[the hog]

Scoring: IMP

---

6C - no opposition bidding.
Lead is the H6, you win the A and take the C hook which wins.
On the CA Nth pitches a S. South wins the third C and plays the HK - you ruff and Nth follows with the 2.
You play another C on which Nth pitches a D and Sth a H.

This is the position:

Scoring: IMP

---

Now what?

[Free]

Draw some trump and kill North

[keylime]

I'd draw two trumps, then go into a long diatribe with partner on the touchy subject of hand evaluation then take a chance because I think the spade finesse loses to play up to the ten of diamonds hoping LHO started life with KJxx of diamonds and the king of spades.

Admittedly, I'm not a play specialist - keep that in mind

[the hog]

You are automatically off on this line Dwayne, as you have already lost a C trick. If you play to DT, one of the opps will win the K.

[keylime]

Eek that's right I knew it was too easy to play it that way. OK let me think...I'd leave the ten of hearts there as a threat card for now. What does North pitch on the 2nd club?

[the hog]

Nth will pitch S

[keylime]

Ok here's my first thought, North has four hearts and one club. They can't pitch all their hearts so the ten's a threat card. South's 3-3 in the round suits. I need to play one more trump and see what card South pitches. Let's say they are bright enough to blank their king - I get two spade winners to pitch a diamond and two trumps to squeeze East in diamonds (I'm thinking strip squeeze). OK on the other hand, if North has the spade king, they may get caught in a guard squeeze if they hold both the diamond and spade king on trump plays. Am I any closer?

[inquiry]

---

You have 11 tricks (if ♠ hook wins), and have lost one trick. Just right for a squeeze. What squeeze might exist?

If North has ♠KJT9 and ♥QJ at this point (or any six spades including the KING), you can cash all your winners (inclubing the ♦A and have a type 0 positional squeeze. Let's agree the odds of that are simply too high, if for no other reason from ♥QJ62 leading the six against slam looks wrong. So either ♥QJ are split or South has them.

Second, squeeze could be ♠-♦ squeeze on North if he holds ♦K (at least possible) and ♠KJT9(x). Well that is a long shot of course, but once again, cash the ♦A and run your trumps, thowing away the ♦Q on last one and hope to win 3♠. Ok, that one is a long shot too.

But something funny has happened here. South could have broken the squeeze by returning a ♠ and if he lacked the ♦K he would have likely pushed a ♦. A better squeeze is probably to play South for the ♥s (from the lead) and either ♦KJ(x) or west makes a mistake and pitches to a stiff ♦J. It would help to see the cards they play.

Then finally there is a double squeeze, if EAST alone guards ♥ and west guards ♠ (any of the hands above), then neither can guard ♦. The ending is to keep 3♠ in dummy until west discards on last trump, then reduce dummy to ♠AQ [HE[T and a ♦. After two ♠, hoped for WEST has 1♠ and 1♦ and South has 1♥ and 1♦, so you win the last two ♦.

All of these endings are in play as you cash ♣ and try to read which one is the most likely. The ♥ discards will be helpful, but also the other suits. Probably I will play for the double squeeze or the ♥-♦ on south, without some strong clues from other discards on the run of trumps.

ben

[luis]

I think that south has the dK because he didn't play a diamond when he was in with the club king. I also think that south does have the hearts because leading low from QJx or Qxx of hearts against a slam doesn't make any sense at all.

Based in this information I'd play to squeeze south in diamonds and hearts (a show up squeeze)
play the 3 clubs discarding one spade and the dQ and dT from dummy.

You reach

AQ
T
4
-

vs

x
-
A97
-


I think that in this ending south will be out of spades so finesse in spades and in the sA south is squeezed in diamonds and hearts.
If the ending is different you should have great chances of reading it correctly.

Luis

[the hog]

Nice analysis Ben.
Based on your analysisof where the H and D are I think you would have got it too Luis.

Counting it out _
South has 3C and it seems KQJxx from Nth's H plays
South could have stiff DK - unlikely

Nth could have 6+S and the D K and will be squeezed, but Id expect South to have returned a D if this were the case.

You can run Cs and pitch dummy's Ds to keep both H and S guards. This was position on last trump:

---

When you lead the last trump, Nth must throw a D to keep the S, pitch a S from dummy, Sth throws a S, take the S hook and cash the A. Now Sth has to throw a D to keep the Hs.

Nth held
KJTxxx
xx
Jxxx
x

Its a double squeeze with the squeeze operating 2 tricks apart

[inquiry]

Yes, Norht with 6-2-4-1 and south with 2-5-3-3 will have to give the hand pattern away on the run of ♣s. Once south starts throwing ♥ and north a lot of ♠ the double squeeze will become quite obvious. I guess this is why you stopped showing the play as early as you did...

Maybe north should squirm a little and drop the ♦JACK (keeping ♦x) to give the impression he had to stiff the ♦King... but then coffeehousing really should not be encouraged... (and of course if he pitches the JACK and really stiffed the KING, you can still afford to throw ♦ and overtake the QUEEN as your little ♦ in hand would be good.. but still, against an unthinking declarer maybe this will work.

ben

[luis]

inquiry, on Feb 6 2004, 05:17 PM, said:

Yes, Norht with 6-2-4-1 and south with 2-5-3-3 will have to give the hand pattern away on the run of ♣s. Once south starts throwing ♥ and north a lot of ♠ the double squeeze will become quite obvious. I guess this is why you stopped showing the play as early as you did...

Maybe north should squirm a little and drop the ♦JACK (keeping ♦x) to give the impression he had to stiff the ♦King... but then coffeehousing really should not be encouraged... (and of course if he pitches the JACK and really stiffed the KING, you can still afford to throw ♦ and overtake the QUEEN as your little ♦ in hand would be good.. but still, against an unthinking declarer maybe this will work.

ben

Well I think we are ready for the press conference if we go down due to a stiff dK.
I prefer that than not playing a clear squeeze :-)