[Trumpace]

Again, this hand is for intermediates/Adv- only. (Sorry, not for beginners or experts)

Friendly game. No one cares about vul.

You hold

KQ6, AKQJT, K32, A8

You are dealer and open 2C. LHO bids 3C. Partner bids 3S. Rho passes and you bid 4S. LHO passes and partner bids 6S. RHO passes. You chance a 7NT.(comments please...)

So the contract is 7NT.

LHO leads a heart and you see the following:

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What is your plan?

[mikestar]

Best percentage plays is KQ of spades then low to the A unless East has shown out, in which case hook the 9. This works for all 3-2 splits, Hxxx with West, and JTxx(x) with West if he fails to split his honors (a good West will). This is nearly 80% without accounting for a defensive error.

Master psychologists can debate which is more likely to induce a defensive error: running the hearts first in the hopes someone wtih 4 spades is stupid enough to discard one, or play on spades immediately in the hopes a defensive error is more likely eralier in the hand.

The given bidding was guesswork, but you sure got to a fine contract. An 80% grand is wonderful when everbody will be in 6.

But 7♥ hearts is even better: you get your thirteenth trick by ruffing a diamond after pulling 2 trumps. This is virtually 100% --to beat you diamonds must be 6-2 with a high trump left in the short hand or 7-1 or 8-0.

7♠ is the worst--it goes down whenever 7NT does, is down 2 when spades are 5-0, and can also go down if opening leader has five heartes and leads one. (5% chance he has them, will probably find the lead if he does.)

[cnszsun]

If we suppose 3C overcaller has 6 or more clubs, then contract seems cold.
After 3 rounds spades, no matter who has 4+ spades, a squeeze will be there.

[whereagles]

Yes. Cash 3 spades, 2 clubs and 5 hearts. In the 5th heart discard last club if it's not good. A double squeeze will develop automatically.

[inquiry]

I have decided to continue with the Squeeze Thread, but in a different fashion. I am creating a Bridge Blog-based book. That seems a better idea for a number of reasons. First, The text will not be interupted by addition post. Second, it will always be easy to find (go to the blog, and there it is), third, the blog method seems easier manage, although formating the hands is still a little tricky.

Anyway, I have just taken a stab at formating (mostly by stealling other peoples format...but they said I could)... Any feedback on what is right or wrong with the approach is always appreciated.

Don't run over there and look for anything new, so far just about 1/3 of the introduction is posted. But keep an eye out, as I will update it as time goes on. I think I will create a BBO Advanced one too, if some members here would volunteer to help with that task.

Click here for a Link to Identify Squeeze Blog

For this hand.. whenever it looks like you have 14 tricks, needing 13, slow down and look for what might go wrong.

Ben

[Gerben42]

Edited!
<sorry did not see 3♣ overcall. If there was none the hand is more complicated.

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On the last heart the club and spade stopper stick together and the diamonds are left to the other defender.

SOLUTION

Spoiler

Now if the Spade length is in West watch what happens if you do not cash any black winners but just the Hearts:

---

On the penultimate Heart West must break one of his minors.

If he breaks up his Club stopper:
Cash AK of Clubs and lead the last Heart for the same position as before.

If he breaks up his Diamond stopper CLUBS is the "both" suit. The correct line is now: 2 rounds of diamonds followed by the last Heart squeezing West first. Then Cross to the Ace of Spades to squeeze East afterwards.

Note that you need to guess what suit West has abandoned. If East has the Spades then he will keep mirroring dummy's distribution (abandon Diamonds) and the squeeze will fail unless he never held a Club stopper.

This is more an expert hand.

This post has been edited by Gerben42: 2005-June-30, 08:47

[cherdano]

Gerben42, on Jun 30 2005, 03:06 PM, said:

not quite whereagles!

I think whereagles has read the auction and assumes that LHO has 6 clubs.

[Gerben42]

Okay, didn't see that.

That tells you that

a ) the auction is relevant in the play
b ) bidding when you are not going to win the auction might simplify things for declarer!

[whereagles]

Indeed I was assuming 6+ clubs with LHO... lol.

If clubs split.. yeah, then you have that nice squeeze. "Compound squeeze" is the name, I believe.

[Trumpace]

whereagles, on Jun 30 2005, 09:46 AM, said:

Indeed I was assuming 6+ clubs with LHO... lol.

If clubs split.. yeah, then you have that nice squeeze. "Compound squeeze" is the name, I believe.

Isn't the name double squeeze? I thought a compound squeeze is different from a double squeeze.

Anyway, back to hand.

The cashing of 2 top clubs before the last heart is a good play to avoid a club guess.

For instance, say you cashed AKQ spades (discovering RHO had them stopped) and then started cashing the hearts.

On the last heart, LHO discards a club (his fourth club discard). What do you discard from dummy? A club discard would be right in case LHO had 7 or more clubs. In case he had exactly 6 clubs, the 3rd club in dummy is good! (though from the bidding I would expect at least 7 clubs with LHO)

Cashing the top clubs early avoids this guess. Nice.

Anyway, is the 7NT bid really a (very) wild guess? How would the bidding have gone with your partner?

[whereagles]

Well, what I call "compound squeeze" is a double squeeze position where no one is directly squeezed, but is forced to unguard one suit, and subsequently subject both defenders to a regular double squeeze. Something just like the hand you showed, lol.

I got this definition from Romanet's book, but perhaps other authors call it differently.

[Gerben42]

I think that's the official name but you can name it headache squeeze if you want.

[joker_gib]

whereagles, on Jun 30 2005, 09:11 PM, said:

Well, what I call "compound squeeze" is a double squeeze position where no one is directly squeezed, but is forced to unguard one suit, and subsequently subject both defenders to a regular double squeeze. Something just like the hand you showed, lol.

I got this definition from Romanet's book, but perhaps other authors call it differently.

You are right !

And Romanet's book is a great one !

Alain

[Trumpace]

whereagles, on Jun 30 2005, 09:46 AM, said:

Indeed I was assuming 6+ clubs with LHO... lol.

If clubs split.. yeah, then you have that nice squeeze. "Compound squeeze" is the name, I believe.

Aahh.. you were referring to the case when clubs split _evenly_ i.e, both LHO and RHO can stop the suit... No wonder I was confused. By split i thought you meant the clubs split good for us (the 6-2,7-1 or 8-0)

Jlall, on A moment of insanity, :-), said:

Yeah, names really arent important.

Not quite, chewbacca. Giving names to stuff simplifies conversations.
Getting hung up on names will make people call you names though..