[inquiry]

Scoring: IMP

1♠-(2♥) - 6♠ - (Pass)
Pass-(dbl) - all pass

Trailing in a barometer team game on the last board, your partner sticks you in a not-too encouraging slam contract. If you had stopped in game, however, you would surely have lost the match. The club ACE opening lead gives you a slight ray of hope. Care to try this one?

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[Fluffy]

ok, lets try to find something where it is makeable

LHO having

♣AKQxx

ruff, spade to hand, ♣J ruffed, spade to hand, 3♥ tricks pitching diamonds and a final ♣10 lead from hand pinning ♣9


But since its an inquiry's hand there has to be some sort of balancing squeeze.

We can try leading a diamond from dummy so that west has ♦A stiff and rectify the count for the balancing squeeze, but anyway it seems like we are out of timing :/

[inquiry]

Fluffy, on Jan 23 2010, 10:17 PM, said:

But since its an inquiry's hand there has to be some sort of balancing squeeze.

We can try leading a diamond from dummy so that west has ♦A stiff and rectify the count for the balancing squeeze, but anyway it seems like we are out of timing :/

I promise you, it is worth the look... clue in the title perhaps, perhaps not, I sometimes get things all mashed up.

[Fluffy]

I can see there is no balancing squeezze if we can duck a diamond in time, we can just crossruff then keeping west with 1 trumps, but I suspect there is something better .

[dellache]

Mmmm...

1. If West has say x Qxxxxx xx AKQx (East has the ♣9]), we can ruff club, Play trump to hand, finesse Heart, and [4] ruff a Heart. Now we can reach :

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And our ♦8 kills East. (edited diag.)

2. There's much better... and it's a balance squeeze, working in many positions (we just need to read the hands). We need East to have a singleton spade i.m.o.

Say West has xx Qxxxxx Hx AKx for example.
[1] Ruff Club
[2] Trump to hand (dont play the Queen )
[3] Hook Heart.
[4-5] Cash ♥Ace (that's where the line with the above first case seems to diverge). East discards (nice !), and ♥King discarding 2 diamonds.
[6] Ruff Heart
[7] Play ♣J, West covers and we ruff, and
[8] ruff last Heart.

In this example we have reached :

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and we now play
[9] a Diamond.
West has to take this to prevent a cross-ruff and play his last Spade.

Welcome to the balance squeeze.
(many transpositions).
Maybe inquiry will show us a way to win in all possible cases ?
Cheers,

[inquiry]

Well done, dellache. What works is indeed the entry-shifting squeeze position you came up with. All that is needed (lol) is west to have something like 2-5-3-3 or 2-5-4-2, or 2-6-2-3 or 2-6-3-2 distribution, and diamond honors split or both diamond honors with EAST.

The cross-ruff would see you home if hearts were something like 4-3 with heart queen onside. Never touch trump, play three rounds of hearrts, give a diamond. That is out the window on the bidding. So the line that is required is the 2nd one you showed.

For the entry-shifting squeeze to work (with some rare exceptions, this isn't one of them), you need a balanced trump position (that means 3-3 or 2-2).. this is what fluffy and dellache were talking about using the work "balanced".

As pointed out, West has to win the diamond and return a spade, or you cross-ruff the remaining four tricks. On the spade lead, you play the queen from dummy and EAST is squeezed in the minors. If he discards from the Kx of diamonds, then you win the spade in dummy, ruff out the king of diamonds, and the dummy is good. If he discards a club, you overtake the spade queen with King, ruff a club, and when you ruff a diamond your 13th club is good.

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The supposed perhaps clue that was mashed up in the title of painless... well, really bad pun that turns out wrong anyway. I meant it as a reference to the theme song from MASH (both movie and TV series) "suicide is painless". That is because I considered this a "suicide entry-shifiting squeeze", but upon reflection, it is more of a "fratricide entry-shifting squeeze". Oh well, that might be my last attempt at humor........

[dellache]

inquiry, on Jan 24 2010, 03:49 PM, said:

For the entry-shifting squeeze to work (with some rare exceptions, this isn't one of them), you need a balanced trump position (that means 3-3 or 2-2).. this is what fluffy and dellache were talking about using the work "balanced".

Actually I used the word "balance" because my english is limited. The french translation of Ottlik-Kelsey's adventures in cardplay for the entry shift squeeze is "squeeze bascule". That is also the word my teacher used when I started to learn the game (well he used to teach us entry shifting squeezes after only a few weeks if I remember ).

And the translation for "faire basculer quelqu'un" is "to tip somebody off-balance".
Oh well...

[Jlall]

you guys are good at sqzes

[Fluffy]

what I'd love to remember from this is that there is a kind of double strip squeeze in 2 suits here if LHO has ♣AKQ, not as complicated as the balancing.

Just ruff out the hearts playing 2 roudns fo spades in the procces, also lead ♣J when in hand covered and ruffed to reach:

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Lead is in south, and E-W cannot hold declarer whatever they pick. If someone has 3 diamonds you can develop a trick in clubs, and if diamonds are 2-2 they can pick whoever gets endplayed next into ruffing out diamonds or playing a club

This kind of position doens't seem so rare.