Mountnessing Bridge Club

An elegant squeeze to gain a precious over-trick ...

Submission by Frank Morrison: Click here

Commentary by Theo Todman

This hand is interesting in many ways, not least why no declarer other than Frank Morrison made 11 tricks. Frank saw that a squeeze was on the cards provided S had no more than 3 hearts and 2 clubs, which was far from impossible – given South’s 2D overcall. But the squeeze can come out almost by accident for a declarer who’s never heard of a squeeze provided he plays his cards in the right order! Of course, would that we always played our cards in the right order – we’d all be experts; but I just mean “sensibly, with a bit of imagination”. What declarer must not do is look at the hands, having already lost a diamond, see there’s a certain heart loser and what looks like a club loser and simply give up hope – ruffing out the red suits and conceding a club at the end.

All is not lost, even in the heart suit, at least with some possible, though sadly non-actual distributions. The first rather long shot is that either defender has HKQJ stiff, when declarer’s H10 can be made good by ruffing the third round. But, sadly, when both defenders play low to the HA, we know we’re out of luck. Then, if S happened to have HKxxx, he’d be under great pressure to rise with the K when the low H is led from dummy; after all, declarer might have HQx! But had he done so, he’d have crashed one of his partner’s honours, the other of which could then be ruffed out.

Sadly, neither of these eventualities occurred, and when S quite naturally rose with HK, no honour dropped from N. Boo, hiss! But there’s no reason you shouldn’t try. Now S is on lead, and the spotlight falls upon him. To save the overtrick, he has to lead CQ. This is because doing so removes one of declarer’s entries – either to the 3rd club in dummy or the 4th heart in hand. Now it’s possible that N would have signalled for a club when the second trump was drawn, but why should she? Frank made the excellent point about leaving a diamond in dummy rather than ruffing it out as you normally would in an elimination play to force the opposition to open a side suit or concede a ruff and discard. In this case you don’t want them to open up clubs, so leaving a “safe” exit in diamonds is a good psychological ploy.

So, S leads DA. It’s essential to ruff high, as Frank notes, or the trump suit is blocked so you wouldn’t then be able to play the last two trumps without wasting your entry to the clubs. But it’s always good technique to leave yourself flexibility for entries, so why isn’t this play automatic?

Now you lead a low H to dummy and ruff low, getting your first bit of luck when the suit breaks. Frank, of course, as he says and knowing what he’s doing, does this in order to isolate the key cards with North. But an average declarer, knowing nothing about squeezes, might play the same way, and then see a corker of a wheeze. You cross to dummy in trumps, play the last trump and discard your H10, cunningly retaining the H3. One loser is as good as another. The opponents might have been able to signal and know what’s going on, but they might not – North’s C2 might have been reverse attitude for clubs, revolving for hearts, or a spare card showing an odd number. North knows that her partner has either CK or CQ or declarer would have claimed, so if – as seems superficially the case – S has the H3, discarding a Club would give away the overtrick in a clatter of club honours. So, N discards HQ and declarer tables H3 for the last trick while N & S grab one another’s lapels.

Of course, none of this is necessary, as there’s a genuine squeeze rather than a pseudo-squeeze, but there’s no reason for declarer not to try it, as it might work even when the genuine squeeze isn’t on (though maybe not realistically on this hand, as it would require S to have CQxx, and thereby only 5 diamonds for his overcall; note that in this case N should know that S couldn’t have four hearts as well as 3 clubs, but in that case it’d be critical to keep clubs if S did indeed only have a doubleton) or if declarer doesn’t even imagine a genuine squeeze.

Well, as it happens, it doesn’t matter what N does. On the assumption she retains HQ, declarer has no choice but to play out the clubs, and – lo and behold – dummy’s C4 is a winner! 11 tricks made.

My question is, why wasn’t this line taken at all tables? Declarer can execute a perfect squeeze without realising it. We’ll never know. Maybe the defence led a club at some point at the other tables, though it’s difficult to see S leading a club from CQ5 without encouragement from N. Or maybe the other declarers just conceded 3 tricks and got on with the next board.