Psellos
Life So Short, the Craft So Long to Learn

The Schnapsen Log

January 10, 2013

The Lowly Jack (solution)

Martin Tompa

I’m sure you know by now that, when following to the last trick before the stock is exhausted, the first thing you should consider is ducking. If you’re going to duck her J, the obvious discard is ♣K, in order to deny Aunt Polona her ♣A later. If you discard this, you will draw the lowly jack of trumps and Polona will be on lead from this position:

Polona: (46 points)
K
TK
♣ A
Q

You: (24 points)

AJ
♣ —
ATK

Unless she forces you to trump, the only trick she is going to take is T. So her best play from this position is K to try to gain trump control. You trump this with your lowly jack and cash A to reach this position:

Polona: (46 points)

TK
♣ A

You: (44 points)

A
♣ —
TK

Your next lead of K is a counterforce play, leaving Polona endplayed in this position:

Polona: (60 points)

K
♣ A

You: (44 points)

A
♣ —
T

She cannot force you again with ♣A, because that trick would bring your trick point total to 66. Therefore all she can do is lead K to pull trumps for you, after which your T takes the last trick. Either way, you win 1 game point and the entire game.

Going back to trick 5, we could investigate what you might draw from the stock and how the endgame would proceed if you took Polite Polona’s bait and won her J lead. But there’s really no point in doing so, is there? You cannot win more than the 1 game point you are guaranteed to win by ducking, so why waste your energy? Save it for the next game.

© 2013 Martin Tompa. All rights reserved.


Comments

blog comments powered by Disqus

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.

Subscribe

Getting Started

Links for Schnapsen and Sixty-Six

Links in German

Links in Hungarian

Recent Columns

September
Sidestep a Few Landmines, Sep 2
June
Two Last-Trick Problems, Jun 27
May
More Extremes of Luck, May 21
April
Grasping at Straws, Apr 4
March
A New Scheme for Remembering Cards, Mar 23
September
As Luck Would Have It, Sep 9

Archives

2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012