The Schnapsen Log

May 16, 2012

Forcing the Issue

Martin Tompa

It’s raining outside, but you and your good buddy Peter are warm and dry, back inside the Café Abeles. You have a steaming cup of coffee, a piece of delicious Topfentorte, and the cards are dealt out. Life is good.

Unseen cards:
♠ —
♥ TK
♣ A
♦ TQJ

Your cards:
♠ T
♥ Q
♣ T
♦ AK

Trump: ♥J
Stock: 1 face-down card
Game points: Peter 3, You 3
Trick points: Peter 31, You 29
On lead: Peter

Peter puts down his hand, has a bite of cake, washes it down with a slurp of his coffee, looks back at his hand, thinks some more, closes the stock, and leads ♦J. Plan the play. When you think you have a good plan, you are welcome to read my analysis.

© 2012 Martin Tompa. All rights reserved.

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About the Author

Martin Tompa (tompa@psellos.com)

I am a Professor of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington, where I teach discrete mathematics, logic, probability, design and analysis of algorithms, and other related courses. I have always loved playing games. Games are great tools for learning to think logically but, more important, seem to me an integral part of happy family or social life. I will be delighted if game-players, parents, teachers, and students find this series fun and useful.

My excitement about Schnapsen was rekindled by playing against an iPhone program called Master Schnapsen/66 written by two friends at Psellos. Set to play at its “Master” level of difficulty, this program is one of the two most formidable opponents I have found. It comes up with surprising and brilliant plays, and I have learned an enormous amount of Schnapsen strategy by playing with it. Nearly every deal in this Schnapsen Log arose during those hours of playing with Master Schnapsen/66.