Further thoughts: This got me looking through my old bridge books. I still can't find the Squeeze Play Made Easy and I think I will order it from Amazon. I found my copy of Play Bridge With Reese, another book that I like a lot. I had written in a side note saying I thought I had a better line of play than Reese on his hand 1, and I still think so. Here are the hands:
AQ
AJ984
A83
J73
T82
KT752
K6
AK9
S is in 6
on an old-fashioned auction and the opening lead is the
9. Q from the board, the K wins, the
3 is returned, W playing the 7. Trumps are drawn (W held Q3) after which TR ruffs a
as W discards a
. TR now explains why it is better to play E for a doubleton Q than to try first the
J forcing the cover and then to return to the board to lead a
toward the A9 for a finesse.
Sure, playing for the drop is better than the repeat finesse given what we know of the distribution, by why ruff the
T at all? E is likely to hold the
J, maybe not certain to hold it but very likely, so after drawing trump play
K, small
to board, ruff a
. Then run
. You make whenever E holds the
J and the
Q regardless of his
length, and you still make it if, for some reason, W led the
9 from J93 as long as E holds the doubleton
Q.
Ok, I guess the choice might depend on the lead agreements of your opponents, but playing E for both the
Q and the
T is not attractive and I think it's better to play him for the
J and the
Q with the back-up possibility of the
Q being doubleton even if W rather than E holds the
J.
Reese points out that the odds of making this are much better if N rather than S is the declarer.
Despite my above audacity, I very much recommend Reese, both the squeeze book and the play book. And I still like books, meaning actual physical books, despite the obvious joys of the internet. I turn 82 on Friday, an age group that appreciates books.