Squeeze Technique

None Vul
IMPs
Dealer: West
Lead:10

	unknown A K 6 5 2 10 Q 6 A K Q J 6
tgallery Q 10 3 8 6 A 8 5 4 3 10 4 2		groll J 9 4 K J 9 7 5 4 10 9 8 7
	Maestro 8 7 A Q 3 2 K J 9 7 2 5 3

West Pass Pass Pass Pass Pass

North 1 1 2 6NT

East Pass Pass Pass Pass

South 1 2 2NT Pass

Today we see Gee at the wheel of an interesting double squeeze. North/South reach a reasonable contract of 6NT after a rather ambitious auction. South’s 2H is either fourth suit forcing or a reverse but seems an overbid in either case.

Gee, declaring 6NT, receives a club lead. At first blush it looks like he needs five tricks in the red suits. Gee leads a low diamond off the board at trick 2, blocking the suit but hoping against hope, I suppose, that East will fly with the ace if he has it. East doesn’t play the A but he does play the 10. Gee covers with the J, which holds. West wins the second diamond, East discarding the H5, and returns a club. A spade would be better, and a heart with the diamonds blocked is interesting, although the hand can still be made (the squeeze still operates because West has only two hearts).

But now the hand is cold. Declarer can run the clubs, cross to the HA, and cash a diamond to come down to this four-card ending:

	A K 6 5 — —
? ? 8 5 —		? ? ? ? — —
	8 Q K 2 —

West can have at most two spades remaining, and if East has the HK the last diamond winner will force him to unguard the spades, giving Gee his 12th trick. So the squeeze always works if the HK is with East, and it also works if the HK is with West either stiff or along with four or more spades.

So Gee runs the winners and makes six, right? Not exactly. He discards the HQ on the last club, keeping his two dead spades. Down 1. Musta misclicked.