The Schnapsen Log
Who Is Endplayed? (solution)
Martin Tompa
“I know what Emmi did wrong,” you announce. “This was the position when she was on lead at trick 7.” You move the cards around on the table to illustrate.
Emmi: (33 points)
♠ —
♥ AK
♣ K
♦ JYou: (47 points)
♠ Q
♥ TQ
♣ —
♦ Q
“She forgot to eliminate her trump entry before throwing me in,” you continue. “Instead of leading ♣K, she should have thrown me in by leading ♦J. That would have given me 52 trick points, but I would have been thrown in rather than Emmi. With all the trumps gone, I could have cashed ♠Q, but then would have had to open up the heart suit myself and she would have taken the rest of the tricks.”
“Very good, my dear,” says Hans with a nod at you.
“Yeah, well I know what you did wrong too,” says Emmi. “You could have played it in a way that wouldn’t give me the chance for that elimination play.” Emmi adds a few more cards to the table to reproduce the position when you were on lead at trick 6:
Emmi: (20 points)
♠ —
♥ AK
♣ TK
♦ JYou: (47 points)
♠ Q
♥ TQ
♣ Q
♦ Q
“You forgot to eliminate your own trump entry,” Emmi goes on. “You should have pulled my last trump to get rid of your ♦Q entry and my safe exit card, cashed your spade, and then thrown me in with a club.”
“You have most of it right, my dear,” Hans says to Emmi. “But the step that would be unnecessarily dangerous is cashing ♠Q after pulling trumps. You don’t want to give your opponent any opportunity to throw away the ♥K, which you rely on to be in your opponent’s hand for the endplay to work. If the ♠Q was cashed, you could discard ♥K on it, leaving this position.” Hans removes a few cards from the table:
Emmi: (20 points)
♠ —
♥ A
♣ TK
♦ —You: (59 points)
♠ —
♥ TQ
♣ Q
♦ —
“You can see that the endplay has vanished with the disappearance of that critical ♥K,” Hans continues. “You would have taken all the remaining tricks, Emmi, from this position. Emmi had the right first step: pull the trump to eliminate ♦J as a safe exit card. But then the very next move must be the club throw-in, while the ♥K still remains where you need it to be. This would be the position when Emmi wins the club.” Hans deftly moves a few cards around on the table.
Emmi: (33 points)
♠ —
♥ AK
♣ K
♦ —You: (52 points)
♠ Q
♥ TQ
♣ —
♦ —
“Now Emmi is well and truly endplayed,” Hans concludes. “She can cash ♣K on which you discard ♠Q, but then is finally forced to open up the heart suit. It’s a very interesting deal, in which each of you has lines of play to throw the other in and lots of opportunities for subtle missteps. The moral is to remember to eliminate your opponent’s safe exit cards and your own entries before the throw-in. And don’t give your opponent the chance to discard the critical card, in this case the ♥K, before the throw-in. You have to take just the right tricks, and no more, for an elimination play to work.”
© 2013 Martin Tompa. All rights reserved.
