Psellos
Life So Short, the Craft So Long to Learn

The Schnapsen Log

September 1, 2012

Tenuous Control

Martin Tompa

You’ve been at the Café Abeles long enough now that a new order of coffee and cake has arrived. This time the cake is Pfirsichkuchen, with juicy peach halves peeking out the tops of the generous pieces. Yum. The game against Lore continues between bites.

Unseen cards:
ATKJ

♣ TK

Your cards:
Q
Q
♣ AQ
K

Trump: ♣J
Stock: 1 face-down card
Game points: Lore 5, You 4
Trick points: Lore 26, You 47
On lead: You

You are ahead in this deal, due to the diamond marriage that you declared earlier. But your control is tenuous at best. Plan your 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

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.

Read about Winning Schnapsen, the very first and definitive book on the winning strategy for this fascinating game.

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