Game on (24 June 2020)

Continuing from last week, we had the following position

We have only one guaranteed turnover. Let’s hope its a good one.

< gc, ab, jb, ef, if, hf, dj> As

Note that I deliberately broke the 7-6 of Clubs in column ‘i’. This is because if we expose an Eight then we get an empty column. The down-side is of course if we don’t draw an Eight then we are stuck with one less in-suit build then we “deserve”. This type of trade-off is typical in the middlegame. It would be nice if we could ensure (1) any Eight wins back an empty column and (2) we don’t lose any in-suit builds. Unfortunately I can’t see any way to achieve this.

Another reason for breaking the 7-6 of Clubs is I can arrange ten out of thirteen cards in Spades in a single column. From experience I find this increases the chances of completing Spades when the missing cards finally do come out. This type of “advanced” consideration can easily outweigh “basic statistics” such as the number of in-suit builds.

Finally we have to decide which of the four left-most columns to turn-over. I chose column ‘d’. I turn over an Ace of Spades and must deal a new row.

As usual, whenever a new row is dealt it is wise to study the game state in some detail before making any moves.

• Do you think this is a good set of 10 cards under the circumstances?
• How many guaranteed turnovers do we have?
• Can we complete any full suits? Yes, No or Not Even Close?
• How would you continue?