An unusual squeeze

[lamford]

[hv=pc=n&s=skq943ht86da53ck9&n=sa652hk542d98cat6&d=e&v=e&b=6&a=p1n(12-14)p2c(stayman)p2sp3sp4sppp]266|200[/hv]

Lithuanian Lockdown League somewhere in Lazdijai

 

West leads the king of diamonds against your normal game and East shows an odd number, and you duck. He continues with the jack, which you win. How do you play, and how could the defence have beaten you?

[nige1]

[hv=pc=n&w=ST8HQJ9DKQJT7CJ32&s=skq943ht86da53ck9&n=sa652hk542d98cat6&d=e&v=e&b=6&a=p1n(12-14)p2c(stayman)p2sp3sp4sppp]300|300| Lamford "Lithuanian Lockdown League somewhere in Lazdijai. West leads the king of diamonds against your normal game and East shows an odd number, and you duck. He continues with the jack, which you win. How do you play, and how could the defence have beaten you?++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Thank you Paul. Beautiful double squeeze, 2 short of the count. To defeat the contract, West must switch to ♥Q. Otherwise, declarer can win the ♦ continuation, draw trumps, ruff a ♦, and run ♠s, to reach the ending below.

[/hv][hv=pc=n&w=HQJ9CJ32&s=S3Ht86CK9&n=Hk54CAT6&d=&e=HA73CQ87&v=e&b=6&a=p1n(12-14)p2c(stayman)p2sp3sp4sppp]300|300|

Declarer's last ♠ squeezes West.

- If West throws a ♥, then declarer can setup ♥T.

- So West abandons his ♣ guard and North discards a ♥.

- But now declarer plays 3 rounds of clubs to to end-play East.

- If East wins the 3rd round of ♣s. he has to concede a trick to dummy's ♥K.[/hv]

[lamford]

Thank you Paul. Beautiful double squeeze, 2 short of the count. To defeat the contract, West must switch to ♥Q. Otherwise, declarer can win the ♦ continuation, draw trumps, ruff a ♦, and run ♠s, to reach the ending below.

Very quick and accurate. In the actual hand, West had three spades and only two clubs, but the squeeze operates in the same manner. If you draw trumps, East will signal in hearts, and you should find the winning line. The really clever East, maybe Zia, will signal for hearts without the ace! And yes, you need to switch to the queen of hearts, and then a trump or a diamond after declarer ducks, to beat it.

[nige1]

[hv=pc=n&w=SJHQJT9DKQJT9CJT9&s=sAQ987H854DA54CA4&n=S65432HK32D32CK32&d=e&v=e&b=6&a=p1n(12-14)p2c(stayman)p2sp3sp4sppp]300|300|

 

Thank you, Paul.

The gist of your problem is preserved after the simplifications on the left.

If West leads ♦K and another ♦ against South's 4♠.

Although now it really is double-dummy :) [/hv]

[gszes]

Sorry would not find this at the table. I would have assumed the AQJ of heart offside (plus extra chances shown below) and tried for a strip and endplay

trick 1 duck dia K

trick 2 win 2nd dia

trick 3 spade K If trumps 4/0 stop drawing trumps and if EAST has the 4 trumps hope the heart A is onside (50% chance of down only 1) if WEST has the 4 trumps try to do the strip and endplay shown below with up to 81% chance of down only 1)

trick 4 spade A follow the appropriate LOP based on finding in trumps.

IF EAST has 3 trumps no strip and endplay is available. Best bet is finding heart ace onside after drawing the last trump (50%)

IF WEST has 3 trumps OR they split 22 (if trumps 22 there are no over ruff concerns by west lowering the % of success)

trick 5 club to the K

trick 6 ruff a dia

trick 7 club A

trick 8 ruff the club.

trick 9 lead the heart T

If covered by the Q or J fly the K and hope u guess the T or 8 correctly when east returns a heart (if they give u a ruff and sluff its over).

If the T is NOT covered duck it to east and they are endplayed.

If trumps were 22 this LOP is around 81% (50% heart K is onside + 12.5% chance East started with the heart AQJ + a good guess of playing the 10 or 8 when east covers the heart K and returns a heart). Somewhat lower when west had 3 trumps and could overruff at some point.

 

I am still looking for a microscope powerful enough to calculate the odds of the proposed double squeeze being successful. Just for grins it also takes a heart switch at trick 2 to defeat the AQJ offside scenario.

[FelicityR]

Nice squeeze. Thank you for posting. Well done Nigel. Good to see that Lithuanian players have adopted the British standard of the weak no-trump, too :)

[lamford]

Nice squeeze. Thank you for posting. Well done Nigel. Good to see that Lithuanian players have adopted the British standard of the weak no-trump, too :)

Only in Lazdijai, where there are some expats from Lancaster :)

[DanG4503]

[hv=pc=n&s=s3h542dck4&w=shqjtdcq98&n=shk83dca32&e=sha76dcjt7]399|300[/hv] This is a variant of Vice Squeeze where EW are squeezed before they are allowed to get the two tricks. I modified the the diagram with spot cards to avoid any confusion with some other squeezes.

The threats are:

- ♥8 It should be greater than East's heart suit except the ♥A of course.

- ♣3 (or ♣2)

When squeezing card ♠3 is played, West has to discard a heart (if he discards a club, then ♣K. ♣A and ♣3 and East is thrown in and has to return heart for 4th trick). North discards a club. Now NS concede two hearts to promote ♥8.

 

Dan G.

[AL78]

For me the pleasure in bridge is the satisfaction of getting a good result through logical inference, problem solving, and cooperation. Random crappy nonsense detracts from this and ultimately just makes me frustrated. Unfortunately at my club the random crappy nonsense seems to have been on an upward trend over recent years, which is part of the reason I have now taken a break from bridge.

[lamford]

For me the pleasure in bridge is the satisfaction of getting a good result through logical inference, problem solving, and cooperation. Random crappy nonsense detracts from this and ultimately just makes me frustrated. Unfortunately at my club the random crappy nonsense seems to have been on an upward trend over recent years, which is part of the reason I have now taken a break from bridge.

I am sure the bridge world and bridge forums will appreciate your social distancing. :)

[AL78]

I am sure the bridge world and bridge forums will appreciate your social distancing. :)

 

Somehow my post appeared in completely the wrong thread. I intended to post that in response to something completely different.