Yes, you read the title right.
I did miss a squeeze yesterday. It was a pretty straightforward squeeze to execute.
Yes, I really did miss it. Believe it or not, it did happen. There's a hand record to prove it:
http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?myhand=M-431672-1340064000
As always, the bidding is questionable when I'm involved. As you might have figured out by now, am not too interested in mundane aspects of bridge such as bidding. Am more interested in improving my card play technique. And yours.
So, we reach the contract of 5 D after the bidding sequence shown.
The opponents take the first 2 tricks with the Ace-King of spade, RHO playing the Jack under the 2nd spade..
You would normally think a 3rd spade would cause an uppercut. Spades were 4-3. Let's work with that assumption for the purpose of this discussion.
So after taking the first 2 tricks, let's say opponent passively exited a trump. Let's also say trumps are 3-3, as they were.
What now? We have six diamond tricks, 2 top clubs, 2 top hearts. Where's the 11th going to come from?
Obviously, it has to come from a squeeze. As far as simple squeezes go, a simple squeeze can exist in the following manners, on the hand:
1.LHO holds 3 or more clubs, and the spade winner. Then, simply running your diamonds and the AKH will squeeze LHO. Six diamonds and AKH is 8 winners. 2 tricks lost, 3 cards left. Dummy will keep 2 clubs and the spade ten. LHO can't keep both the spade Q and 3 clubs.
2.RHO holds 3 or more clubs and the Queen of heart guarded. The play is nearly identical. You cash the exact same winners, but pitch the spade ten in dummy assuming LHO has the spade Q. Down to 3 cards, dummy has the JH and 2 clubs. If RHO has 3 clubs left, the QH would have fallen under the AKH.
This is in an ideal world. In the real world, the devilish opponent switched to a club, the 9 of club..
There goes the squeeze. In the ideal world, we kept 2 clubs in the DUMMY in the end position. Thus, we preserved the late entry to dummy, keeping the spade threat and the JH threat alive as long as possible.
Now, we can't do that any more. If LHO has the club stopper, the squeeze still works, but when RHO has the stopper, the squeeze just got broken up. Or so I thought.
So I mechanically covered the 9 with the ten, which fetched an honor. I took the trick, and ran my trumps.
Six diamonds taken, and 1 club.2 spade tricks taken by opponents.
Down to 4 cards, I kept Honor-8 club in dummy (preserving the finesse position), 1 heart and 1 spade.
RHO now safely unguards H, keeping 2 clubs, 1 heart and the spade.
Cashing hearts now is useless. RHO discards after dummy. The premise that LHO has the spade stopper seems to have sunk me.
What really sunk me was my changing of my assumption.
I had originally assumed that regardless of where the club stopper was, I was NEVER going to use dummy's club as a threat.
Rewind to the ideal scenario: With the passive D exit, I ran the trumps and brought dummy down to 2 clubs. I never used dummy's Ten-8 spots. The opponent's club 9 switch lured me into the trap.
Only one opponent can have started life with 3 clubs here. The correct play is fairly simple, once you realize the clubs in dummy are a mirage.
9 of club: ten, Jack, king.
Now run six diamonds as before.9 tricks gone.
Dummy comes down to BARE club ace, Jxx H and the spade Ten (about to pitch on the last trump, after LHO).
Assuming LHO has the putative spade stopper, we discard the spade ten after seeing the QS doesnt appear from LHO. RHO instead follows the spade ten discard with the spade queen!
Nothing to fear. Dummy has 1 club and 3 hearts to the Jack.
We have 2 clubs and AKH in hand
RHO can keep only 4 cards.
RHO can't have kept 2 clubs AND 3 hearts to the Queen.
Just watch the discards. If ANY hand pitched a club early, then that hand probably started with 4 clubs (it can't be 2 because he would then expose his ptr's club holding. It can't be 3 because that would be giving up the stopper prematurely). Watch the last discard of the hand which pitched club.
If the last discard is not a club, it means that opponent (RHO, here) has kept 2 clubs and therefore has Qx H.
Lay down AKH, and get to dummy and enjoy the JH.
If the last discard was a club, then unblock AC, get back to hand to enjoy the good club.
A textbook .....criss cross squeeze.
Doggone it.
I did miss a squeeze yesterday. It was a pretty straightforward squeeze to execute.
Yes, I really did miss it. Believe it or not, it did happen. There's a hand record to prove it:
http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?myhand=M-431672-1340064000
As always, the bidding is questionable when I'm involved. As you might have figured out by now, am not too interested in mundane aspects of bridge such as bidding. Am more interested in improving my card play technique. And yours.
So, we reach the contract of 5 D after the bidding sequence shown.
The opponents take the first 2 tricks with the Ace-King of spade, RHO playing the Jack under the 2nd spade..
You would normally think a 3rd spade would cause an uppercut. Spades were 4-3. Let's work with that assumption for the purpose of this discussion.
So after taking the first 2 tricks, let's say opponent passively exited a trump. Let's also say trumps are 3-3, as they were.
What now? We have six diamond tricks, 2 top clubs, 2 top hearts. Where's the 11th going to come from?
Obviously, it has to come from a squeeze. As far as simple squeezes go, a simple squeeze can exist in the following manners, on the hand:
1.LHO holds 3 or more clubs, and the spade winner. Then, simply running your diamonds and the AKH will squeeze LHO. Six diamonds and AKH is 8 winners. 2 tricks lost, 3 cards left. Dummy will keep 2 clubs and the spade ten. LHO can't keep both the spade Q and 3 clubs.
2.RHO holds 3 or more clubs and the Queen of heart guarded. The play is nearly identical. You cash the exact same winners, but pitch the spade ten in dummy assuming LHO has the spade Q. Down to 3 cards, dummy has the JH and 2 clubs. If RHO has 3 clubs left, the QH would have fallen under the AKH.
This is in an ideal world. In the real world, the devilish opponent switched to a club, the 9 of club..
There goes the squeeze. In the ideal world, we kept 2 clubs in the DUMMY in the end position. Thus, we preserved the late entry to dummy, keeping the spade threat and the JH threat alive as long as possible.
Now, we can't do that any more. If LHO has the club stopper, the squeeze still works, but when RHO has the stopper, the squeeze just got broken up. Or so I thought.
So I mechanically covered the 9 with the ten, which fetched an honor. I took the trick, and ran my trumps.
Six diamonds taken, and 1 club.2 spade tricks taken by opponents.
Down to 4 cards, I kept Honor-8 club in dummy (preserving the finesse position), 1 heart and 1 spade.
RHO now safely unguards H, keeping 2 clubs, 1 heart and the spade.
Cashing hearts now is useless. RHO discards after dummy. The premise that LHO has the spade stopper seems to have sunk me.
What really sunk me was my changing of my assumption.
I had originally assumed that regardless of where the club stopper was, I was NEVER going to use dummy's club as a threat.
Rewind to the ideal scenario: With the passive D exit, I ran the trumps and brought dummy down to 2 clubs. I never used dummy's Ten-8 spots. The opponent's club 9 switch lured me into the trap.
Only one opponent can have started life with 3 clubs here. The correct play is fairly simple, once you realize the clubs in dummy are a mirage.
9 of club: ten, Jack, king.
Now run six diamonds as before.9 tricks gone.
Dummy comes down to BARE club ace, Jxx H and the spade Ten (about to pitch on the last trump, after LHO).
Assuming LHO has the putative spade stopper, we discard the spade ten after seeing the QS doesnt appear from LHO. RHO instead follows the spade ten discard with the spade queen!
Nothing to fear. Dummy has 1 club and 3 hearts to the Jack.
We have 2 clubs and AKH in hand
RHO can keep only 4 cards.
RHO can't have kept 2 clubs AND 3 hearts to the Queen.
Just watch the discards. If ANY hand pitched a club early, then that hand probably started with 4 clubs (it can't be 2 because he would then expose his ptr's club holding. It can't be 3 because that would be giving up the stopper prematurely). Watch the last discard of the hand which pitched club.
If the last discard is not a club, it means that opponent (RHO, here) has kept 2 clubs and therefore has Qx H.
Lay down AKH, and get to dummy and enjoy the JH.
If the last discard was a club, then unblock AC, get back to hand to enjoy the good club.
A textbook .....criss cross squeeze.
Doggone it.
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