From                 28th February, 2007, Board 7

                                          Theme              Throw-In Squeeze

                                          Difficulty           * * * *

                                          Dlr South          Both Vul                Hands Rotated

                                                                                                  for Convenience

West leads a 4^th best Spade Seven, won by East’s Ace.  East shifts to the Q♣ which you win in Dummy.

At this point, it seems fair to assume that East has no more Spades.  It would also be most surprising if West did not hold the A♥, he must have something for her vulnerable overcall.  You have 8 top tricks, where’s the ninth?

One possibility, after winning the Club shift, is to play on Hearts, hoping that West has either Q♥ or J♥, and no more than 3 Clubs.  At Trick Three you can finesse the T♥, losing to West’s Queen or Jack, then duck a Club and win a Club.  Now, if the second Heart finesse forces the Ace, and if West is now out of Clubs, you will make your 9 tricks.

That line of play works fine if West holds:

            Hand A:           ♠ Qxxxxx  ♥ AQx  ♦ x  ♣ xxx. 

But can you find a line of play which also makes 9 tricks when West holds:

            Hand B:            ♠ Qxxxxx  ♥ AQ    ♦ x  ♣ xxxx

            Hand C:            ♠ Qxxxxx  ♥ AQJ  ♦ x  ♣ xxx

The aforementioned line of play fails against Hand B because West still has a Club left when she wins the second Heart.  And it fails to Hand C because West takes 3 Heart tricks.

Can you do better?

SOLUTION

Assuming that West has all the Spades and the A♥, you can put him under pressure in the end-game.  Win the Club shift, finesse the Heart, duck a Club, win the next Club, and run the Diamonds (making sure to count the number of Spades pitches made by West).  West will have to come down to 3 cards, and two of those must be Spades.  He’ll have no Clubs left because he is also hanging on to the A♥, but to no avail because you exit a Heart end-playing him, regardless of whether he started with any one of those 3 Hands above.  It’s called a Strip Squeeze (aka Throw-In Squeeze).

There’s a small flaw in the above analysis, see what it is?  Yes, if West started with Hand C, you’ll lose the Heart finesse and duck the Club, but East will win and unsportingly shift to Hearts, earning the defense 5 tricks.  What’s the solution?  Yes, duck the first round of Clubs!  Now the hand is ice-cold provided that West started with 6 Spades (almost certain), the A♥ (surely she has that card), and at least one of the Q♥ and J♥ (most likely).

	♠ 642 ♥ 32 ♦ KJT72 ♣ AK8
♠ Q98753 ♥ AQJ ♦ 4 ♣ T72	North    West           East            South	♠ A ♥ 854 ♦ 853 ♣ QJ6543
	♠ KJT ♥ KT976 ♦ AQ96 ♣ 9

Keys to Success

   - Ducking the first round of Clubs (a difficult and farsighted play)

   - Placing West with most of the missing high cards

   - Throwing in West after cashing the minor suit winners (important to count the Spade pitches along

     the way)