Squeezing Out an Overtrick

I can’t say that I planned this squeeze from trick one, but it was a squeeze, and at least I saw it coming in time to make the right play at the critical moment.

Playing matchpoints, neither side vulnerable, I pick up:

K1093 / 1053 / 5 / AQ1095

My partner is dealer and opens 1. RHO bids 1. I pass and LHO pipes up with 2, which is passed around to me.

Now what? I am tempted to double, which in this partnership would be penalty, but partner still might take it out. What if he bids 3? That would have to be bad. Pass is another option. But in the end I give 3 a try. This is passed out.

West opens the A and dummy hits with:

	6 5 A K 8 2 K 10 4 3 J 4 2

	K 10 9 3 10 5 3 5 A Q 10 9 5


W	N	E	S
	1	1	P
2	P	P	3
P	P	P

Not much of an opening bid! Partner has gotten friskier with his openings in the last year or two.

On the A East plays the 8. Opponents play upside-down attitude signals, so this is discouraging. West switches to the Q. I put up the King and East takes the Ace. After a pause, East plays the Q. I am worried about a ruff, but I put up the K. West plays the 7. Now I cross to dummy with the A and run the J, which holds. I finesse again in trumps and then the A brings down the King, West discarding a heart. It looks like I am just going to make the contract, losing two spades, a diamond and a heart.

I might as well establish the 9, so I lead the ten, which East takes with the Jack as West discards another heart and dummy a diamond. East leads the 4 and I take my nine. West takes a long time before discarding a diamond. Suddenly I wake up! Is West in trouble? Could there be a squeeze that I haven’t even thought about? Let’s see, after I discard another diamond from dummy we are down to:

	— K 8 2 10 —

	— 10 5 — 10 9

The two clubs and the K are winners, but then I appear to have a loser at the end. But what about those red tens? Could one of them be made to win a trick? In all honesty I don’t even remember the situation in the red suits, but from table vibes alone it looks as though West is guarding both of them. I play a club and West and dummy both discard a heart.

Now here’s the key play: I cash my last club. There's always a temptation to hang on to a trump for the finish, but really, in cases like this one, cashing the last trump is completely free. What else am I going to do with it? I’ve got all the tricks but one, so I don’t need to retain a trump to get in again after losing the lead.

On the last trump, West trances and then discards the J. Now I have to pause to think, although of course the play is obvious: discard what the squeezed opponent keeps. So I dump the 10 from dummy. And sure enough, on the 5 West has to play the Queen! Now the K and the 10 win the last two tricks.

This was the situation three tricks from the end:

	— K 8 10 —
— Q J J —		2 — 9 8 —
	— 10 5 — 9

On the 9, West is squeezed: if West discards the J, then dummy discards the 8 and wins the last two tricks with the K and 10, and if West discards the J, then dummy discards the 10 and I win the last two tricks with K and 10.

It’s a real live squeeze! And it just goes to prove that you can execute a squeeze without any great talent, provided you remember to cash your last trump.

Of course, as usual for hands where I pull off an advanced play, we don’t get a particularly great score. At least it was above average: 11 matchpoints out of 17. Almost no one else appears to be in a minor suit contract. There is one 110, so at least I beat that pair. But they got 9 matchpoints, so the squeeze only netted 1.5 matchpoints. But then, we top our section by exactly that margin!

The full deal:

	6 5 A K 8 2 K 10 4 3 J 4 2
A 7 Q J 9 6 4 Q J 6 2 6 3		Q J 8 4 2 7 A 9 8 7 K 8 7
	K 10 9 3 10 5 3 5 A Q 10 9 5

[Alexandria Regional, Open Pairs, 6-30-2004]