Monday, October 31, 2011

Simple Black Suit Squeeze

In our Swiss match against the Granovetters in the Charlotte regional flight A Swiss yesterday, I was fortunate to get to declare this deal. 
Dealer: E
Vul: EW
North
Axxx
xxx
x
Jxxxx
South
K9
Qx
AKQxxx
KTx
East
South
West
North
2
3
Pass
Pass
Pass
West, Matthew Granovetter, led the A, then after a couple of minutes continued with the deuce of clubs to Pamela's ace. She cashed the K with west discarding a spade, then continued with the J. How do you play from here?
You can only afford to lose one more trick and that's almost surely going to be a trump because west is a heavy favorite to have 4 or more diamonds. The club finesse is almost sure to lose as well so it looks like a black suit squeeze is in order and should be fairly easy to execute if he has the expected 5-1-4-3 shape.
Ruff the heart low – it can't gain to discard or to ruff high. West over-ruffed and thought for a couple of minutes before shifting to a spade, which I won in hand and then ran trumps. If west doesn't over-ruff, play your top diamonds and throw west in with a diamond. If he leads a club the hand is over; if he leads a spade, win in hand, cash the last diamond, and the K. In either case you come down to the same 3-card ending.
Dealer: E
Vul: EW
North
Ax
J
West
QT
Q
East
x
x
x
South
x
x
T
West cannot hold both the Q and keep spades guarded. When south leads the last diamond, pitch a club from dummy. This is a rather elementary squeeze but it could have been broken up by either repeated spade leads or a club continuation by east at trick 4, after taking the K. It just looks and feels so right to tap declarer, possibly promoting a trump trick for partner.

4 comments:

  1. If his reputation is accurate, you should be grateful that he only thought for a "couple of minutes"!

    I would think that once he switches to a club, she should continue. If he had promotable trumps and wanted a heart continuation, he could have done it himself at trick 2. Even I might foresee the squeeze if you have the black kings, and she is a far better player than I will ever be.

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  2. There were a couple of times he thought more like 5 minutes. But it's not annoying because at least he plays quickly when the play is easy/straightforward.

    I guess you overlooked the fact that he showed out on the 2nd heart so the inference of no heart continuation doesn't apply.

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  3. Oh, my fault. Didn't expect her to open a weak two with seven to the KJT, even red against white. Yes, now it's not so obvious.

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  4. At trick two he, should lead a trump if it still allowed him to his natural trump trick. Then the squeeze is broken.

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