More Than Meets the Eye - Much More!

team competition
't Veld
September 19, 2002

	A 10 x 9 x x Q 10 8 x A Q 9
J x x x x 10 x x x x x x x		x x A Q J x A x x J 10 x x
Lead: x	K Q x K 8 x x K J K 8 7 x

Made 5 —— NS +660 ——

East opened 1 and I became declarer in 3NT as south and ended with 11 tricks through a simple squeeze in hearts/clubs without the count. Not to difficult, but the deal has some nice points. Watch the play and see if you can find any mistakes (from a double-dummy point of view).

The spade lead went to the queen. Then two diamonds followed, both ducked by east. I crossed to the club ace and lead another diamond on which south threw a heart. East won the diamond ace and returned the queen of hearts for souths king. Now I crossed to the club queen (to check for Jx or 10x in west), cashed the spade king and ace and squeezed east in the following position with the queen of diamonds:

	- 9 x Q 9
J x 10 x -		- A J - J 10
	- 8 x - K 8

To throw a club is obviously bad, so east elected to throw a heart. I threw a club as south and then ducked a heart. This board resulted just in a 1 imp gain, but boards like this are good for the ego.

So find any mistakes? First, of course the defense could have been better. Instead of throwing a small heart on the third round of spade, east should throw the heart jack. Now, when south plays the diamond queen, east can throw the heart ace! South can now not afford to duck a heart, because west will win this and cash two spades. Not to difficult when you think about it, but players seldom throw away high cards while they still have small ones!

Is there a play for 11 tricks even if easts defense is optimal? Yes, there is. South should squeeze east before he looses his spade guard. South should not check for Jx or 10x in clubs in west by crossing to the club queen, but should first cash the spade king. Now the endposition will be like this:

	A 9 x Q 9
J x x 10 x -		- A J x - J 10
	x 8 x - K 8

On the queen of diamonds east has only loosing options. A club is obviously bad, a small heart leads to the same ending described earlier (now with the spade ace as squeeze card instead of the queen of diamonds), so east has to throw his heart jack. South can throw a heart and continue by ducking a heart. East can not take his heart ace, because this will make the nine of hearts high. However, when east ducks, west will win this trick with only spades left, which results in a suicide squeeze on east!

Wow, the deal has some intriguing squeeze positions. For most bridge players probably more than meets the eye. Nevertheless, from a practical point of view, the line taken by me may be preferred over the double-dummy line of play. First of all, it makes the hand much easier when west has 10x or Jx of clubs and secondly most easts won't find the double-dummy defense.