Defending Against a Squeeze Larry Klimko 805-964-0334 lklimko@ispwest.com Defending against a squeeze requires a knowledge of squeeze play and a certain boldness. The following hand, which came up at the Bridge Center on New Years day, 2005, illustrates the point. (The hand, Board 16, is rotated 90 degrees for convenience.) Dealer: East K J 7 2 Vul: EW Q 8 A J 3 10 4 3 2 9 6 A 8 5 4 10 K 6 5 3 K Q 9 6 8 7 5 4 K Q J 9 8 6 7 Q 10 3 A J 9 7 4 2 10 2 A 5 At my table South stopped in 3H. The way South played the hand would have justified more aggressive bidding on his part, however. By modern point count South's hand comes to 15 points (11HCP, 2 points for the long hearts and 1 point for each of the two doubletons). And by old-fashioned point count it comes to 16 points (11HCP, 2 points for the doubletons, one point for the fifth trump and two points for the sixth trump). And North's bidding showed 10 to 12 points, so South should have gone on to four. The bidding: W N E S --- --- --- --- P 1H 2C Dbl P 2H P 3H All Pass The traveller: NS ------ 4HN +4 420 4 3HN +5 200 3 4HN -1 -50 1- 3HN -1 -50 1- 3DxW +3 -670 0 I don't know how players managed to go down in 4H and 3H. Opening lead: Club king. Declarer won the opening lead. Since there was no convenient way to the board, and since West was more likely to be holding the heart king anyways, declarer led a low heart from his hand toward the queen. The ten showed up from West and was covered with the queen. Declarer was disappointed when East won the trick with the king. After some thought a heart came back. Declarer won with the ace. The bad split did not surprise him and he picked up the trump suit with the jack and the nine, pitching a club and a diamond from dummy. West had pitched three clubs on those hearts. Next, the spade queen was led and ducked. West signalled count with the nine. The spade ten was led and East won it and returned a spade. That is what declarer needed. He won in dummy, cashed the fourth spade pitching a club and ruffed a club. West had pitched two diamonds on the spades. The position was: --- --- A J 10 --- --- --- --- K Q 8 7 5 Q --- --- 7 10 2 --- Declarer led his last trump. West thought for a moment, then folded his hand graciously conceding the remaining tricks. He was, of course, caught in a squeeze. After the hand was finished West pointed out (to East) that he needed to return a diamond after winning the spade. Declarer remarked that a diamond shift is hard to find, looking at that dummy. But West countered, if he held only one diamond honor, declarer would finesse him out of it, and if he held both honors, a diamond shift was safe, indeed necessary to break up the squeeze. That illustrates a common way to defend against a squeeze, attack the entry. Notice what happens if East returns a diamond after winning the spade. Here is the position when East was in with the spade ace: K J --- A J 10 4 --- 8 5 --- --- K Q 9 6 9 7 5 4 Q J --- 3 7 4 10 2 5 He returns a diamond, West puts in the queen and declarer is helpless. If he wins the ace, he can cash the spades pitching a club and ruff a club, but then the club ten in dummy is unreachable. If cannot exert pressure on West. Declarer loses a diamond in the end. And if he does not win the diamond, he will lose that trick plus a club immediately. If East understood squeeze play, he could have seen the club ten as a threat against his partner and also the diamond ace-jack. And he could have realized that the only way to break up the squeeze was to remove the diamond entry. Hence the diamond return.