If you draw J, you will be on lead from this position:

Emmi: (20 points)
AQ
Q
♣ —
AK

You: (38 points)

KJ
♣ A
TQ

You cannot simply cash your three winners, as Emmi will discard two queens and a king and your trick point total will only reach 65. Instead, cash only two of your winners, reserving J to regain the lead later, and then lead Q. If Emmi discarded Q on your ♣A, she can cash two diamonds, but will eventually let you trump her A for plenty of trick points. If instead she discarded K on your ♣A, that will set up your T as a winner when you regain the lead with J.

If, rather than drawing J from the stock, you were to draw A, you would be on lead from this position:

Emmi: (20 points)
AQ
QJ
♣ —
K

You: (38 points)

K
♣ A
ATQ

If you begin by forcing Emmi to trump your ♣A, she will force you back with Q and you will have lost trump control. Your only remaining trick will be A, and you will finish with only 60 trick points and no chance of winning the final trick. Instead, you must pull one of her trumps before forcing her with ♣A. She will then be on lead from this position:

Emmi: (34 points)
AQ

♣ —
K

You: (44 points)


♣ —
ATQ

She can reach 61 trick points by cashing her spades, but eventually she must let you back in with a diamond and, whenever she does that, you will take the remaining tricks.

© 2013 Martin Tompa. All rights reserved.


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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.

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