Dear subscribers:

As always, our schedule is our business and if you dont like it.....tough. We publish when we damned well please and any more complaints will result in your name being taken off our subscription lists.   YOU HEAR ME......shut the hell up.

I have been asked by many of you to elaborate on the Jack of Diamonds high that I walked several weeks ago. It would be my pleasure.

To begin with, do not attempt this unless you are either on the end or under the gun. I was dealt all the trump to the JD, minus the eight and was leading. As I recall, I buried 15 and lead the seven. The queen of clubs, queen of diamonds, jack of hearts and the eight fell on the first trick. Thankfully, the player to my left took the trick and came back with a fail suit which I cut with my ace, naturally. The nine drew another queen and another jack, along with points in the fail suites from the two players that were out of trump at this point. Seeing two of them out, my spirits sagged somewhat, but as it turned out, I neednt have worried.

I lost the king to the remaining queen, but made the end game good and carried just enough points to make it....63 if memory serves. The monitor stood silent for a moment, but then someone offered the obligatory "nh, fox". Another added "wow, I dont believe you did that." Another comment eluded to my intestinal fortitude required to attempt such a silly thing in the first place. I didnt go into detail at the time, but the only reason I even considered going alone was very much like Mallorys answer to why he attempted to climb Mt. Everest .......because it was there. As you know, my dream is to make it with the ace high and I promise, I will attempt it at every opportunity

As Ive stated in the past, leading a small trump can have the same effect as leading the boss queen; all youre attempting to do at this point is clean the trump out of your opponents hands, nothing more. You all know how much power the seven of diamonds commands when all the other trump have been played....I dont have to belabor the obvious here. I mention this for a reason: it always amazes me to see the number of players who feel that saving the two black queens for their end game is good card playing strategy. I have no idea what theyre thinking, and dont really care to discuss it. Whatever their reasoning, its stupid and unreasonable.

Oh, sure, saving said power cards can be a real salve to the ego when the last two tricks are played, but that is not what they are designed to do. Gathering fail points is a job left to the lowly trump, king down and all the power cards do is assure that your opponents have no trump left in their hand. Let me give you an example of a recent display of this flawed thinking and leave you to decide the wisdom of the maneuver yourself.

Little icon in the upper left of the screen picks and calls me as partner. Since I had some points, some power and was leading, I was feeling rather good about our chances. I led with the queen of diamonds which she played the eight on and we lost the trick to the queen of hearts sitting behind her. Our opponents came back with the called suite, which was promptly cut. After taking the third trick, I played my last trump, a jack if I recall correctly, which fell to a higher jack to my left. Meanwhile, my partner is sitting on the two black queens......which she proudly played on the last two tricks, almost visible showing her smugness through the screen. Naturally, we lost the hand. I was nearly in shock....we had most of the top swings in trump and managed to collect 38 points.

I tried to compose myself before asking her what she was thinking, but Im sure my disgust was thinly veiled. Guess what she told me??

Just try to guess her comeback?? Yuppers, you got it.

......"Hey, its just a game......"

I nearly had the big one right there.......her answer to her inept play was to write it off as just a game. Wow.....talk about a rosy attitude about life. Lets just write it all off as a stupid game and not worry about how our ridiculous logic affects others.

Oh sure, in the grand scheme of things, one game of sheepshead more or less is not going to upset the balance of nature or cause any galaxies to spin out of the heavens, but can you imagine the nonchalance of someone who excuses their ignorant grasp of our beloved pastime by stating "hey, its just a game." Do me a favor lady.....dont ever call me again.

More later, gang!!

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(Another note from the Editor)