Jan 11 2009
Compound Squeeze from BBO
One cold Saturday in December, my regular partner and i played bridge online for hours on end. The following deal arose, partner declaring. The scoring is IMPs.
 96
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| KT72
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QJ43
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| A85
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AQ53
K4
AKQJ4| CHO | RHO | me | LHO |
| 1NT* | Pass | 2C | Pass |
| 2D | Pass | 6NT | Pass |
| Pass | Pass |
We play 1NT as 11-14, and with no major fit and all those tricks, 6NT seems the only reasonable place to play when looking at the North hand.
I’ll move to partner’s hand for a recounting of the action. LHO led the spade deuce, and there are only 11 top tricks, so it is normal to duck the first trick to rectify the count. Now run clubs and watch as West is under pressure in three suits.
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| K
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Q4
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| 8
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On the first four clubs, East follows suit while West can pretty easily pitch one heart, one diamond and one spade. The position prior to the 5th club being played is shown above, and West is in trouble. He can’t pitch another heart, as he owns the sole guard in that suit. If he pitches a second diamond so he’s down to the singleton Q, declarer can cash the dummy’s diamond K and will have a finessing position against East. So West must pitch his spade guard. That may not immediately appear damning since his partner does guard that suit. The problem is that now East has the sole guard of diamonds and spades and will be squeezed when the three hearts are cashed. Here is the position, three tricks later, just before the heart Q is cashed:
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| -
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Q
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| 8
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This is an example of a compound squeeze, which occurs when one opponent is forced to create a squeeze position in some way. He is squeezed into giving into a squeeze. In the above example, West was forced to create a simple squeeze position against his partner when he had to give up his spade guard on the 5th club.