A Simple Squeeze #11-28

IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny

Many players believe the squeeze play is too complex for them to master. However, in many cases all you have to do is cash your winners. This hand is a good example.

Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs)

#11-28
Dlr	E
Vul	E/W

	K8
	KJ985
	AJ62
	64

	QJ109532
	432
	109
	J

	74
	Q107
	Q73
	109732

	A6
	A6
	K854
	AKQ85

West	North	East	South
		Pass	2NT
Pass	3*	Pass	3

Pass 4NT Pass 6NT

Pass Pass Pass

*transfer

BIDDING: North transferred to hearts and then jumped to 4NT. This sequence showed invitational values for slam in hearts or NT. South loved his strong club suit and accepted.

PLAY: West led the queen of spades won by declarer’s ace. At trick two, declarer played the ace and another heart to the jack losing to the queen. East returned a spade to dummy’s king. Declarer cashed the king of hearts pitching a diamond from his hand and was relieved to see the hearts divide 3-3. He now had 11 tricks: 2 spades, 4 hearts, 2 diamonds, and 3 clubs. It appeared he now either needed the clubs to be kind to him or find the queen of diamonds. But, before attacking either minor suit, he cashed dummy’s other two hearts discarding another diamond and a club. East was in trouble; he discarded a club on the fourth round of hearts and was finished by the last one. He finally discarded a low diamond. Declarer played the top clubs followed by the king-ace of diamonds and dummy’s diamond jack was declarer’s twelfth trick.

Those who fell back on the diamond finesse complained of bad luck when both red queens were off-side.