Psellos
Life So Short, the Craft So Long to Learn

The Schnapsen Log

March 27, 2013

How Much Do You Trust to Chance?

Martin Tompa

The battle with your buddy Peter continues. It would be arduous if it weren’t for the Café Abeles’s good supply of coffee and cake.

Unseen cards:
ATQ
TQ
♣ T

Your cards:
J
A
♣ AJ
Q

Trump: J
Stock: 1 face-down card
Game points: Peter 1, You 4
Trick points: Peter 12, You 50
On lead: You

Now this is more to your liking. You picked up 2 game points in the previous deal, and in this deal you’re far ahead in trick points, thanks to the diamond marriage you declared earlier. How do you proceed? When you think you have a good plan, you are welcome to read my analysis.

© 2013 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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Recent Columns

September
Sidestep a Few Landmines, Sep 2
June
Two Last-Trick Problems, Jun 27
May
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April
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March
A New Scheme for Remembering Cards, Mar 23
September
As Luck Would Have It, Sep 9

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