The Schnapsen Log

Order from Chaos (goals)

Martin Tompa

In this deal, you have accumulated enough trick points that it’s probably not going to come down to who wins the last trick. With your threat to cash ♦A and add 15 points to your total, Lore cannot afford to force you to trump her ♣A. On the other hand, cashing your ♦A and ♥Q only brings you to 61 points, and it doesn’t seem so easy to arrange to take the last trick, so you need to set up another trick somewhere. ♠K looks like the only possibility.

You’ve got a lot to accomplish in just a few tricks. You have to cash ♦A, pull Lore’s last trump, and set up and cash ♠K. In what order will you do all these tasks? Think about it now before reading on, if you haven’t already figured it out. I’ve repeated the position for you below, for your convenience.

Lore: (19 points)
♠ T
♥ J
♣ A
♦ TK

You: (41 points)
♠ KJ
♥ Q
♣ —
♦ AQ

Trump: ♥
Stock: Exhausted
Game points: Lore 5, You 6
On lead: You

When you are ready, go ahead and read the rest of my analysis.

© 2012 Martin Tompa. All rights reserved.

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