Just a routine hand

[lenze]

An interesting hand from a recent sectional Swiss team event:

 

 

North

S – 74

H – Q42

D – 9863

C – AQ75

 

South

S – AKQT963

H – A63

D – T

C – K6

 

All players are competent, but aggressive

 

The auction was the same at both tables

 

South       West       North      East

1 Spade    Dbl       1 NT       Pass

3 Spades    Pass       4 Clubs    Pass

6 Spades    All Pass

 

At one table, West led the Diamond Ace and continued with a diamond to East’s King. South ruffed and ran the trumps, being careful to cash the Heart Ace (Vienna Coup) along the way. Making 6. Squeezing West in Hearts and Clubs

 

At the second table, West led the Club Jack. Now if South leads a diamond to rectify the count, a second club lead will destroy the squeeze. South, however, still prevailed. Do you see how?

[inquiry]

Run SPADES... West has to keep 3CLUBS and 2HEARTS in the five card ending where South's five cards are.... S-out,, H-Axx D-x C-X

 

Now. win CLUB ACE KING and throw WEST in with a club. This is vulnerable stopper squeeze.

 

Ben

[luis]

Squeeze without the count.

[lenze]

Thank you Ben and Luis for your replies. You are correct in how the hand was played. It was, however, a little more complicated.

 

West Held

S – J

H – KJT9

D – AQ42

C – JT83

 

Seeing the endplay coming, his discards were the 9 Hearts,2 Diamonds, Ten Hearts, Q Diamonds, J Hearts, and A Diamonds (East having signaled a Diamond Card). Now declarer must play to DROP the Heart King to succeed. He got it right, reasoning if West had started with KJT9x of Hearts, he would have overcalled 2 Hearts instead of doubling. Great play all around.

[inquiry]

Yes, it helps WEST's chance of setting the contract not to wiggle around and discard like a sheep. However, I pretty sure that anyone who finds the squeeze at trick two will be alert to the possibility that WEST might try to pull the wool over his eyes... as he can see the heart king is a vulnerable stopper and declearer has 3C, 7S, and surely the heart ACE. If south has the diamond king, WEST is three suit squeezed for an extra trick if he throws away the diamond ACE..but that is not a big deal.The best discards are probably HEART JACK-TEN-NINE, then diamond 4 QUEEN ACE.....East just has to remember to keep a small heart, like the three or something, to make it look like west kept HK3 and three clubs...

 

Nice play by both declearer and defender.

 

Ben

[EricK]

Have I gone mad?

 

Why can't declare just draw trumps, discard the diamond on the third club and lead up towards the Heart Q?

 

Eric

[inquiry]

Have I gone mad?

 

Why can't declare just draw trumps, discard the diamond on the third club and lead up towards the Heart Q?

 

Eric

Because who would want to do the pedestrian simple play when there is a vulnerable stopper squeeze without "count".... and could be tripped up by clever discarding. Of course, the simple is probably the best... good job.

[mishovnbg]

 

At the second table, West led the Club Jack. Now if South leads a diamond to rectify the count, a second club lead will destroy the squeeze. South, however, still prevailed. Do you see how?

 

 

Instead of squeeze after lead JCL is much better to discard DI over CL and play for good KHE - near 100% after W dbl ;D.

Misho

[lenze]

Have I gone mad?

 

Why can't declare just draw trumps, discard the diamond on the third club and lead up towards the Heart Q?

 

Eric

You are correct!! But it was well into the post mortem (with 8 very capable players) before the simple play was noted. I agree with Ben, however. Why be pedestrian when you have a Vulneralble stopper squeeze.

[inquiry]

The "problem" with finding the simple play is that we have unathorized information that a Club heart squeeze worked at the other table. We run through the ways to effect a squeeze where they might squash our entry if we duck a trick. In our bags of tricks, we know that this is a situation where if there is a vulnerable stopper, you can play a delayed duck situation. So we didn't think about the hand. The delayed duck is easy after you learn to automate these responses to defects in normal squeezes.

[EricK]

The "problem" with finding the simple play is that we have unathorized information that a Club heart squeeze worked at the other table. We run through the ways to effect a squeeze where they might squash our entry if we duck a trick. In our bags of tricks, we know that this is a situation where if there is a vulnerable stopper, you can play a delayed duck situation. So we didn't think about the hand. The delayed duck is easy after you learn to automate these responses to defects in normal squeezes.

 

I can understand readers of this forum immediately looking for a squeeze (why post a hand if the solution is to take a finesse), but this doesn't explain why the simple play wasn't noticed at the table.

 

The lack of a diamond lead pretty much marks DK with East, and the double means that East is very unlikely to hold the Heart K as well. Counting your tricks and taking account of the bidding and opening lead are what every competent declarer does on every hand (I would have thought).

 

To be honest, I am not a very competent declarer. I would have spotted the simple squeeze on the lead of the Diamond Ace, but I don't think the more complicated squeeze would ever have occured to me.

 

This actually is a nice hand for an intermediate group, but the story should be told the other way around (i.e. one table got the Club lead and made the hand via diamond discard and Heart finesse, how did the declarer who got the DA lead also make the slam?).

 

Eric