[inquiry]

Imps, EW vul

♠	K72
♥	KT
♦	A843
♣	Q963

♠	AQ83
♥	A87
♦	KT92
♣	AK

Bidding.
South North
2NT.....6NT
all pass

Opening lead ♠J won by the ♠Q
Trick two, ♣ACE - West discards ♥2

Plan your play, and good luck.. here was the results of this hand when played....
7NE-3 300
6CE-3 300
6NE-1 100
6NE-1 100
6NE-1 100
6NE-1 100
6NW-1 100
6NE-1 100
6NE-1 100
6NE-1 100
6NW-1 100
6NE-1 100
3NE= -600
3NE+2 -660
4NE+1 -660
3NE+3 -690

[EricK]

I shall hope West guards Spades, Hearts and diamonds.

Club King, Spade Ace, Spade King.

If spades break, I shall finesse the diamond Ten. Otherwise I will play the Club 9 (discarding a diamond from hand), win the return in dummy, and cash the Club Queen (discarding another diamond) squeezing West.

How did I do?

Eric

[inquiry]

You did perrfect. You can make on similar line without trying spades first, but obviously, no need to go for the three suit repeater if spades are 3-3, so testing for that possibility first is just right.

Full explaination. You can establish a diamond by playing WEST for 3 or 4 diamonds, by way of safety play. But if spades fail to split, this will give you only 11 tricks. And after losing a diamond, there is no double squeeze (both stop hearts, East Clubs, West spades) because neither threat against WEST is in the upper hand. Likewise, there is no simple squeeze against west in hearts and spades because of the same flaw.

Thus, the only shot (if spades are not 3-3) is for a three suit repeater squeeze. You do not bother with setting up a diamond winner by ducking one. Instead you test spades ending in the dummy (somedays the suit will split 3-3, but not today). Now you duck a club. Normally for a three suit repeating squeeze to work, you need two threats in the upper hand (in this hand, the upper hand is spades), because the defender can give up the single upper hand threat and the squeeze gains only one trick. However, here, the diamond suit is "extended". If west gives up diamonds you gain not one trick, but two tricks immediately to make your slam. So on the club 9, west will feels little pain, but on a heart back win in dummy and cash the the club queen. West will crumble.. .the West's hand was....

From analysis of the possible squeeze positions this is the most likely squeeze postion (if spades are 3-3 and hearts 8-0, you could find a squeeze on EAST in both minors).

West
♠JT9x
♥J9xxxx
♦Qxx
♣void

Ben

[Trpltrbl]

Am sure the are not breaking 3-3
So we have to go for a squeeze again, seems you like squeezes Ben.
If West guards majors or Majors and Minor we have squeeze and also can have a squeeze against East if he holds minors and 's.

Mike

P.S. do you find the play at the table too or only after looking at it for a while with all 4 hands

[inquiry]

I find a fair number of squeezes at the table, but as a result of wasting a lot of energy looking for them, i overlook simple plays and go down from time to time. This hand I was a defender and the players suggested after the hand that maybe if ducked a spade, West could be squeezed... I point out hte flaws with simple squeezes, but I was EAST and spent the entire hand hoping declearer had a two way hook in hearts for the queen and would play my partner for it... turns out he was missing queen and jack.

On this hand, there is no simple squeeze in the majors against WEST because of lack of a threat in the upper hand. That is, if you duck a diamond to gain a 11th trick, there can be no heart-spade against WEST even when only he guards the suits. This is a flaw in the simple squeeze position (no upper). This is also the same flaw with any double squeeze position (say EAST has 2S-3H-1D-7C, no double squeeze because both major threats are in front of WEST's stopper (again, no UPPER).

Ben

[Trpltrbl]

inquiry, on Jan 20 2004, 08:38 PM, said:

On this hand, there is no simple squeeze in the majors against WEST because of lack of a threat in the upper hand. That is, if you duck a diamond to gain a 11th trick, there can be no heart-spade against WEST even when only he guards the suits. This is a flaw in the simple squeeze position (no upper). This is also the same flaw with any double squeeze position (say EAST has 2S-3H-1D-7C, no double squeeze because both major threats are in front of WEST's stopper (again, no UPPER).

Ben

Yes you are right, for some reason I was sure North had 4 's.

Mike