Aug 21 2011
Easy Squeezy
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Playing online on BBO, we landed in 3NT with the East/West cards above. With 4333 shape, i might have opted for 3NT without searching for a major fit, but we landed there anyway.
North led his doubleton diamond. Lance ducked the first diamond and South continued. Lance won the Ace and played Ace and a spade to the Ten. South won the King and continued diamonds, Lance winning the King while North showed out. Now Lance led the club Queen and North ducked.
I hadn’t been following the play, but across the room i heard him say “Ooh, double squeeze!” He now led a spade to the Queen, nothing South’s discard. North guards the spades, South guards the diamonds; neither will be able to hold on to the clubs. Lance cashed all his hearts, and on the last heart, North is squeezed in clubs and spades. He pitches a club, so Lance pitches the spade. And now South is squeezed in diamonds and clubs. He also pitches a club, so the club seven wins the last trick. Very pretty.
In the chatbox, South notes that there would be no squeeze if North had covered the club. This is true. North said “i generally cover the second honor with that holding, but this time it was a mistake.” It is difficult to see that far ahead, but perhaps North should see it. It made Lance and I wonder, too, how often we are missing “Chinese finesses”, where you lead the Queen without holding the Jack. It seems it would have worked here, but those things never work for me.
August 21st, 2011 8:58 pm
[...] end positions can arise, depending on how you play or how the defenders play. Often the play of a single card can change things [...]