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Basic Squeeze Technique
These examples show straightforward squeeze situations and the basic preparations that are sometimes needed to put the squeeze into effect.
Related Play Problems Play Problem 59
Related Extracts from Past Wednesday Games
Suppose that, on opening lead, North makes the unrecommended choice of the A♣. Does that hold Declarer to 11 tricks? Actually, no! Provided that Declarer can guess the trump suit, he’ll be able to rattle off all of his Spade and Diamond winners, and catch poor South in a Heart-Club squeeze for the 12th trick. There are two lines, however, and one of them is somewhat farfetched: - Un-Farfetched Line: North cashes the A♣, and continues Clubs. Now, Declarer guesses the Spades correctly, and proceeds with the rattling off of winners. Which suit should be rattled off first? The communications are such that the squeeze card must come from Dummy, so the Spades are cashed first, then the Diamonds, and if either defender has the KQ♥ and the Q♣, the squeeze will come to fruition. - Farfetched Line: North cashes the A♣ and shifts to a Heart. Now, the entry situation has changed, and the squeeze card must come from Declarer … this means cashing the Diamonds first, while there is still an enemy trump remaining … somewhat dangerous, North might ruff, and they cash a Heart and 11 cold tricks have become 10. But, on the actual hand, this improbable line of play actually works, the long Diamonds are with the long trumps, and eventually the squeeze will materialize.
If West leads a Heart that will be a disaster for the defense, handing Declarer 12 tricks when the Clubs break and the Diamond finesse works. So, let’s suppose instead that West starts out with a Diamond. Dummy’s Jack wins, the A♣ is knocked out, and now the cashing of the minor suit winners will squeeze West in the majors! Again, making 12 tricks. Hey, North, bid ‘em up, can’t you?!
Is 6NT always cold? No, it goes off on the unlikely lead of a Spade. Then when East gets in with the A♣, he must return a Spade, breaking up the communications for the squeeze.
Let’s look at the aforementioned squeeze again, there is a trap for the unwary. Suppose that Dummy’s J♦ wins the opening lead, the A♣ is knocked out, and West returns a Diamond. You win on the board, cross back on a Diamond, cash all but one of the remaining Clubs, to arrive at this position: Dummy ♠ AKQ9 ♥ QT ♦ ♣ West East ♠ T876 Immaterial ♥ KJ ♦ ♣ Declarer ♠ 42 ♥ A63 ♦ ♣ 7 West will be squeezed when that 7♣ hits the table, but it would be poor play not to cash the A♥ first. If Declarer neglects to do this she will have to guess which of the majors West has unguarded, but by cashing the A♥ first there will be no ambiguity.
4♥ was Redwood, and East showed one Key Card (1430 responses).
There is no obvious reason why North should lead a Club, let’s assume that he starts with a Heart. Trumps are drawn and the Spade finesse wins. Declarer can now go for the gusto by cashing the Hearts and all the trumps, squeezing South in the black suits. For the squeeze to be operational Declarer must take only one Spade finesse before running those red suit winners, the reason being that the Spades are needed as communications between Dummy and Declarer.
In 4♠, it will be 10 tricks, provided that Declarer arranges for a Diamond ruff on the board. It might even be 11 tricks if the play develops as follows: Q♦ lead, won in Dummy Diamond is conceded Q♠ is returned, won by Declarer’s King Diamond ruff Cash K♠ Lose a Spade to West Diamond ruffed by Declarer Here is the end position: Dummy ♠ ♥ KT6 ♦ ♣ K96 West East Immaterial ♠ ♥ QJ8 ♦ ♣ QT5 Declarer ♠ 8 ♥ A9 ♦ ♣ A72 Declarer has 5 of the remaining 6 tricks on top, but East is squeezed if Declarer takes the trouble to cash her last Spade next. She pitches a Club from the board, and East (who has already pitched one Club) is forced to unguard one of his two suits. This squeeze works whenever either defender started with 4 (or more) Clubs and the QJ♥. Are 11 tricks inevitable? No, but they are quite likely, West must shift to Hearts when in with the Diamond, and continue Hearts when in with the trump. It takes both those Heart leads to disrupt Declarer’s communications and break up the squeeze.
Adventurous bidding by West, but not unreasonable, and 7♠ is cold when East puts down a suitable hand. Anyone for the matchpoint-inspired contract of 7NT? There are 12 top tricks and the only hope for a 13th is through a squeeze. There are actually 6 possible squeezes. Care to identify them? Here goes: A. North is squeezed in Hearts and Diamonds B. South is squeezed in Hearts and Diamonds C. North is squeezed in the minors D. South is squeezed in the minors E. South is squeezed in Hearts and Clubs F. Double squeeze (North in Hearts+Diamonds and South in Hearts+Clubs) It’s also possible that North or South are squeezed in all three suits, if one of them holds 5+ Clubs, 4+ Diamonds and the KQ♥, but we’ll ignore those as they eventually reduce to one of the above. And one squeeze that is not listed above is a Heart-Club squeeze against North, that won’t work because she would have both the menaces sitting over Declarer’s holdings and would be discarding after Declarer.
Let’s say that North leads the K♥ against 7NT. That marks North with the Q♥ and we can say goodbye to Squeezes B, E, and F. All that is required to pull off the squeeze is to win the opening lead, cash one high Diamond (in case a singleton Jack is out there), unblock the Q♣, then run the Spades and cash the two remaining Club winners. These will be Declarer’s and Dummy’s last three cards: Declarer Dummy ♠ ♠ ♥ J ♥ ♦ T ♦ KQ6 ♣ 6 ♣ Did the squeeze work? How will you know? It’s pretty simple, all that is required is to watch out for the Q♥, of course, and to count the Clubs played: - If South has both the minors she will either have pitched her Clubs by now setting up Declarer’s Club spot, or else she will have pitched a Diamond, setting up Dummy’s suit. - If North was squeezed in the minors she will have suffered a similar fate, only more so because she also has the Q♥ to conserve. - If North was squeezed in Diamonds and Hearts, the Q♥ will have appeared by now, or else North will have pitched a Diamond. So, the keys to making 7NT after the K♥ opening lead were simply to unblock the Q♣, cash the black suit winners, and count the number of Clubs played. Not too difficult, eh?
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