D22 THE SQUEEZE

INTRODUCTION

Playing off a long side suit or leading out all your trumps may cause severe difficulties for the defence, good players and beginners alike. Defenders may inadvertently discard from a suit which provides extra winners for you. You will have to be diligent in watching your opponents' discards, taking note of what is left so that your side suit cards may now be masters. Alternatively, their discards may reveal where the remaining high cards may lie. If for instance, you need to find a queen in a side suit, one defender may be shedding small cards in that suit which may indicate that the other defender actually holds the missing queen.

Finally there are many positions where there is no possible discard without presenting declarer with an extra trick. This occurs where declarer has potential winners in two or even three suits either in dummy or in hand. This play is technically called a 'squeeze'.

EXAMPLE OF A SQUEEZE

Consider poor West's predicament in the following position. Four cards remain. The contract is no trumps and South, the declarer, needs all the remaining tricks.

When declarer plays off the ¨ A, West has no safe discard. If he discards a spade, North's ª A J will score two tricks, if he discards a heart, South's © A J will score. West is 'squeezed'.

CHARACTERISTICS OF SIMPLE SQUEEZES

a) Declarer must be one trick short of his trick target. The process of losing tricks to get to this stage is called 'rectifying the count',

b) There must be potential for extra tricks in two suits (called 'menaces' against the defence),

c) One defender must guard the two suits,

d) There must be a winner to cash from a third suit, 'the squeeze card', e.g. a last trump,

e) There must be entries to the winners when the defender has abandoned protection in a suit.

RECOGNITION OF SQUEEZE OPPORTUNITIES

a) A simple squeeze will only yield one extra trick so you will be on the look-out for hands where you are one trick short of your trick target.

b) You may know that a particular declarer is likely to have high card winners in two suits, e.g he has been active in the bidding.

c) Alternatively, you may find out from the play of the hand to date that one declarer has length in two suits, hence that defender guards both those suits.

d) Lastly, with no specific indication and no alternative play for your contract, assume that one defender guards the two suits. If it fails, bad luck. If it works, you win the brilliancy prize!

EXECUTION OF THE SQUEEZE

A squeeze only yields one trick. Therefore, to bring it about, declarer must have one loser and no more, else defenders will have idle cards to spare on their discards. So, if declarer has nine tricks in a 4 ª contract and hopes to make the tenth on a squeeze, he must lose 3 tricks first.