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.

Double

There were a few bidding sequences that are bothering me from last night and one big concept that people don't seem to understand.

1♠-2♠-X. This double shows penalty interest in one or both of the opponents' suits. All subsequent doubles are for penalty. Instead of X, 3H would be a invitational+ spade raise, and 3S would be a constructive raise usually with 4 trumps.

1♥-1♠-2♠-X. What does this double show? In this case, the X should show a 2S raise and also suggest leading a spade. Because the opponents have a good fit and at least half of the high cards, showing penalty interest isn't important. 3H and 3S instead of X retain the same meaning as above. I guess the question is whether the X of 2S here should be constructive or just show a spade honor. Would you double 2S with ♠Kxxx   ♥xx   ♦xxxx   ♣xxx? As the overcaller, I trusted him to have a better hand than this so I doubled when they competed to 5H, which was cold. I held ♠AQJxx   ♥xx   ♦A   ♣AT9xx.

 

1♦-X-1♥-P; 1♠-X. This one didn't come up but I'm not sure what it would mean. 1NT would show 19ish balanced and I don't think stoppers in specific suits are necessary, especially in spades, 2C, 2H, and 2S would all be natural (too good for a simple overcall), and 2D would be a big takeout (18+ with short diamonds).

1♦-X-1♥-X. Double here definitely shows hearts but are there any strength requirements – is it equivalent to a free bid or just saying I would have bid 1H if I could?

1♦-X-1♥-P; 1♠-P-2♦-P; P-X. The way many beginner-intermediate and even some advanced players interpret this double baffles me. I had a takeout double of 1D so there is no way I can have a penalty double of 2D! This is just another takeout double. So what if they've bid 3 suits – diamonds is the suit they have decided they have a fit in. We could still easily have an 8 or 9 card major suit fit. There are 3 types of hands that can initially double 1D: a) shortness in diamonds, 12+ points; b) balanced hand too strong to overcall 1NT; and c) one-suited hand too strong to overcall. C is the only of those hand types that might want to make a penalty double, but that hand would have bid 1NT over 1S.

 

1♠-X-P-2♣; 2NT-X-P-P; P. This time I was pretty sure they opponents had really stepped into trouble, despite me being void of spades. This double just shows a huge hand. Partner dutifully left it in. I held ♠-   ♥AKQ865   ♦KQx   ♣ATxx. I led the ♥A and found this dummy: ♠xxx   ♥Txxx   ♦xxx   ♣JTx. So, I had to play for partner to have Jx of hearts, which he did have. But I had to be careful to lead my lowest heart as a suit preference signal to let him know to get back to the rest of my hearts by leading a club, not a diamond. Unfortunately I wasn't playing with someone who paid attention to such subtle signals and declarer took the next 8 tricks. She had 7 solid spades and the ♦A. But it is an interesting application of the suit preference signal. You have to be thinking ahead and trying to imagine what sort of message partner is trying to convey with the order he played the cards.

Even if you don't play exclusion, don't bid blackwood with a void

Last night was one of those sessions where the opponents could do no wrong. Well, let me rephrase that. They did lots of technically wrong things but they all turned out well for them. That sort of luck contributed to Emory and I having one of the worst scores we have had at the Warner Robins club – 52%.

I saw two instances of people bidding blackwood with a void. And the people actually thought it helped them decide to bid 6. In reality, they were still guessing about how high to bid even after the blackwood response. Why do we bid blackwood? After we have determined that we have adequate high cards to be in slam, we bid blackwood to check how many quick losers we have. When we aren't sure if we have adequate values or have every suit controlled, we cuebid on the way to slam. Bidding blackwood to reach a heart slam (after 1S-2H-3H-4H) when you hold ♠ AQJTxx ♥ QJxx ♦ - ♣ Axx really doesn't help you decide anything. 1 keycard could well be enough for slam to be cold, but even 2 keycards could still leave slam still on a finesse or 7 could well be cold if p has ♠K and ♥AK. The hand opposite held ♠ x ♥ AKTxx ♦ KJx ♣ QTxx.

That was a decent time to use Exclusion blackwood (1S-2H-5D-5NT-6C-6H-P) but the other blackwood with a void hand was a really good time to use exclusion. ♠ KQxx ♥ AKQxxx ♦ - ♣ Jxx opposite ♠ Ax ♥ Txx ♦ Jx ♣ AKQxxx. 1H-2C-2S-3H-5D-5NT-6C-7H-P looks like a very good auction to the nearly cold grand slam. Our opps stumbled into 6H and no one else reached slam on either of the two boards.

Then I saw someone neglect to finesse for the Q holding AKJT opposite xxx. My Qx dropped offside. He also did not finesse for the jack of trumps when it was clearly the percentage play. I saw a lady stop in only 2♥ after her partner opened and she had 13hcp and a heart fit. When hearts split 4-1, 3 was the most that could be made.

I guess that's about it. That's more than enough to drop us 10% from our typical 62%.

Classic Surround Play

When people are first taught about finesses, they are taught to lead low toward an honor, hoping some other honor is in front of the one you lead toward, but to only lead an honor for a finesse if you also have a touching honor (don't lead the J for a finesse of the Q unless you have the 10 also). That's a very good guideline – I still see many people who have been playing bridge a long time lead the Q from Axx opposite Qxx – also called a pseudo finesse or Chinese finesse. That does virtually nothing to help you get a second trick in the suit, assuming second hand correctly covers the honor so unless you have mastered the basic finesses, please skip the rest of this post or you may find yourself applying it out of context – taking Chinese finesses instead of making a surround play.

A surround play looks kind of like a Chinese finesse. Yesterday in the Swiss, Bob found a nice application use of a surround play and I happened to have just the right cards for it to help us set a contract. The rest of the hand is irrelevant – the only problem is EW need to take as many diamond tricks as they can right now. Dummy has a long suit that is ready to provide discards. This suit is very similar to the diamond suit from my pin the ten post earlier today except this time we are surrounding the ten. My partner (east) was in the lead and found the killing ♦J.
 

Dealer: N Vul: NS	North ♦ T75
West ♦ A98		East ♦ KJ42
	South ♦ Q63

Look at what happens when he leads the jack. If south plays low, the J wins and EW still have the AK. If south covers, west wins the A and now there is a simple finesse position against east's ten, again taking 3 tricks.

Note that the lead of the jack can't hurt. If declarer has the AQ, you were getting finessed anyway. If declarer has only the ace, it doesn't matter what we lead (and it's too late to take any tricks). If declarer has no honor, it doesn't matter. If declarer has Q9x or Q8x, it also doesn't matter because he is almost sure to finesse correctly if you lead low and win the third round of diamonds.

Pinning Ten doubleton and squeezing on the same deal

For once, I can say I have a clear favorite deal from a tournament. Playing with Bob Pearson, we won the Swiss at the Valdosta tournament Oct 9 with my dad and Larry Hayslip, then won the Saturday afternoon pair game this past weekend at the Athens tournament, then tied for 2^nd in the Swiss in Athens (teaming with Jimmy Fordham and Enrico Beretta). Not a bad string of games even if the quality of competition was only slightly better than the club.

 

This deal comes from the 25 table pair game we won with a 65.51% score. (hands rotated for convenience)
 

Dealer: N Vul: NS			North ♠ - ♥ AKQT942 ♦ KJ94 ♣ A3
West ♠ QJ94 ♥ 83 ♦ T7 ♣ KJ954						East ♠ AT8 ♥ J65 ♦ Q862 ♣ T87
			South ♠ K76532 ♥ 7 ♦ A53 ♣ Q62
	West	North		East	South
	—	1♥		Pass	1♠
	Pass	3♥		Pass	3NT
	Pass	Pass		Pass

I probably would have jump-shifted to 3♦ with Bob's hand and probably would have pulled 3NT to 4♥ but then I wouldn't have had the chance for this great play.

 

West led a low club, which went around to my queen. It's a fortunate lead for me but still fairly normal. I proceeded to test hearts, and when I saw that they were would run, I led the ♦J, not wanting to make all of my discards yet. This diamond play keeps the dangerous opponent off lead (east is the dangerous opponent because a spade through my K could be fatal) while potentially setting up a third diamond trick. When the ♦J held the trick, I cashed the CA and ran hearts, hoping for a squeeze against east. Here is the position with the last heart to be played.

 

Dealer: N Vul: NS	North ♠ - ♥ 2 ♦ K94 ♣ -
West immaterial		East ♠ A ♥ - ♦ Q86 ♣ -
	South ♠ K ♥ - ♦ A3 ♣ 6

 

Since east started with 4 diamonds to the Q and the ♠A, I was able to take all of the tricks. East can't pitch a spade or my SK will be my 13^th trick, but if he pitches a diamond, dummy's low diamond will win the 13^th trick. Kinda cute. Sean will appreciate this – I know how he loves pinning ten doubletons. Here is one time when it is clearly the right play.

 

Yes, east could break up the squeeze by covering the ♦J with the Q – that would cut off the entry to my hand so the ♠K no longer is a threat card and east would be able to win trick 13 with the ♦9. However, covering looks and feels wrong.

 

Actually either opponent could be squeezed – if west started with ♦Txxx and ♠A, he would be equally squeezed despite having the A behind the K because in the 3 card ending, I can still hold both the spade threat and the diamond threat.

Hesitation Pseudo Squeeze

Hesitations are things to be avoided as much as possible. This is not only to keep from giving unauthorized information to your partner but also to keep giving authorized information to the opponent. Sometimes you do have a legitimate problem and need to think but being aware of this and possibly anticipating the problem can help minimize the damage.

This deal is an example of a defender hesitating so as to help declarer make a good guess. But there are several other factors to consider before you try to utilize such information. 

Dealer: W Vul: none	North ♠ QJ ♥ xxx ♦ KJxx ♣ KQ9x
	South ♠ T9xx ♥ AKJ ♦ AQxx ♣ xx

West	North	East	South
1♦	Pass	2♦	Pass
3NT	Pass	Pass	Pass

West led her 4^th best club, won with dummy's K. Next declarer played a spade to east's K, then a spade to west's ace, and another low club, won with dummy's Q. Declarer then cashed 2 spades, 1 heart, and 4 diamonds, ending in dummy. After the final diamond, at trick 11, dummy is left with a club and a heart, declarer with ♥KJ, and east clearly comes down to 2 hearts. West, meanwhile, holding the ♣A and ♥Qx, can't help but to hesitate before pitching the heart. An expert player would blank the ♥Q without thought but for a player who wasn't counting declarer's tricks and anticipating this ending, it would be hard to discard a heart at trick 11 in tempo.

Declarer can use this hesitation to help him decide whether to finesse or play to drop the now-stiff ♥Q offside. A hesitation means west has the Q and no hesitation means she does not have it.

On the actual deal, there was no hesitation so I finessed and it was right. Against a good pair, you have to be wary of trying to take advantage of this lack of a hesitation because experts would be more likely to discard in tempo (although you could legitimately take advantage of an actual hesitation in this position).

Also, it is worth noting that on this particular deal to go for the finesse because you're already a trick ahead of the field because east did not return a club when in with the first spade. That defense would always hold it to 3. The defense has allowed you to make 4, which rates to be a very good matchpoint score – taking a winning finesse allows you to make 5 but taking a losing finesse would put you back at making 3. There is more to lose by making only 3 than to gain by making 5. However, there is another thing to consider – that north may be playing 3NT at many tables because north may respond with 2NT or 3NT or south may not rebid 2 or 3NT, and if north declares, east is unlikely to lead a club (from Jxx) so the contract should make 4 fairly easily. Overall, in a decent field, I would expect 600 to be worth 35%, +630 75%, +660 95%. When it was actually played at the club last night, there was one 600, two 630s, and one 660.