Today’s deal is from a pairs tournament which had twenty tables. Except for two pairs, who declared 6C, all others reached 3NT with the N-S cards. A rare type of squeeze came up and one declarer seized the opportunity to make eleven tricks, after a favourable lead.
Plan the play and see if you can make the same in the deal below
Bidding Explanation
N-S were playing precision. Ideally North should have rebid ♣C to describe a powerful two-suiter and 14-15 points.
Analysis
There are 11 tricks available even if the clubs break. i.e. 5 Clubs, 3 Diamonds, 2 Hearts and a Spade.
If they don't, then we will immediately be attacked in spades. If at all, we have to make 11 tricks, it can only be through a possible squeeze. For that we will have to rectify the count so that there is only one possible loser. (For elaboration on count rectification, please read Clyde E Love's excellent book on Squeezes).
Before we go ahead, you can take a look at the full hand and see if that helps you plan the play double dummy.
Play
Declarer won, cashed ♣K, and played a second club. When West discarded a high spade, he passed the trick to East who won with the ♣Q. East shifted to the ♠Q which declarer ducked (Rectification of Count).
Declarer won the continuation, discarding a diamond from dummy. He now played 2 more clubs, arriving at the following six-card ending:
On the last club, East and South discarded a spade each. Realising that if he discards the ♠K, his partner would be squeezeds when North cashes the two diamond winners, he gave up a heart
Now, declarer cashed ♦AK and then played the ♥A. Once the ♥Q fell, declarer next finessed the ♥T to claim 11 tricks and a near top.
Discussion
After the initial few tricks, declarer had the complete count of West’s hand. Having worked it out to be 4-3-5-1 distribution, he could execute the play without difficulty.
Afterword
This squeeze is called a ’guard squeeze’, as West had to relinquish his heart guard, exposing his partner to a finesse.
Play out the deal with a deck of card to understand the beauty of the guard squeeze.
West blanked his queen of hearts on the last club, playing his partner for J-T-x-x in hearts which will enable the defence to restrict declarer to ten tricks.
Note that if east has Q-J-x-x in hearts, this squeeze fails.
Finally, there would have been no story if west had lead the unbid suit spade to start with. To lead a diamond, LHO’s main suit, instead of a spade was very foolish on the part of West. He lost valuable tempo on the lead and obtained the field bottom.
Disclaimer : All opinions are entirely those of the author and are no reflection of the views of the BridgeFromHome Team.
There is NO squeeze if west discards whichever suit south discards . Last 3 cards for W – H- qx D- J , S — H – ATX , E – H – JXX. An alert W can count all S cards played & does not keep any .