[plaur]

Just bragging about a nice hand I played today
Local pairs

Scoring: MP

1♠-3♣ - P - P
X - P - 3♠ - 4♣
4♠ all pass

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♣K lead and shift to ♦7 to ♦A. Spade to ♠Q and ♠A an another spade to the ♠K. ♦Q back to the ♦K. Two more rounds of spades with south discarding ♣'s, north discarding ♦'s and I look at

Scoring: MP

1♠-3♣ - P - P
X - P - 3♠ - 4♣
4♠ all pass

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With all cards in view it may seem easy, but I cannot count! I play in the dark, so to speak so my plan was still to play A♥, K♥ and finesse. But then I saw it cannot cost to just play the ♦9 and on the ♦ return there was a nice sqeeze. ♥A, ♥K, and when north showed out on the next ♥ it was sooo nice to see the ♥J drop under the ♥Q. The preempter had four hearts afterall.
Open the score and see 3x420 and 2x170. Huh? Did I miss something easy or get a good defense, cause im pretty sure the field did not do this squezze.

[Trumpace]

Well done!

But, not sure if there was really a squeeze.

South can discard the Club Ten on the Diamond 9. North after winning must return a heart.

Interesting hand, btw. After winning the diamond North has to return a heart. Any other return and you make it.

Change the hearts a bit, and you have a genuine squeeze, say, the HQ was in dummy.

[inquiry]

You have to realize someone will screw up the defense and try to cash a second club or switch to a heart away from the jack. Either of those make 10 tricks rather easy.

The "squeeze" you noted was was right, south coming to a singleton club does not help, despite what trumpace said. If north returns a heart, north wins the ACE and cashes the last trump. There is alos a vulnerable stopper squeeze on the line of play suggested. First, after you win the ♠A, lead low ♠ to the 8. Win the ♦K on the return, cross to the spade TEN (pulling the last trump), and ruff a club.

At this point you will have a count on the hand. North with 3♣, 5♦, 3♠ and thus 2 ♥ (3 clubs by their count and inference). The hand is an open book now. After ruffing a club, play the last trump in a position similar to the ending you showed. ...

Lead the last trump and throw away a diamond or small heart from dummy. What is South to play? If a heart, you can cash four heart tricks. So he will throw the ♣T. Now heart to the king, and lead the club Queen, discarding your last diamond. South is forced to win the ACE and has to lead from Jxx into your AQT.

This is a "vulnerable stopper squeeze". These are nifty little things that work with TWO losers left on a hand. Now, few will have found that play, and it is the one that works, as does yorus.

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Now if north switches to a heart after winning a trump, and anohter heart after winning the diamond you ducked, that can lead to huge entry problems for you. This makes the vulnerable stopper squeeze the way to go on this one... once south shows up with only one diamond.

[Trumpace]

inquiry, on Mar 12 2007, 03:39 PM, said:

The "squeeze" you noted was was right, south coming to a singleton club does not help, despite what trumpace said. If north returns a heart, north wins the ACE and cashes the last trump.

*smacks head*