When you find yourself in a bad contract, there is no need to despair or feel depressed but
hope for the best. You will be lucky sometimes, as the distribution of the opposing cards will be
such that you score an absolute ‘top’ instead of the ‘bottom’ that you feared. To illustrate this,
let us see a hand double-dummy that came up in a pairs contest.
The Bidding
N-S were Precision. North did not want to open 2C because of the rickety suit. So, he started with the nebulous 1D.
The 2D response by south was the ‘inverted minor’, suggesting four or more trumps and by their agreement was forcing to game. South’s 2NT was aimed at protecting the queen in case north had S A-x-x in the suit. 4 NT was quantitative which
North accepted because of the undisclosed fifth club and a hand with full of controls.
The Early Play
When North spread his cards on the table, South was horrified to see the stiff Spade ace
in dummy but West was delighted to see the ace go.
Declarer realized that 6C was cold. So, he had to hope that diamonds break 3-3. Winning the opening lead, declarer cashed the three diamonds. No luck as RHO pitched a spade on the third diamond. He cashed three clubs next, West pitching two spades on the second and the third club.
Over to you! Do take a while before you read on.
Analysis
West had presumably led his 4th best Spade. With 4 Diamonds and a singleton Club, he also had 4 Hearts (while you are aware of this as you are watching double dummy, the declarer at the table didn't have that benefit). He presumably seemed right for a squeeze.
The six-card ending was as alongside.
On the fourth club, West could afford to part with a heart. On the last club, declarer parted with a heart and East started feeling the squeeze. He let go the Spade King, hoping East had the Queen.
However, that was only delaying the inevitable as declarer came to hand with the Heart Ace and cashed the Spade Queen, turning on the screws once again.
Discussion
Declarer started with eleven tricks but ended with all thirteen. Such is the power of squeeze play.
As an aside, you may be wondering who the unfortunate West was who was squeezed so thoroughly. You guessed right. It was the perpendicular pronoun!
While I have executed many squeezes on the table, this was the first time I had been subjected to a triple squeeze. Hopefully, this was the last. You will agree that this sort of squeeze can take its toll on you!
Do put down your comments on the hand in the comments section below
Disclaimer : All opinions are entirely those of the author and are no reflection of the views of the BridgeFromHome Team.
Leading against 6 NT is utterly different than leading against lower NT contracts.
All your assumptions about the opening lead are erroneous. I’d go as far as saying only an idiot would lead away from a king vs 6NT. Especially with 3 safer suits to lead.
Dear Simon,
Thanks for writing in.
Please refrain from commenting on the personality of the players in the deal.
This is merely a record of what happened at a table.
Regards,
Sukrit
With both North and South bidding diamonds and North showing hearts, the lead of DJ can be dangerous if K-9-× is held, by North, thereby creating a finesse position.
Same with the heart suit. It can help declarer to establish tricks there.
There is no such rule as never lead away from a king in 6NT. You may have to use your judgement.
In this hand it did not cost. Any other lead would have resulted in the same squeeze position.