Kaleidoscope Series - Lesson 5

Squeezes

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      Few things baffle novices as much as squeezes.

is a popular sentiment among bridge neophytes.
This notion proceeds from the incorrect premise that squeezes are difficult and perplexing ... the domain of experienced, advanced players only.   This lesson hopes to demonstrate that squeezes are often no more complex than a simple finesse.  
     
     We are all familiar with finesses: lead small towards our AQ and insert the Queen.   But what about ♥Ax opposite our ♥Qx? Now the Queen will be covered, precluding a second trick in this suit.   But, imagine if we cash ♥A, and come down to something like: ♠Ax opposite our own ♠x and ♥Q as our last two cards.  
If the same person has all the Spades and the ♥King, we'll have them !   After all, how can they have the ♥K and two spades, when we have only 2 cards?
     Part of the daunting mystery surrounding squeezes flows from all of the jargon used by experts in describing them.   "Stepping stone", "compound", and "double" squeeze situations will elude us until we understand the basics of a "simple" squeeze.  
     In the classic squeeze, we play winners from our hand and then go to dummy to cash whatever has become good.   The situation could easily be reversed, though.   Dummy could have the winners, and we could have the hand whose cards we hope to promote.  
     We begin by citing the four "conditio sine qua non" elements of any squeeze:
     These four elements, all equally important, form the acronym "LITE": Lose, Isolate, Threat and Entry.   Alternatively, some may use the acronym "CITE": Count, Isolate, Threat and Entry.  

1. Why do you suppose we call these plays "squeezes" ?
2. How often do squeezes come up ?
3. How long before a novice executes hir first squeeze ?

      Consider this hand carefully:

Pard A 3 2   Us vulnerable. 7 5   IMPs. K 10 8 4      LHO A K Q 7     RHO Q J 8 7 6 10 9 K Q J 6 4 9 8  — 9 7 6 3 2 9 6 4     Me 8 5 3 2 K 5 4 A 10 3 2 A Q J 5 J 10

Auction Me LHO Pard RHO 1 2 2 Pass 2NT Pass 6NT Pass Pass Pass  Lead: K

We begin by tallying our tricks.   There are only 11.
We can afford to lose one trick, so we duck ♥K at trick One.
LHO continues with ♥Q.
     Before scrolling down, try to envision the last two cards in your own hand and the last two cards on Dummy after you have cashed all your minor suit winners.   |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
      We will cash our ♠K and all of our minor suit winners, throwing a small Heart and a small Spade on Dummy's Clubs.
We will end up in my Hand, going to win the 4th Diamond.   With RHO's hand irrelevant, here is the position we hope for after 11 tricks:
      The problem here is the fact that LHO has 3 cards !   Which one can LHO pitch ?   If LHO tosses ♥J, our own ♥10 is good.   If LHO discards ♠Q or ♠J, dummy's measly ♠3 will take the last trick!
     Notice how important it is to be in our hand here.   Were we in dummy, the ♥10 would not threaten LHO, since we cannot enter our hand in order to cash it.   LHO would simply toss the ♥J and keep the ♠QJ.   Remember: a threat without an entry is no threat at all ! The fancy expression "rectifying the count" means, quite simply, that we should lose all the tricks that we can afford to lose as early as possible.   For example, if we are in 6NT at IMPs, but can only see 11 winners, we should duck a trick somewhere if we can safely do so.   This "rectifies the count" to 12 possible tricks, and will add to the pressure that we can apply to our victims later.   Let us reconsider this hand:
      Were we to pounce on the first trick here and rattle off our 8 minor-suit winners and ♠K, we would be left with three cards left.   That is exactly how many LHO would like to be able to keep !
      Whether we play a Heart or a Spade here, LHO will take two tricks.   While ♥7 and ♥3 are utterly useless to *us*, the extra card is vital to LHO's well-being.   Hence, we remove one such card from everyone's hand by ducking that ♥K lead on the first trick ! In the above sample squeeze, LHO was overloaded with work, forced to guard both the major suits.   RHO could not help LHO here.   Thus, we would say that LHO is "isolated" in hir responsibility to protect the Heart and Spade suits.   Let us change our sample hand slightly in Hearts:

Pard A 3 2   Us vulnerable. 7 5   IMPs. K 10 8 4     LHO A K Q 7     RHO Q J 8 7 6 10 9 K Q 9 6 4 J 8  — 9 7 6 3 2 9 6 4     Me 8 5 3 2 K 5 4 A 10 3 2 A Q J 5 J 10

Auction Me LHO Pard RHO 1 2 2 Pass 2NT Pass 6NT Pass Pass Pass  Lead: ♥K

Here, were we to win the ♥K lead, we would allow RHO to guard the Hearts in the ending.   The ending would be:
In essence, what has happened is that LHO tossed all of hir Hearts, permitting RHO to retain ♥J.   Had we not won the opening lead, RHO's ♥J would have fallen under our ♥A on the second round ... leaving LHO alone to guard the Heart suit.  
     We will need to practice recognizing how to isolate opponents.   Consider ♠A7652 opposite ♠983.   If this suit breaks 3-2, we can isolate on opponent simply by ducking a trick here.   The opponent who started with two Spades will see their second Spade fall under our ♠A later.   Only the person with three Spades can prevent the run of this suit.   We will, of course, unblock ♠9 and then ♠8 here.  
      There are two ways that an opponent can become isolated in a suit: by length and by strength.   With Axxx opposite our Kx, the suit can break 4-3, 5-2, 6-1 or 7-0.   Unless the outstanding cards are divided 4-3, the opponent with the 5+ card length in that suit will be isolated with the responsibility of guarding it.  
     With AJ opposite our singleton deuce, there is little chance of an adversary being isolated by length.   The suit would have to break 10-0 or 9-1 !   But, the chances are 50-50 that both the King and Queen are in one hand, and that hand would be isolated with the task of preventing our Jack from being promoted.   The opponent with the KQ, then, is isolated by strength in that suit.   What needs to happen in this suit for an opponent to be isolated with the sole responsibility of guarding it ?   Assume that we cannot lose any more tricks.  

(a) Dummy:	♠ A K 4 3	opposite	Declarer's:	♠ 5 2
(b) Dummy:	♥ A Q 3 2	opposite	Declarer's:	♥ K 4
(c) Dummy:	♦ A 4 2	opposite	Declarer's:	♦ 5 3
(d) Dummy:	♣ A J	opposite	Declarer's:	♣ 5 3
(e) Dummy:	♠ A 9 2	opposite	Declarer's:	♠ 4

A threat card is any card which stands a chance of becoming a winner.   Generally speaking, the higher the card, the more imposing a threat that it poses to the adversaries.   Often, we will hold ♥Ax(x) opposite ♥Qx(x).   Unable to endplay the opponents into leading this suit for us, we will often cash ♥A and, when ♥K does not appear, use the ♥Q as a threat card against whoever holds ♥K.   In fact, this situation is so common that it has a name: a Vienna Coup.  

Pard A K 3 2   Us Vulnerable. A 5   IMPs. K Q 10      LHO A K Q 7   Moogal Q J 10 9 8 76 K J 10 9 8 7 6 4 9 2 7 5 3 6 4    Me 9 8 5 3 5 4 Q 3 2 A J 8 6 4 J 10 2

Me LHO Pard RHO Pass Pass 2 Pass 2NT Pass 7NT Pass Pass Pass  Lead: Q

We win the first trick with our ♠King.   The bad

Pard A K 3 2   Us Vulnerable. A 5   IMPs. K Q 10      LHO A K Q 7   Moogal Q J 10 9 8 76 K J 10 9 8 7 6 4 9 2 7 5 3 6 4    Me 9 8 5 3 5 4 Q 3 2 A J 8 6 4 J 10 2

Me LHO Pard RHO Pass Pass 2 Pass 2NT Pass 7NT Pass Pass Pass  Lead: Q

news is that we have only 12 tricks.   The good news in our 7NT ?   At least we've rectified the count ! :)
     We begin by hoping that LHO has Spade length for the lead here.   If LHO has 5+ Spades, LHO will have to keep at least two of them.   Now, if only LHO has the ♥K as well...
      So, we devise our plan.   We are going to want to cash all our minor suit cards, ending up in our hand.   The problem is that ♥A is in the way of our ♥Q threat card ... in a sense, blocking the suit.   So let us cash the ♥Ace so that the ♠Ace will be our only entry to dummy after we've cashed our minor suit tricks.  

Correct   Pard A 3 2   —   — LHO   — Moogal Q J 7  K 8 7 — — —   Me — 5 Q 4 —

Incorrect   Pard A 3 2 A — LHO — Moogal Q J 7 K J 8 7 6 — — —   Me — 5 Q 3 4 —

On the left (above), we see the correct ending, with the ♦4 putting the question to LHO.   LHO can either concede a trick to our ♥Q or to our Spades.   On the right, we see what would have happened, had we not cashed the ♥A.   LHO could now pitch ♥J, knowing that we cannot cash the ♥A and return to our hand to enjoy the ♥Q at this late stage. Typically, we will have one hand with a lot of winners.   Let's call this the "squeezing" hand.   We will try to arrange matters so that the other hand will have some "winner wannabees" (i.e., threats) and one entry to them.   Let's call that holding the "threats" hand.  
      The key to good squeeze technique is to keep one entry to any hand which contains a threat card.   Remember: a threat without an entry is no threat at all !
      Why only ONE entry ?   The reason for this is that we want to squeeze the opponents as tightly as possible.   The more winners we can cash, the more pressure that we can apply.   Hence, we play off all of the winners/entries in the threats hand except one.   Then we cash the winners in the squeezing hand before returning to the threats hand to cash whatever threat card may have become a winner.     1. (a) Which of the following is the "squeezing" hand, and which is the "threats" hand ?
    (b) You win ♥K with your ♥A, and play a second Heart.   LHO wins with the ♥Q, and switches to the ♣K.   What do we need LHO to have in order to make 6NT now ?
    (c) What precise card will be our entry to the threats hand (i.e., to dummy) ? A recurring theme that we will see in squeezes comes, when we are playing our LAST winner in the squeezing hand, just before we cross to the threats hand to cash whatever has become a winner.   At this critical juncture, we sometimes have to guess which threat card to pitch from Dummy.  
      Lest you thought all squeezes were slam or game contracts, consider this part score hand:

Pard 8 4 3 2   None vulnerable. A 7 5   IMPs. A 8 6 4    LHO 7 4   RHO A K Q 7 10 9 6 4 10 8 3 2 J 10 3 2 9 7 A 9 6 3   Me K Q 10 8 J 5 K Q J 9 6 K Q 5 J 5 2

Me LHO Pard RHO 1 Dble 2 Pass Pass Dble Pass 3 3 Pass Pass Pass    Lead: K

      LHO cashes ♠AK and then switches to a trump.   You try playing a Club, hoping that they will allow a Club ruff with Dummy's shorter trumps.   No go.   RHO wins the Club and fires back another trump, LHO showing out.   A second club from Dummy meets with the same fate: RHO wins, and plays the third Heart to Dummy's ♥A.   Darn !   These two are good !
      You ruff a Spade in your hand, play your ♦KQ, and then your last winner, ♥J.   Here is the ending:
      What do we pitch from Dummy, when we cash our ♥Jack ?   Here, we have a general rule: Toss Whatever the Opponent Didn't (i.e., "TWOD", pronounced "2 D").   If LHO pitches a Diamond here, toss your Spade from Dummy.   If LHO discards a Spade, throw away Dummy's Diamond.
     The TWOD rule usually happens at trick eleven, giving it the alternate name: "Rule of Eleventh" (not to be confused with the "Rule of Eleven").        The more threat cards we have in our two hands, the better.   Often we can't isolate one player in two suits.   Instead, we can isolate both players in one suit each.   This gives rise to the "who's-minding-the-store" question, that we will learn to ask ourselves:

Pard J 7 5 4   N-S Vulnerable. 2   MPs. K 10 9 8 2      LHO K 10 9   RHO A K Q 6 10 9 8 8 5 3 9 7 4 7 3 Q J 6 4 J 8 5 3    Me Q 4 2 3 2 A K Q J 10 6 A 5 A 7 6

Me LHO Pard RHO 1 Pass 1 Pass 4NT Pass 5 Pass 5 Pass Pass Pass  Lead: K.  LHO continues A,  and switches to 5.

      This was not exemplary bidding.   Oh, well.   Let's see ...
we have 10 tricks here, but can we squeeze out an eleventh ?
We draw the outstanding trumps, and play ♦A, ♦K, and then ruff one.   Without a 3-3 Diamond break, the best we can do is isolate LHO to guard against the ♠Jack becoming good while RHO will take care of the Diamonds.   But wait !   If LHO is guarding Spades and RHO is covering the Diamonds ... who will be keeping Clubs ?
      When we play our last Heart, LHO will have to part with a Club, lest the ♠Jack be promoted.   The Spade Jack has done its job.   We will now discard it.   Were RHO to toss ♦Q, then our ♦10 would be a winner, so RHO will also pitch a Club.   At this point, we can claim; our 3rd club will be our 11-th trick! Like the Double Squeeze, the Trump Squeeze requires entries to Both hands.   These entries are not high cards, generally, but trumps.   In its purest form, the Trump Squeeze is like a cross ruff, except that we are usually ruffing with our extra trumps (i.e., after drawing those of the opponents) in order to isolate an opponent.   We are still going to be one trick short of our goal unless someone is forced to pitch something.   Consider this hand with Hearts as trump:

This one works.   Pard A J 5 2 LHO — RHO K Q — — — — J A J   Me Q 8 2 5 6 — K 7

This one fails.   Pard A J 5 2 LHO — RHO K Q — — — — J Q 8   Me A J 2 5 6 — K 7

      In our left hand, we can take the remainder of the tricks here by leading the ♣7 and ruffing it in Partner's hand.   When we now ruff a Diamond in our hand, LHO is squeezed; tossing the ♣Ace would promote our ♣King, while shedding a Spade will promote our Partner's ♠AJ.  
     The example on the right happens to fail because we cannot isolate LHO with both black suits; RHO has the Club Ace.   When we ruff that Diamond in our hand, LHO will be able to pitch the ♣Queen.   Still, the trump squeeze was our only chance here.  
     Often we will trump in order to isolate one opponent with the responsibility of guarding that suit.   Consider this hand:

The Start   Pard Q 5 4 2 6 4 2 K 10 7 4 LHO A 5 RHO 8 7 J 10 9 J 10 9 8 5 3 Q 9 8 6 J 3 2 J 10 9   Me Q 8 4 3 2 A K 7 6 3 A K Q 7 A 5 K 7 6

The Finish   Pard 5 6 10 LHO — RHO — — J 10 — Q — —   Me Q 8 4 — Q 7 — 7

      Against our 7♠, LHO leads a trump.   We need to draw trumps, so on a 3-2 Spade break, we can envision 5 Spade tricks (3 top tricks, 2 ruffs), 3 Hearts, 2 Diamonds and 2 Clubs for 12 tricks.   After drawing trumps, we will play ♦A, ♦K, and ruff a Diamond, so that only LHO can guard Diamonds.  
      We now play two top Hearts and then ♣A and ♣K to get to the "Finish" position above.   Now when we ruff a Club, LHO is overloaded.   If LHO pitches ♦Q, then Dummy's ♦10 is good.   Otherwise, our Hearts will be good.  
      Here are some things to look for in spotting a Trump Squeeze:

1. Trumps and shortnesses in both hands.
   Hence, a 4-4 fit is much better than a 5-3 fit.  
2. One trump and One trick short of a full cross ruff.  
3. One non-trump entry between the hands (to be saved for last).  
4. Opportunities to ruff a suit — even if we can't expect to establish it — in order to isolate one opponent there.  

1.  

   	Declarer:	♠ 5 4 3 2	♥ A K	♦ 4 3 2	♣ A 9 5 4
   	Dummy:	♠ J 7	♥ 9 8 4 2	♦ A K Q 10 7	♣ K 3

         In 5♦, the LHO leads ♠AKQ, the RHO pitching a Club as you ruff the third Spade.   We will assume that Diamonds break 3-2.  
   1. Whom do you hope to squeeze, and in which suits?
   2. Assuming Hearts are split 4-3, how do you plan to isolate an opponent in the Heart suit?
   3. After playing ♦A, cashing the ♥AK, coming back to our hand in trumps (both following), ruffing one Heart in Dummy, returning to our ♣K and running all our Diamonds, what will Dummy's last two cards be ?

The Whole Hand   Pard 5 4 3 2 A K 4 3 2   LHO A 9 5 4   RHO A K Q 10 6 9 8 J 10 3 Q 7 6 5 9 8 J 6 5 Q J 7   Me 10 8 6 2 J 7 9 8 4 2 A K Q 10 7 K 3

The Ending   Pard 5 — —   LHO A 9   RHO 10 — — Q — — Q J   Me 10 8 — 9 10 3

2. How do we keep track of all these cards ?

      In all of the above examples, we lose our tricks early and then take the rest.   Sometimes, though, our plan is to squeeze a certain opponent out of their exit cards with the idea of throwing them in as part of an endplay.  

Pard A J 9 4   N-S Vulnerable. Q 6   MPs. 6 4 3      Moogal K 7 4 3   RHO 3 Q 10 7 5 2 10 9 8 5 4 A K J 3 2 8 7 5 2 10 8 6 5    Me Q 2 K 8 6 7 A K Q J 9 A J 10 9

RHO Me LHO Pard 1 Dble Pass 2NT Pass 4 Pass 4 Pass 6 Pass Pass Pass  Lead: 3

      RHO's ♠10 forces our ♠King.   We draw trumps and decide to play RHO for ALL of the outstanding HCPs for hir opening 1♠ bid.   We finesse through RHO in Clubs and play ALL of our minor suit cards, pitching the ♥6 and ♠9 from dummy.  
      Again, we see RHO with one card too many here !   When we cashed our last Diamond, RHO had a problem.  
      If RHO were to toss a Spade, our ♠AJ would be the two tricks we need to make 6♦.   Instead, RHO would likely pitch a top Heart.   This will allow us to exit with the ♥7 to RHO's remaining Heart winner.   RHO is now "endplayed", forced to lead from hir remaining ♠Q7 into dummy's ♠AJ.   Making 6♦ !   6♣ would have been much easier on this one.   Oh, well.   At least they didn't find the Heart lead !

1. What is a "threat" card ?
2. 1. Before cashing all of our winners in the "squeezing" hand, how many entries do we hope to retain to the other (i.e., "threats") hand ?
   2. If we have more than one entry to the threats hand, what do we do with those extra entries before coming into our squeezing hand ?
   3. If we have two entries to the threats hand, one of which is a singleton Ace while the other has some threat cards in that suit, which of these two entries should we cash before coming to our squeezing hand ?
3. In which type(s) of squeeze do we need to retain an entry back to the "winners" hand in order to end up there ?
4. In a Trump Squeeze will the final entry to the "threats" hand usually be a ruff or a high card ?
5. In your 7NT contract, the LHO leads ♠K.  

   Dummy:	♠ A J	♥ A 10	♦ J x x	♣ Q J x x x
   Declarer:	♠ x	♥ x x x x x	♦ A K Q x x	♣ A K

   1. Assuming that the LHO has the ♠Q, what Heart holdings in LHO's hand will allow us to make 7NT ?
   2. At trick 11, when we cash our last Diamond in our hand, what will we pitch from Dummy if LHO tosses a Spade ?
   3. At trick 11, on our last Diamond, what will we discard from Dummy if LHO pitches a Heart ?

North K 10 8 7 3     E-W Vul. 10   Match Points. 8 6 5 2     West Q 8 2   East Q J 2 9 5 4 K 9 5 3 2 J 8 4 J 10 3 A 9 7 4 K 3    South 10 7 5 A 6 A Q 7 6 K Q A J 9 6 4

Auction West North East South Pass 1 1 1 Pass 2 Pass 2 Pass 3NT Pass Pass Pass  Lead: J  Result: Making 3NT.

      On a diamond lead, Declarer attacks Clubs.   The opponents cash their Diamonds and switch to a Heart.   Too late !   Declarer wins ♥A, rattles off the Clubs and ends up with ♥Q and ♠6 opposite ♠K10.   LHO cannot keep ♠QJ and the ♥King.

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