From                   1st November, 2006, Board 11

                                          Theme                Squeeze Technique

                                          Difficulty            * * *

                                          Dlr South            None Vul

West leads the Heart Four.  What is your play at Trick One?

SOLUTION

If Spades are breaking, you can count 12 tricks.  Further, if West has led from a Heart honor and you can guess which one, then you will have 13 tricks.  We don't think that there is a strong indication one way or the other, whether to play the Queen or play low, either could work.  But there is another consideration.  If the Heart is misguessed (or if East has both missing Heart honors), then you will have to rely on a squeeze for 13 tricks (the Club finesse risks defeat, of course).  The Diamond threat (the 4th one) and the Club threat (the Jack) are in your hand, so you'll have more flexibility if you can arrange for the Heart threat to be in Dummy.

So, play low on the initial Heart lead, and the Jack forces your Ace.  Now you cash 5 Spades, East following three times and pitching the 8♥ and 6♣, and West following twice and pitching 2♣, 5♥ and 7♥.  The defenders are discarding well, and you still have no idea where are the K♥, Q♣, and the long Diamond.  Anyway, before you cash that last Spade you must cash the high Clubs (the so-called Vienna Coup), so next comes a Club to the Ace, and a Club to the King, East following with the Ten and Nine, West with the Four and Seven.

You are now down to a 5-card ending ... the Queen is the only Club still out, so the Club Eight can serve as the Club threat just as well as the Jack.  Now, cash the last Spade, and hope that one of the opponents is squeezed.  It turns out that it is East who has that dubious honor, as the full deal is:

East was doomed if he held 4 Diamonds and the K♥, or if he held 4 Diamonds and the Q♣.  How about West?  His hand would crumble if he were the one with the 4 Diamonds and the K♥.  West would also be squeezed when he holds 4 Diamonds and 5 Clubs to the Queen (or QT9).

Keys to Success

   - Playing a low Heart from the board at Trick One in order to prepare for a potential squeeze

   - Cashing the high Clubs before playing the "squeeze card" (which is the final Spade)