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Complete Hand Example #10

Player A – K♠, 10♦, 8♠, 6♠, 6♣, 5♥, 4♥, 3♠, 3♦, 2♣, A♦
Player B – 7♦, 6♦, 5♦, 4♦, 10♥, 9♣, 9♠, 7♠, 5♠, A♠

Conditions: the knock card is the K♠. Player B is in jeopardy on all three games. Because of his large loss on the previous hand, he is in the position of having to protect the games while at the same time playing catch up. Player A, of course, wants to win the game and prevent his opponent from recovering the advantage.

Play of the Hand:

Player A – Discards the K♠.

Player B – Going to the stock, he selects the J♦ and discards it since, with the fine offensive hand that he has, he cannot afford to play ultra-safe at the first pick.

Player A – Picks the A♥ from the deck and discards the 10♦.

Player B – Picks from the stock the Q♦ and now has a choice of discarding that Queen which can only be used for Queens or the 10♥, which can only be used for the heart run. He notices that the first three discards from his opponent have been a K♠, J♦, and the 10♦. He is acutely aware that Queens have not shown in their normal sequence, so his opponent could be holding them. However, if he is holding Queens he can also be holding the Q♥ with the Jack, in which case he might use the 10♥ as well. One additional factor is that if his opponent uses the 10♥ he might be tying up a needed 9. Player B decides that the Q♦ is more of an appropriate throw.

Player A – Picks the 2♥ from the deck. At this point he does not want to break his 6♠, 6♣, 8♠ combination so he must now throw one of his small cards. The A♥ will do him the least harm as well as the least good. He discards it.

Player B – Going to the deck, he buys the 4♣ and is no more concerned about throwing the 10♥. He noticed that his opponent has first thrown a King and then a 10. He definitely is not playing with Jacks or Queens. He has now followed his throw of a 10 with an Ace. He is definitely not looking for a low card to knock with and must be holding some combination around 9’s or 10’s since he did not follow the throw of his 10 with another 10 or 9. He therefore discards the A♠.

Player A – Draws the 8♦ from the deck and discards the A♦.

Player B – Pulls the 8♣ from the deck. The added offensive strength now warrants his throwing of the 10♥.

Player A – Picks the 3♣ and throws the 2♣. This relatively late throw by his opponent of the 10♥ indicates that his opponent had it in some combination, either with the 9 or 8, and the next throw could conceivably be the 8♥.

Player B – Going to the deck, he pulls the Q♣ and discards it.

Player A – Picks the J♣ and discards it.

Player B – Draws the K♦ from the deck and discards it.

Player A – Picks the J♠ and discards it.

Player B – Going to the deck, he pulls the K♣ and discards it.

Player A – buys the 9♥ from the deck and throws the 2♥.

Player B – Picks from the deck the 7♣. He now has a hand in which any one of two cards would gin him, the 6♠ or the 8♠. The 7♥ would give him nine melded as would the 9♥, 9♦, or 10♣. It is also true that the 4♥, or the 4♠ would give him nine melded but he cannot retain all of these combinations. With such a strong hand, it would be foolish to give up his maximum strength. Since the defensive values of any of the cards vary only slightly, he throws the 4♣ as being his least valuable card.

Player A – Obtains the Q♥ from the deck, but discards it.

Player B – Picks the 2♦ from the deck and throws it away.

Player A – Picks the A♣ and discards it.

Player B – Picks the Q♠ from the deck and discards it.

Player A – goes to the deck and pulls the 10♣. He realizes that he is missing the 7♣, 8♣, and 9♣ and considers that he does have the 4♥ to throw without breaking any runs. If he throws the dead 4♥ though, he has no way to tie up the live 5♥. There is a chance that his opponent may very well have three 9’s. This thought results in the decision to throw the 10♣.

Player B – Takes the discard and now has nine melded cards. He now has the choice of knocking his hand or playing for gin. First he will consider his gin possibilities. He will have to discard either the 9♠ or the 5♠ so that his potential gin cards are the 7♥, 6♠, or 8♠ depending on which of the two cards he discards, the 5♦ which is only three ways, or the J♣ which is already out of play. He further notices that although he has all middle cards, no hearts have been shown. It is most likely that his opponent has middle hearts tied up. Player B is also aware of the fact that Aces, Twos, and Fours have been thrown. No threes, so it is equally likely that the 3♦ is tied up. Therefore, he would have either the 6♠ or the 8♠ or he could be sitting with both waiting for the 7♠. Therefore, Player B has at best an extremely bad gin hand which at the same time might even be a dead hand. Upon considering a knock, he realizes that the layoffs against this hand would be limited to the 7♥ and the 3♦. His opponent could be holding all of the missing hearts from the 3 right up to the 9 and could have a meld of threes as well. However, if he had all of these hearts in melds he would be stuck with either single or double 8’s or 6’s. He would certainly appear to be holding either or both the 8♠ or 6♠. He could also be holding the 8♦, 9♦ as potential layoffs now cut off the diamond run by the three 7’s, and he could also be holding the pair of missing nines. With all these ways open, Player B has a practically guaranteed win on a knock. It far outweighs his gin potential. He therefore knocks and wins substantially.

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