From                 16th August, 2006, Board 21

                                          Themes             Reading the Lead

                                                                    Squeeze Technique

                                                                    Squeeze Defense

                                          Difficulty           * * * *

                                          Dlr East             E-W Vul            Hands Rotated

                                                                                               for Convenience
 

West leads the 6♦.

This one is about overtricks, as you have nine certain tricks.  You were lucky to escape a Club lead, how do you cash in on your good fortune?

SOLUTION

It doesn’t pay to play too quickly at Trick One, and here is a classic example.  Declarer must first consider West’s possible holdings in the led suit.  If the 6♦ is a fourth-best lead, then the Rule of Eleven says that East has no cards higher than the 6 … 11 minus 6 is 5, and Declarer can see all 5 of those cards in his hand and in Dummy.  So, he must remember to play the 7 at Trick One!  This wins and East pitches a Heart.

That’s step one.  When the 7 holds, Declarer is now up to 10 tricks.  Any chances of an 11^th?  Yes, indeed!  If East is void in Diamonds, he might well have control of both majors, and be subject to a squeeze with careful timing.  Win the 7♦, lead a Diamond to the Ten, which West does well to duck.  Next, the A♠ and a Spade to the Queen, and the K♦, won by West’s Ace.  West shifts to a Club, ducked to East's Queen, and now the stage is set for the major suit squeeze against East. 

	♠ Q72 ♥ 963 ♦ KQJ73 ♣ A4
♠ T ♥ J8 ♦ A98654 ♣ KT85	North    West          East            South	♠ J9864 ♥ QT742 ♦ ♣ Q97
	♠ AK53 ♥ AK5 ♦ T2 ♣ J632

Keys to Success

   - Reading the opening lead and realizing that the Seven should be played from the board

   - Cashing the A♠ before crossing to Dummy's Queen (for why, see Postscript 1)

   - Executing the major suit squeeze against East (just count the Spade discards)

Postscript 1

Why was it good technique to cash the A♠ before crossing to the Dummy's Queen?  The answer is that it helps Declarer get a count on the hand.  When West shows out on the second round of Spades there is no ambiguity in the end position, whereas, if Declarer had no count on the Spades, he would be guessing which major suit East had unguarded in the end game.

Postscript 2

Do you see how West erred in the play?  He did well to duck the second round of Diamonds but he might also have ducked the third round … and the fourth round!  It’s not often that it’s right to duck 4 rounds of a suit, but here’s an example.  By not taking the A♦, West disrupts the timing for the squeeze and holds Declarer to 10 tricks.