A Pseudo Squeeze Larry Klimko 805-964-0334 lklimko@ispwest.com Squeezes come in all varieties, simple squeezes, double squeezes, triple squeezes, show up squeezes, Vienna coups, and even false squeezes. That latter variety is known as a pseudo squeeze. It isn't really a squeeze at all, but it may appear as one to a defender. It is a case in which a defender doesn't have to give declarer the disputed trick. But the defender must be on top of the cards in order to defend correctly. The following hand, Board 24, which came up at the Bridge Center on Friday afternoon, 12-3-04 illustrates the point. (The hand is rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise for convenience.) Dealer: South Q 9 3 Vul: none K Q 10 6 3 A Q 7 4 2 J 10 7 6 5 4 A 2 8 7 9 3 2 9 8 7 Q J 10 5 4 K 10 J 8 6 K 8 A J 5 4 A K 6 2 9 5 3 At my table South ended in 3NT after opening 1NT. The bidding was irrational as the partnership, using Stayman, missed their 4-4 heart fit, but that's not important. It was the play that produced the point of interest. The traveller: NS ------ 2@3NTS +5 460 6- 5HS +5 450 3- 3@4HS +5 450 3- 4HS +4 420 1 6HS -1 -50 0 Opening lead: Diamond nine. Declarer was anxious to work on clubs so he won the opening lead. East signalled with the five. A club to the queen, the club ace and another club established dummy's two remaining clubs. East was in and returned the diamond queen, ducked by declarer. East continued with the jack which declarer won. He had pitched the two small spades from dummy on those two diamonds. Declarer next cashed the heart ace, led a low heart to the king and cashed dummy's clubs pitching the spade king and eight from his hand in that order. East pitched a heart and a spade. Declarer then cashed dummy's heart queen and East pitched the diamond four. West pitched a spade, of necessity. The position was: Q 10 --- --- J 10 A --- --- --- 10 --- --- J 6 --- Declarer led the heart ten and East felt the pressure. He thought for a while. Finally, with dummy's spade queen starring him in the face, he pitched his diamond. Declarer won the trick in his hand with the jack and cashed the diamond six as his eleventh trick. A look at the traveller shows that that eleventh trick was worth a lot to North-South, a tie for top score in fact; and, of course, that meant a tie for bottom score for East-West. Had South not taken that last trick, North- South would have had a relatively low score, only 2 match points out of a possible 7; and East-West, in that case, would have had a high score, 5 out of a possible 7. It is not easy for East to defend correctly in that position, but he did not have to let declarer have that last trick. He needed to be on top of the cards. First, he needed to be tracking the heart suit. His partner had shown out of hearts on the third round of the suit so East could have known that declarer held the remaining heart and that it was the jack. Therefore declarer would be winning the twelfth trick in his hand. That spade queen in dummy was irrelevant. What was declarer's last card? To answer that question East needed to be tracking the diamond suit. His partner had led the nine and later played the seven, then the eight. That's all the diamonds West held. East counts the diamond suit. He and dummy together held six. His partner held three. Therefore declarer held four originally. Three rounds had been played and declarer never pitched a diamond, so his last card must be a diamond. So East tosses the spade ace and saves his diamond. The analysis shows that any pressure that East may have felt on trick twelve was of his own making. There was in fact no real pressure on him. Hence the name pseudo squeeze. In fact, if East had been on top of the cards, he could have boldly thrown the spade ace on trick twelve and claimed the last trick before declarer had a chance to concede it.