The Schnapsen Log

Avoid the Ducking Ruff (solution)

Martin Tompa

“Hold on,” you say. “I think I found a better lead. Uncle Claudius could have led ♥T. I hate leading my tens when I haven’t seen the ace yet. But Claudius is probably going to lose that ♥T to my ♥A eventually, so why not sacrifice it right now and pick up that juicy ♠T?”

“All right,” says Hans. “Let’s try leading ♥T. What will happen then?”

“I would win with ♥A, assuming I have it in my hand. Which I did,” you reply. You stow that trick and draw a replacement card for each hand.

You: (21 points)
♠ KJ
♥ KQ
♣ —
♦ A

Claudius: (38 points)
♠ ATQ
♥ —
♣ —
♦ TQ

“All I’d be able to do now is cash ♦A and declare the marriage, and that would give me … only 55 points. Uncle Claudius would have won 1 game point if he’d led ♥T instead of ♦Q.”

“Well,” says Hans, “he would have won at most 1 game point. To know if it really is 1 game point, you’d still have to consider if you could do better by ducking ♥T instead of winning it. But let’s leave that for now, because you’ve forgotten something more important. What is the first play Uncle Claudius should consider when leading to the last trick before the stock is exhausted?”

“Oh,” you murmur, a little shame-faced. “That’s right, I should have first considered closing the stock.”

Would Uncle Claudius do better than winning 1 game point by closing the stock at trick 5? When you’ve worked out the answer, you are welcome to read my analysis.

© 2012 Martin Tompa. All rights reserved.

Comments