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Going Alone w/ No Sweep

Posted: Fri Apr 05, 2019 2:15 am
by RedDuke
This just happened in a game I was playing and I wanted to get your thoughts on it.

I'm the dealer, we are down 7-2.

I'm holding this:
(Card_J-D) (Card_A-H) (Card_9-H) (Card_Q-S) (Card_J-C)

Up card is the (Card_J-H) .

First seat orders me up. Okay, fair enough, he's trying to block and protect his lead. Always a decent move when you have a big lead, a jack is showing, and you have no way to stop the lone. But then, he actually goes alone!

He ordered the right into my hand, he had to know that there was no chance he was going to make the sweep. Considering what I had in my hand, the odds that he had anything decent in hearts aren't particularly good (after the pickup, I have a hearts Dutchman+1). Given that there was no chance that he'd make the sweep and he didn't have any high trumps, surely taking his partner along would have reduced the chances of being euchred.

Can you all think of any reason why he would try this as a loner instead of just as a regular block?

Re: Going Alone w/ No Sweep

Posted: Fri Apr 05, 2019 6:16 am
by Richardb02
1. He psyches you out! You make mistakes on the next several hands.
2. You think he is an idiot! You make mistakes every time you play this fellow.
3. His strongest possible trump is the King. He wants to donate. The strategy of going Alone when it is hopeless has the benefit of psyching his opponents out and causing errors. It looks like he is practicing random acts of insanity but he is doing it with strategy.
4. He made a mistake. He receives all the benefits of the 1st 3 points.
5. He gets to laugh and laugh and laugh.
6. He gets 5 benefits for 2 points. It was going to cost him 2 points, with 70% certainty anyway. In his mind he sees the trade off in his favor. He is sick but he is a genius! I like it!
7. Bad things always happen in life. Your success in life is determined by your response to the bad things that happen to you. Calling Alone in this situation is a brilliant application of this principle. He made lemonade out of the lemons.

Re: Going Alone w/ No Sweep

Posted: Fri Apr 05, 2019 11:26 am
by Jeepster
8) He wants to control the way the hand plays out without interference from his partner. If I had trump and aces I would do the same. There are times when a partner unintentionally gets in the way.

Re: Going Alone w/ No Sweep

Posted: Wed Apr 10, 2019 10:05 am
by jblowery
My guess is that if this was an online game he just incorrectly pressed the "loner" button.