[luis]

Scoring: IMP

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You play 3NT as south, West leading a club. After 4 rounds of clubs you discover west held Axxx of clubs and kest KJx. In the fourth club you have to discard a heart from dummy and east discards the spade 7. 1. What do you discard from your hand and why ? 2. Where's the dQ ? 3. How do you plan the play?

[inquiry]

Hearing the bidding might affect my play. But I will go for the spectacular instead of the mundane. I discard a spade!!!. I play RHO for 4♦ to the QUEEN and four hearts. The justification in my mind is that with three hearts, EAST could have pitched one, also with two. His spade pitch surely wasn't from four. West's club lead from Axxx is not highly desirable, but worked well for them.

I need the second heart as an entry (if I pitch one now, I will regret it, as I need a late heart entry to dummy). I plan on winning heart or spade in dummy. Cash the top diamond, and lead the diamond jack, let run if not covered, or overtake (we will assume covered). Then I cash my diamond ten, followed by three top spades, ending in my hand... this is my (expected) position on last spade...

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On the spade Queen east crumbles. Sure, anyone can play for 3-3 spades and the diamond hook.

An alternative play is to pitch a heart, but a heart return willl mangle your entries if EAST correctly refuses to cover the diamond jack, so I toss that one.

Ben

[Free]

It seems too obvious to discard a ♦ and go for a double or triple squeeze. Still, I think it's the percentage play...

[HeartA]

I wonder why nobody voted for a Heart discard. By discarding a heart, you keep all option open. By discarding a diamond, there is no triple squeeze anymore.

[inquiry]

Free, on Nov 24 2004, 03:59 PM, said:

It seems too obvious to discard a ♦ and go for a double or triple squeeze. Still, I think it's the percentage play...

When you discard a diamond..... you are down anytime spades are not 3-3, unless you risk the same first round diamond hook I took. The reason is that you can not test spades before deciding how to play diamonds. Even when spades are 3-3, you would be down if the diamond hook is off, as you had to take it. If you don't take the diamond hook and play on spades, you have no recourse when spades are 4-2, unless the hand with 4♠ also has 4♦. Given the spade discard by east, that means playing WEST for 4441 (stiff heart) and that is not consistent with spade discard.

I can't imagine the "standard" triple squeeze you see having thrown your fourth diamond away. The reason is sort of clear. With diamond long threat gone, your threats are spades, hearts and diamonds.. but, and this is key, you have no free suit squeeze card (yes I know all about reciprocal squeezes, but this "aint" one).

Ben

[FrancesHinden]

I think I need to know the auction.
Most natural auctions will end as North declarer (e.g. opening 2NT).
A club from Axxx is not very attractive as an opening lead, so it's useful to know if that was the indicated lead, or if West chose the suit voluntarily.

Depending how much East knows about the hand, he may have discarded a spade early from his 4243. After all, if he had that hand and discarded a heart we would have squeezed him on two rounds of hearts. He also might discard a spade from three low.

Anyway, I generally don't like to give up on my genuine line in favour of trying to read inferences from opponents. Discard a heart from hand, then play for the DQ on my right.

[luis]

For the ones that asked about the bidding North opened 1 heart and south replied 1NT 6-9 HCP (!?) North jumped to 3NT.
For FREE and others: What kind of double squeeze are you playing ?
Are you sure that discarding a heart keeps all chances?

[Free]

luis, on Nov 25 2004, 07:20 PM, said:

For FREE and others: What kind of double squeeze are you playing ?

Sry, was sleepy, ignore my post. I think I was right it wasn't the obvious thing to do

[FrancesHinden]

RHO has no idea I have 4 spades; in fact on the auction I have probably "denied" four spades. So he might easily have discarded a spade from a 4333 in order to keep, say, Qxx in hearts and Qxx in diamonds.

I like playing a clever squeeze line as much as anyone, but I agree I have to discard a _spade_ from hand in order to do so, and that seems to give up on too many genuine chances.

[luis]

Well at the table Ben's line worked, East had 4 hearts, Qxxx of diamonds and a spade doubleton.
I suffered a lot in this deal because it's easy to see the squeeze but is also quite esay to see your teammates faces when you tell them that you played a non-existant squeeze with spades 3-3.
On paper I choose the squeeze, at the table I didn't because of two reasons: one was that the other declarer was probably going to play for spades 3-3 and the other was that with 4 spades and Axxx of clubs a spade lead was a logical alternative to the club lead. So applied the principle of restricted lead and went down 1. :-)
Good approach but wrong principle, this time -again- the principle of restricted talent worked, west just lead 4th from his strongest suit deciding Axxx was stronger that JTxx.
Push.

[inquiry]

Well.. .playing for 3-3 spades is always an option, and people who can't envision a squeeze will have (as luis says), no other choice. Still, when given as a problem, the logic of the squeeze is too tempting to pass up.

As an aside, when I gave my play THERE WAS NO BIDDING (I commented on it), so I assume I had shown 4♠ as part of my logic that teh spade discard was not from four.