A Triple Squeeze Larry Klimko 805-964-0334 lklimko@ispwest.com The opportunity to pull off a rather exotic play descended on the Bridge Center this past Saturday, 7-3-2004. Here is the hand, Board 7. Dealer: South ----- Vul: both J 10 8 7 4 K 4 A K J 9 8 2 9 6 5 2 8 4 3 Q 6 K 9 5 A 10 7 5 2 Q 9 6 7 4 Q 10 6 5 A K Q J 10 7 A 3 2 J 8 3 3 And here is the traveller. 4SS +5 650 3NTN +4 630 3@4SS +4 620 4HN +4 620 Four pairs got to 4SS. Three of them just made the contract, while one of them made an overtrick. Let's look at how the play might go. Diamond ace lead and diamond continuation. Declarer wins in dummy, leads a heart to the ace and draws four rounds of trumps pitching two hearts and two clubs from dummy. East has no problem pitching a club on the last trump. The position is ----- J 10 ----- A K J 9 ----- ----- Q K 9 10 7 2 Q 7 4 Q 10 6 10 7 3 2 J 3 At this point declarer plays the trump ten. West pitches a diamond, dummy the heart 10 and East is put under unbearable pressure. He cannot pitch a diamond (though he can't be sure of this) nor a club, so he pitches the heart nine. Declarer then leads a club to the ace, cashes the club king pitching her diamond jack and leads dummy's last heart. The heart king and queen come crashing down together and declarer has established her heart three as an overtrick. Notice that declarer could not be sure that anything important was going to happen. She just had an extra trump that she could afford to cash and so took it before embarking on the final play. And also notice that declarer pitched hearts from dummy suggesting lack of interest in the suit so as to encourage the defenders to also pitch hearts. When the fifth trump was led on trick eight, East was squeezed in three suits, a triple squeeze. And the squeeze is a rather curious one in that when the squeeze card was played (the fifth trump), declarer still had two losers. In other words, declarer was not in the usual position where she could take all the tricks but one. Declarer actually lost one trick, rectifying the count, AFTER the squeeze had taken place. When this hand was played, I was dummy. The play went essentially as described above except that East pitched both hearts on the trumps, making it a little easier for declarer. When the hand was finished, East apologized to his partner for mis-pitching. He then remarked that he might have been squeezed. Indeed, he was. That was the only hint that anyone at the table had of a squeeze taking place and it was that remark that prompted me to pick up the hand. When I examined it, it turned out to be a first rate gem. This hand illustrates a technique that declarers do not use often enough. That is, when declarer has an excess of trumps and can afford to draw extra rounds, she should do so; and she should do it as early as possible, before the defenders have a chance to gather enough information to let them know what to pitch. It might put pressure on the defense and cause one of them to pitch incorrectly. Or, as on this hand East had no choice. He had to yield. This hand also shows that exotic plays occur not only in text books, but that they come up in actual play. Declarer just has to exercise enough technique to pull them off.