Simple Squeeze play
You do not have to be an expert to be able to execute a simple Squeeze play.
Normally if you just take your tricks in the right order, then the Squeeze will take place automatically.
Without going into the technicalities of the ingredients of a Squeeze, just be aware of the possibilities when all hope seems lost.
An example is this hand.
North
♠ 873
♥ K73
♦ A752
♣ AK10
♠ AQ94 ♠ K1062
Q6 ♦ J43 ♣ 986432 ♣ void
♠ J5
♥ A98
♦ K1098
♣ QJ75
Bidding
1♦ ………2♥ ……….X…….P
2NT…….P…………3NT....P
P...........P
Lead: 2 of Spades.
The defence take their 4 Spade tricks, and then West plays the Q of Hearts.
It is very important that you discard correctly. On the run of the Spades, discard 1 Diamond from hand. You can afford to throw1 Heart and 1 Diamond from dummy.
What you have to be careful of is not to throw a Heart from both hands. If you do so, then there will be no threat to East.
You do not know this at the time, but he is the only defender who controls the 3rd round of Diamonds.
Now after taking the Heart with the Ace in dummy, you play the 4 rounds of clubs. The 5-card ending will be this:-
♥ K3
♦ A75
♥ J10
immaterial ♦ J43
♥ 9
♦ K109
♣ Q
After leading the Queen of Clubs from dummy, you can discard a Diamond from hand.
What can East discard?
If he discards a Diamond then Dummy’s Diamonds are good. Remember West has doubleton Q which will drop after cashing the Ace and the king.
If he discards a Heart then after cashing the King the 3 will be good.
Summing up, all you had to remember to do after the opponents ran their Spades, was to leave a 3rd Heart in one of the hands to act as a threat. The squeeze was automatic.
It is so gratifying to execute even the simplest of squeezes, it is worth the effort of studying the basic ingredients.
