[inquiry]

This hand showed up in a TEAM GAME the other day, and then was the object of a chat room devoted to it. Here your partner just blindly forces to slam, leaving up to you to play....

IMPs
NS-vul

A2
KJT654
T752
A

8653
A9
AK6
K765

Bidding....
S W N E 2S = spades
1N 2S 4D P 4D = transfer
4H P 4N P 5H = Two Ace, no HQ
5H P 6H P
P P

Opening lead SPADE KING,
hint WEST has the heart Queen.

How would you play?

[luis]

A2
KJT654
T752
A

8653
A9
AK6
K765

I'd try a minor suit SQZ against east. Take the sA, draw trumps discarding a spade, play club Ace and duck a spade.
If West returns a diammond or club then play cK, ruff a club and cash the
last 2 trumps hoping to squeeze east in diammonds and clubs. If west returns a spade then ruff, diammond to K, cK and club ruff and the last heart should SQZ east in the minors.

[lifemonster]

I think to duck a diamond is slightly better. Win the lead, club Ace, heart Ace, club K pitch spade, heart finesse, clear trumps, then duck a diamond.
If there is minor squeeze against E, and say W returns a spade, you can produce this ending:

--
xx
Txx
--

x
--
AK
xx

E must keep 3 diamonds and 2 clubs. Now play the 2nd last heart, if E pitching diamond, diamonds are good; if pitching club, diamond to Ace, ruffing out the club big, with diamond K as entry.

You can even try that kind of ruffing squeeze against West. Still the similar ending but change South's hand to
xx
--
AK
x
Let's say it's West having diamond length. In the 5 card ending he must keep 3 diamonds and 2 spades.When you cash the 2nd last trump pitching a club in hand, West is finished! If pitching a diamond then diamonds are good, if pitching spade then diamond to Ace, ruff out the spade with diamond K as entry.

This way you also keep the possibility of 3-3 break in diamonds.

It seems their best defence is to return a diamond after you duck the suit, destroying one of your entry in the above ending.(ruffing squeeze? I still can't get the name of it

[inquiry]

Congradulations to Luis. This hand indeed can make on the straight foward positional simple squeeze with the threats Club x and south's diamond x against East.

Lifemonster went for the trump squeeze, with the diamond threat in dummy playing along a "criss-cross" squeeze line (with club ruff as entry to diamond threat in dummy and diamond winners as entry to club threat in south). While this looks like it has all the requirements for a trump squeeze, it will not work against good defense. His line works if after winning the ducked diamond, they return a spade (see the ending in reply 2). However when he ducks a diamond, two bad things might happen. First, East may win the diamond and be out of spades, so he can not return one. On a diamond or club continuation, his entry's get mangled. His ending is flexible enough only because he has two entries to his hand...one to ruff the next to last club, and one to cash it. Look at the ending without TWO high diamonds or without two clubs....

ending A... after a diamond return
--
J
Tx
- S--
H--
-- D-QJ
-- C-K
A
75


On heart jack, East can throw the Diamond Q with impunity.... change it to..

ending B, after a club return
--
J
Txx
- S--
H--
5 D-QJ5
-- C-K
AK
7

On the heart J, east can pitch a diamond again with risk. It is the extra diamond winner/extended club threat that allows the squeeze the criss-cross squeeze to mature while retaining a heart in dummy. The opponent who returns a minor suit here understands what Geza Ottlik refers to as "elbow room" in his Unbelievably good book "Adventures in Card Play".

To duck a diamond, you have to pitch a spade on the club King, and to so, exposes you to this killing minor suit return. Ending A and B above, plus the ending shown by lifemonster in reply 2 are WELL WORTH studying to make sure you see this point about Elbow room, as it can be useful on offense or defense.

So the question becomes, ok, the minor suit squeeze worked, and ducking a spade was right. But how do I know this is the best line. Might not diamonds be 3-3 all along? Might not West have spades and diamonds?

Obviously the answer to both of these questions is YES. Let's imagine the play at the table for a moment.

SA. CA. HA. Heart to QUEEN-KING.

It looks like West holds 5/6 spades, 2 Hearts. As matter of fact, playing UDCA, RHO played the SPADE 7 at trick one. Maybe a singleton? If so, West was 6-2 in the majors and East 1-3. How does this affect the odds of a 3-3 diamonds split? You can do the math away from the table some time, to get the accurate precentage, but surely with 8 "known major cards" with West, compared with 4 in east, the 3-3 split is no longer the standard 35.5%. I think the odds are 28% for 3-3 (I surely have to use a computer to figure this out).

So what are the odds you can catch East with either 1-3-4-5 if west is 6-2 in the majors? I think it is ~42% of the time, while 1-3-3-6 only 28% of the time.

There is also a chance for a the squeeze even with 3-3 diamond splits if EAST has QJx instead of Qxx or Jxx. And there is a killer three-suit pseudo squeeze on West if he is looking at s-Q,, D-Jxx C-QTx and thinks he has to keep clubs, and thus throws a diamond figuring his partner needs the diamond Queen anyway.

All in all, playing for the Club-Diamond squeeze against EAST seems to be about twice as good as playing for a 3-3 diamond split. At least IMHO.