[Benoit35]

Scoring: MP

P - P - 1♣ - p
1♥ - p - 2♠ - P
2NT - P - 5♣ - all pass

Lead: ♥A

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This was the last board of a BBO tournament with a partner who advertised himself as "Advanced" yet didn't know what a splinter was, and littered the twelve boards with mediocre card play. I knew we were scraping the bottom of the standings.

I was so frustrated with him at that point that I didn't trust at all that he would refrain from bidding 2NT without at least a half-stopper in diamonds. I think he would have said 2NT with ♦xxxx just the same.

Great... now 3NT is wrong-sided and we're going to get dinged on a diamond lead. I wanted to go down on my own terms, so I jumped to the club game. "Serves us right" was my thought upon seeing the dummy.

The ace of hearts was led, and after winning the diamond return I cashed the ♠A and exited with a spade. West conveniently returned a spade wich I ruffed. I was now looking at:

♠
♥ JT8
♦ AT8
♣ T9

♠ 7
♥
♦ 5
♣ AKQ832

How to get rid of the last spade loser? I could either ruff it (hoping both the ♣J and outstanding ♠K were in the same hand), or ruff-finesse the ♥K (if East had it).

If West had held ♥AKxx, surely he would have led the king?

Down 1. The spade ruff would have worked.

The moral of the story: Even in frustration, never trust your opponents more than your partner.

[mtvesuvius]

Isn't there a squeeze here??

[awm]

mtvesuvius, on Jan 9 2009, 04:44 PM, said:

Isn't there a squeeze here??

There's a double squeeze if LHO has the heart king and RHO has the final spade. You also make if someone has the last spade and also ♦KQJ or if LHO has the heart king and ♦KQJ (but both of these are pretty unlikely). Nonetheless the squeeze chances seem to be less than 50% here unless you can tell something from the opponents carding. Ruffing the spade is better odds.

However, note that you can very frequently tell who has the heart king based on the opponents lead and carding methods. If they lead king from ace-king then RHO should have it. If RHO encouraged to trick one then RHO should have it. If RHO discouraged to trick one then LHO should have it. Obviously it is possible for good players to falsecard this signal, or to decide that they "really want a diamond switch" and thus discourage when holding an honor, but fairly often it's honest.

You may also be able to tell who has the last spade based on how they followed to the spade tricks.

[manudude03]

awm, on Jan 9 2009, 11:27 PM, said:

mtvesuvius, on Jan 9 2009, 04:44 PM, said:

Isn't there a squeeze here??

There's a double squeeze if LHO has the heart king and RHO has the final spade. You also make if someone has the last spade and also ♦KQJ or if LHO has the heart king and ♦KQJ (but both of these are pretty unlikely). Nonetheless the squeeze chances seem to be less than 50% here unless you can tell something from the opponents carding. Ruffing the spade is better odds.

The ♦K is (was) in hand so only QJ needed together for the simple squeeze.

Ruffing the spade (after drawing 1 round of trumps a little more safety) is still better though.

[Fluffy]

play ♥J and ruff it in hand before commiting to squeeze or ruff. I am not so sure that ruffing is better than the squeeze, if you can assume ♥K is with west then squeeze is better.