Simple squeezes

I have enjoyed squeezes from the first time I ever managed to play one. That was a simple squeeze needed to make a slam, and I think that scenario is the one that still gives me the most pleasure, so many years later. Of course, I have some unfulfilled ambitions these days - I’ve never yet managed to play a backwash squeeze, or even an ordinary squeeze with a losing squeeze card. But simple squeezes and strip-squeezes are the most common forms, and my feeble faculties can still pick them out. I’m amazed that some people can be quite familiar with the game and yet remain completely ignorant of squeeze play.

Case in point:

Game all, dlr N, IMP pairs

♠ K Q 7
♥ A
♦ A Q 10 7 5
♣ A 9 7 3

[ ]

♠ A 9 5 3
♥ K J
♦ K J 9 4
♣ K 10 8

1♦  Pass  1♠  Pass
3♣  Pass  4NT Pass
5♦  Pass  5♥  Pass
5♠  Pass  7♦  All Pass

6♥ led.

I was playing with a total stranger (this was our second hand together) on OKBridge, but one who was higher rated than me on OKB’s scale. We had agreed to play 1430, and with no suit explicitly agreed, I figured my 4NT would refer to clubs, and that therefore his 5♠ response to the Q-ask would show both the Q♣ and the K♠. At that point I could have bid 7NT, but I thought that 7♦ might be a shade safer, and that either grand would be a good score at IMPs. It never dawned on me my partner would misplay the hand, and yet he did, outrageously. He simply cashed his winners, which is actually the winning plan. But instead of discarding a club on the last trump before cashing dummy’s tricks, he saved the trump and used it to ruff the fourth round of spades. After he went quietly one down, and saw that several people had made 7♦ and several more 7NT, his first comment was that “some people made it” but his “3♣ bid had told the defence what to keep”. Obviously, he had never heard of a squeeze, and assumed that the only way to make was a defensive error. I was speechless. It may seem against the odds, but in fact West did hold four spades and the QJ♣. No preparatory work was necessary – just cash all your winners, and don’t throw that fourth spade away, and the contract falls into your lap. And the most frustrating part of the debacle was that there was nothing in the hand that needed a trump. I could have bid 7NT and had just as much chance of making as that palooka had in 7♦ - and I would indeed have made it.

Some measure of emotional compensation was achieved the following night at the Manhattan.

Game all, dlr N

              ♠ Q 9 5 2
              ♥ A K 8 4
              ♦ K 5 3
♠ 10 7        ♣ A K         ♠ J 6 4 3
♥ J 10 7 6 2                ♥ 9 5
♦ 8 7           [ ]         ♦ Q 10 6 4
♣ Q 10 9 5                  ♣ J 8 6
              ♠ A K 8
              ♥ Q 3
              ♦ A J 9 2
              ♣ 7 4 3 2

1♦  3NT
6NT All pass

My partner (a regular partner, but not agent 99) had just misplayed a hand, and I wasn’t feeling too charitable when he opened 1♦. This explains the peremptory jump to 3NT, rather than a careful exploration via an inverted raise, which would almost certainly make him the declarer again. He took me at my word and put me straight into slam.

The opening 6♥ lead (again!) went to the 9♥ and Q♥. A quick count revealed 10 tricks, with an 11th very likely from diamonds and lots of chances for a twelfth, so my first move was a diamond to the K♦, and a finesse of the J♦. That won, but I noticed a high-low signal on my left, and decided that the Q and 10♦ remained on my right. I had noticed that the rule of 11 indicated that a deep finesse of the 8♥ should win, so I tried the 3♥ next, but West was careful to insert the 10♥, so I won the A♥ and took stock.

At this point I have eleven tricks. The 8♥ is a menace against West and the 9♦ is a menace against East, spades may break, or may be longer in one hand, and there is a club menace against both. But I haven’t yet rectified the count, and the only way for a double squeeze to work is if I duck a club – which is impossible! - or a spade, which will throw away what might be my best chance to make or completely screw up my communications. So instead I must decide on a simple squeeze, and lose a trick to make that work. With West having five hearts and East having four diamonds, I decided that if anyone had four spades, it was fractionally more likely to be East. In that case, the answer was to lose a heart trick, so I now led the 8♥, discarding a club from hand. West won and returned a club, but the stage was set. Three rounds of spades revealed the 4-2 split. The A♣ and the K♥ reduced everyone to two cards. On the table was the 9♠ and 5♦, in hand I held the A♦ and 9♦. East was left to find a discard from ♠J ♦Q ♦10.

Two or three other people bid to 6NT, but no-one else made it - a refreshing turn-about from the night before.