[Bska] Hand records from our January Duplikat event

[John McLeod]

On Tue, 8 Feb 2011, Nick Wedd <nick at maproom.co.uk> wrote:
>I see that, for 15 of the 84 deals, the result was identical at all 
>three tables.  This is higher than I have noticed in the past; maybe 
>players are getting better.

Maybe. It used to surprise me that we got so few identical results in 
these events - far fewer than in a Bridge tournament, for example.

>But one hand struck me as odd.  Vorhand, holding
>  J   C H
>  C   K Q
>  S   K
>  H   K 9
>  D   9 8 7
>became declarer, and unsurprisingly, failed in his contract.  Why would 
>anyone bid on that?  I can only guess that someone else said "18", and 
>he responded "yes" before looking at his hand.

It could have course have been an accident - Vorhand said yes too 
hastily or mis-sorted his hand. If it was a deliberate action then my 
guess would be that both other players passed, and Vorhand decided to 
risk finding something good in the skat. Note that if you are interested 
in jacks and aces there are 6 of these cards that you can't see. If both 
your opponents are fairly aggressive bidders you would expect them 
always to bid with 4 of these cards and sometimes with only three. So 
there is an excellent chance that there is at least one ace or jack in 
the skat.

If both skat cards are useful (jacks, aces or diamonds) you have a 
chance to win. It's not a good percentage decision in a money game but I 
suppose you might do it near the end of a tournament if you need a swing 
to catch up?
-- 
John McLeod                      For information on card games visit
john at pagat.com                   http://www.pagat.com/