Sep 27 2009
A Squeeze on Declarer
I’m playing with Lance in the money IMP home game. There is no bad competition. Lance deals and opens 1H. With JT87x Kxx Qx T98, i have an easy 2H bid. The auction continues
| CHO | RHO | me | LHO |
| 1H | Pass | 2H | X |
| Pass | 2S | Pass | 3S |
| Pass | Pass | Pass |
A trump lead was probably right, but I lead the deuce of hearts, and see this dummy:
 A654
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| JT87x
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 |
-
AJT9xx
AxxDeclarer pitched a club from dummy and partner wins the AH. He shifts to the KS, one of the prettiest sights i could have hoped to see on this hand. Declarer wins the AS and leads another spade to his Q in hand. He now tries the QC. I play the T, showing partner three clubs (we play upside-down) and the 9. Partner wins the K and continues another club.
Things are not going well for declarer. We have two tricks already and i have at least three more in hand, and partner still has a few more points over there. Declarer has nothing left to do but try diamonds. He plays Ace and another. Partner wins the King, dropping my queen as well as a small one from declarer. He leads another small diamond for me to ruff, after which i pull all the trumps with the J and T of spades. On the last spade, declarer is squeezed. The end position is:
| 6
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| T
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-
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| -
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On the last spade, declarer has to choose between a club and a heart. If he pitches his good club (which makes my 9 good), we get two hearts and one club. He actually chose to pitch a heart, so i cashed the KH and led over to partner’s good hearts. Down 5. Win 10 IMPS (and $10) on the board.
The full hand:
| A654
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| JT87x
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K
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| Q32
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