What makes a good Grand?

Transcription

1 What makes a good Grand? Grand is easier to play than a suit game only 4 trumps, not the usual 11! The hardest part of playing Grands is recognizing when you have one and when you don t! The Rule of Strong Six/Weak Seven (Easy, less reliable) Consider grand if you have six or more when you: Count 1 for each Jack 3 jacks including the club jack is a weak 4 All 4 jacks is a weak 5 Count 1 for each Ace All 4 Aces is a weak 5 Count 1 for each 10 if you can lay it away or and Ace guards it. Count 1 for being Forehand Count 1 for a 4-card suit headed by a full one, but only when you have 3 jacks Mastering the art of playing and winning Grands boosts your Skat score immensely! Count once or twice-guarded tens as weak. Also count 10 s in a 4+ card suit as weak if you are weak in Jacks. If any 10 is weak, you need a count of 7 to play grand. The Full Ones Rule (More difficult, more reliable) 1. Count the full ones (A & 10) that you can expect to get home if you play Grand. 2. Add one to that that s how many tricks you can afford to LOSE. 3. Count your losing tricks. If they don t exceed the previous number, play Grand. Full Ones + 1 #Losing tricks is OK (if you play well) Playing Grands Well The Forehand Only Grand If you have a 4+ long suit with A and 10, 2 jacks and only 2 suits covered by aces, this is a Grand ONLY IN FOREHAND. Do not surrender the lead by playing a jack! Lead the long suit to force out the other jacks and trump back in with yours. Lay away: Play the Spade Ace after the Club 10, then the rest of the Clubs. Throw off the low spades on tricks that don t contain a full one.

2 The Club Jack Grand Bid to 48 if you have - The club jack alone - 3 Aces with one matching 10 - The opening lead - One other trick Lay away: Why not the two diamonds??? Lead the club jack first, then the A-10 suit. Finesse in Hearts only if the jacks are all gone. Throw off the Diamond on any trick that contains a picture prevent a 21-pointer. The Aceless Grand If you have 3 jacks and a very long suit, Grand is sometimes no problem even with no Aces. Lay away This game cannot lose with expected card distributions. It only loses if one player has all 5 Diamonds and 2 full ones to smear, (<3% of the time!) Lead the Diamonds early, not the Jacks, to prevent a Player from throwing Diamonds off. The 3-Jack Grand Timing is everything. Establish your staggered side suit before pulling the 4th jack prevent smears/signals by the defense! OR Strip your hand of entry cards, then pull the jack before you establish the 3-card side suit. You can throw off if you don t see a full one on the table.

3 Lay away DO NOT: Pull the jack first and then open the staggered side suit! Why? The Without 3 Grand You need five strong full ones or six if any are weak. If you don t have the lead, you need all four suits covered or three suits covered and a void suit. Use the Diamond Jack to pull two jacks (hopefully) unless you need to trump a void suit. Lay away Ace of Hearts and Queen of Spades. In Forehand, lead the Jack, or if not Forehand get your full ones walk first do not lose the lead if a suit is uncovered. The Grand Without 4 These hands are fun! With 5 Full ones - Bid to 23 and play Null for the cheap loss if you find bad cards. - Play the odds! You will score more points in the long run this way. With 6 full ones (or 4 aces and a 10) bid up to at least With 4 aces and two tens, bid to the value of the longest suit without 4. With 7 or 8 full ones, bid to the moon! Play the Grand without 4 by laying away 2 full ones from the longer suits or losing pictures. Do not play Grand without 4 with a 5+ card suit unless you lay away A and 10 and keep K. Look for the favorable , or patterns after you pick up and PAY ATTENTION to the bidding to help decide. Lay away A-10 of clubs or the Aces in Clubs and Diamonds. If someone bid a suit, then lay that suit away. If all remaining full ones or 3 full ones plus the King of clubs walk, then you definitely win!! It is very typical in grand without 4 to put away two full ones and lead the remaining ones in a sprint to 61!

4 Defense against Grands Grands are strong hands. Meet strength with strength. Do not lead weak cards unless you are sure the Player can follow suit, or else the Player will throw off. That is never good. Opening lead: Your best Ace (strongest suit), or a picture from a long suit. Avoid leading a singleton or doubleton in Grand, unless it s an Ace. Forget the long road, short suit; short road, long suit axiom. Lead a lone losing jack of diamonds through your partner if you don t have a good lead. Or lead the suit your partner bid (his long suit). Lead the 10 from a 10-K-D or even a 10-x-x-x-x suit (if Grand Hand). This is fun! With two black jacks, lead one and pay attention to Partner s signal. If possible, force the Player to burn a Jack to get the lead back. If you have the top 2 jacks, it is good to try to disarm the Player of his Jacks. Change suits once the A and 10 drop. If it s Grand Hand lead Aces each trick and change suits even more frequently. Pay attention to your partner s initial discard of a weak suit keep that suit. Often the Player has a weak 3-card suit. Look for finesses there. SPECIAL SIGNAL FOR GRANDS: Indicate the Ace you hold be playing a card from the other suit. Example, if you hold the heart ace, discard a diamond as a signal. Grand is 24 points per multiplier, so don t allow cheap Schneiders. Finesse in your 2 or 3-card suit only if you are out of Schneider. If the Player has shown a void suit, leading that suit into your partner puts your poor partner in a pickle. He has to sacrifice a full one on it, or else the Player throws off. Your guarded 10 is more likely to win the last trick in a run-down than your Ace. Your twice-guarded King is even more likely to be the card to keep. Sometimes the twice-guarded D is the key card to keep. WATCH YOUR PARTNER S FIRST THROW OFF! Keep that suit. Don t lead it unless you have A-10. When you have the first chance to discard, dump your singleton for this reason, even if it s points, and, yes, even if it s a 10! Keep singleton aces.

5 Bidding higher: Playing Hand vs. Fishing for Grand (aka Guckser) Do not be afraid to play a hand game or commit yourself to playing grand when the strength of your hand warrants it. The Rule of Full Ones works just as well for deciding when to play Hand as it does for Grands. Hand with very long suits tend to be hand games (not grands) unless you have 3 or 4 jacks. With a Stong Five or a Weak Six, you have about a 50/50 chance of finding a jack or a full one. If a card of a certain suit also helps, you are probably justified in fishing for a grand. It all depends on the situation. You can still play hand games with a bare 10. Just plan on losing 25 points on it. Defense Against Hand Games The Player has no layaway. Lead aces and switch suits more often than usual. Try to figure out the Skat cards ASAP based on your holding and partner s signals. If you can figure them out before the Player, you can mess with him! Put the ten on your partner s ace more often than you do in suit games. It has a better chance of walking. Stick with a suit until the 10 drops or is revealed to be in the Skat.

6 The In s and Out s of Playing Nulls KEY: Look for safe vs. unsafe combinations of suits. If you have more than two risky suits, avoid bidding null. Rock solid safe: 7, 7-8, 7-8-9, , B, D, etc. Rock solid safe if not led: 7-8-B, 7-9, 7-9-B, 7-9-B-D, 7-9-B-K, etc. A little risky: 8, 8-9, 7-10, 7-8-D, 7-8-D-x, 7-9-D-x, etc. Riskier but playable: 9, 8-10, , 7-8-K, 7-9-K Other combinations are quite risky don t go there. Bid simple null with 2-3 vulnerable cards to put down. Not null ouvert. Play null hand with two moderate risk combinations that you don t want exposed, e.g., two bare 9 s, or a 9 and a 7-B. Go for null ouvert ONLY with ONE unsafe card to put down, like a bare K (85% chance of getting it down). OK to play null ouvert with a bare 8. If you have the lead, lead the 8 immediately. Do not try a null with a four card suit and no 7. Beware of the four card suit defense will get 2 discards if they lie 3-1 in that suit. Hesitate to play null ouvert with two four card suits in your hand and anything other than rock solid safe. From an 8-9 or 8-9-x combination with the lead, lead the 9 and the 7 may drop. If you hold all four suits, only play null with at least three 7 s. Null is often used as a safety valve or an escape hatch to get out of risky game cheaply when you find bad cards in the Skat. Many tournament players bid risky games to 23 and no higher. Null ouvert can always be attempted when you have only 1 card to put down in an otherwise pat hand. Defense against Nulls Null defense is HARD. It s subtle, you don t get to practice nearly as often. Remember there are 8 cards per suit. You MUST COUNT them. Playing a card of a suit that only you hold is embarrassing. In fact, defeating a Null is basically solving a puzzle. Some puzzles are easily solved, others get very intricate. Most nulls lose when one partner is able to clear his hand of a suit and the other partner leads a card underneath what the Player holds in that suit. A smaller percentage lose when all 3 follow suit and the Player has the highest card. For this reason, it s important to play in order to allow each other to THROW OFF and clear the high cards out of their stronger suits. Principles: - If you have the lead, immediately show a singleton to your partner. He should relead it. - If you have a bare Ace and another singleton, play the Ace first then the other singleton. Show them both. Partner should relead the bare Ace suit first, then the second suit. - If your partner led first, return his suit if you can unless you can account for all 8 cards in the suit and are certain the Player is void. Then show your partner your singleton. - Keep leading the suit even if you know the Player can play under to allow your partner to discard. - In null ouvert, look for forcing leads into the Player that make him go under you and allow your partner to clear a high card in that suit. - Avoid playing your long 4+ card suit until you have to. - If you hold high cards only in a suit, let your partner open it through the Player if possible, not you. Or wait for opportunities to discard. - If you have to open a suit with 8 and high card, try the 8 first. More often than not it s the better play. - Don t OVERTHINK nulls. Many times the defense gets so wrapped up in elaborate convoluted thinking that they miss the simple and obvious solution.

7 How do you play these Nulls? 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6)