The hand I posted has something in common with a Dare hand from today (7-9-18). In this one there are 11 tricks in plain sight after the heart finesse works. We would like to up it to 12 tricks. As with the Dare hand I mention below, we would like to run a squeeze but the count is not rectified. There is such a thing as "squeeze without the count", but squeeze with the count is usually easier. But if W gets in and leads another
, the entry situation goes south.
My hope was that if I led a
from dummy, E would rise. He did.
T1:
9854
T2
QKA4
T3:
JJT2 and
T.
T4:
3,
6,
8,
8
T5:
2,
A,
4,
7
This was the "mistake" I was hoping for. "Mistake" is a stretch, hopping up was a reasonable play, but now the count is rectifier and I can run the
-
squeeze.
I took the
return and ran
winners. After 9 tricks the position is
J76
---
---
A
AK
---
---
JT
E has to come down to four black cards. If he comes to three spades and one club, a club to the A establishes my Q. If he (as he did) comes to two spades and two clubs then I play the
AK to drop his Q and the board is good. I have to guess which is the case, but at least it's a chance.
If I had to run the squeeze without the count, it can be done, at least in theory, but it was a lot easier this way.
Now to the hand from today's Dare game:
The contract is 6
, the opponents have not entered the auction, the opening lead is the
J, all very normal.
Dummy (Trump at the top)
AT
QJ3
K85
K9742
Declarer
KQJ952
AK4
3
A63
You need 12 tricks. I count 11 on top. Put differently, you are about to lose a heart, how do you avoid losing a club?
A heart club squeeze might work, but what are the threats to be? The
K will be a threat if we don't waste it now, and a club spot in declarer's hand can be the other. So duck at T1. This rectifies the count. Surely the
A is with RHO and if he has 3 or 4 clubs we have him.
Say a
is continued. Ruff it, run all the diamonds and cash the spades ending in dummy. The position is
---
---
K
K9
---
---
---
A63
Rho must hold on to the
A and so he cuts down to two clubs. The clubs now run.
If by an chance Lho leads the
J at T2 instead of a
, (he won't but just supposing) then it is best to rise with the K on the board. The end position is then simply
---
---
K
9
---
---
---
A6
Again Rho holds on to the
A and so the last two clubs run.
To squeeze RHO, you need one of the threats to be in declarer's hand, the
threat is clearly on the table, so the
threat must lie with the declarer. It's easiest to simply keep the A as an entry to the established threat, otherwise it requires that you run a "trump squeeze". It works, but it's a challenge.
