[CSGibson]

---

This was against Kasle and Kozlove in the round of 32, I thought it was a neat hand. Anyway, leading 4th best, Kasle tables the ♥7.

First trick goes low, A, low. ♥8 is returned to the 5, 9, & Q.

You decide to go after clubs by playing low to the ace, with the Q popping on your left. A small club next fetches a diamond pitch, the T of clubs, and the J. A third club is returned to your K, and another low diamond is pitched by Kasle.

How do you play it now?

[trevahound]

CSGibson, on 2013-August-13, 08:02, said:

---

This was against Kasle and Kozlove in the round of 32, I thought it was a neat hand. Anyway, leading 4th best, Kasle tables the ♥7.

First trick goes low, A, low. ♥8 is returned to the 5, 9, & Q.

You decide to go after clubs by playing low to the ace, with the Q popping on your left. A small club next fetches a diamond pitch, the T of clubs, and the J. A third club is returned to your K, and another low diamond is pitched by Kasle.

How do you play it now?

Not in your class, but I'll give it a try before work. LHO is prob 4-4-4-1, and RHO 2-2-4-5. LHO didn't lead a spade, and did lead from KJ97, so probably doesn't have JT8x of spades. I've lost two tricks already (a club and a heart), so if I exit a heart right now, LHO if he cashes both hearts will squeeze his partner out of a club and a diamond, leaving RHO with the last minor guards. I pitch a spade from hand on the 4th heart, and then on the run of three spades RHO is squeezed out of one minor or the other.

When I play this way, however, it turns out LHO lead from an original 97 of hearts, and my count is all wrong. Then when I try to recalibrate mid hand, the wheels come flying off. I'll let the experts have the floor now.

[johnu]

I would be pretty sure West started with ♥KJxx and agree 4-4-4-1 is a likely distribution. I would exit a club. If east cashes both clubs winners, west will be squeezed in the majors. If east switches after winning the club, win the return in hand and cash the top diamonds. You should have a delayed duck squeeze as west would have to keep 2 high hearts to prevent you from just ducking a heart, so will have to pitch a spade setting up your spades.

Exiting a heart and playing for a minor suit squeeze can be beat with a diamond shift because you can't rectify the count and maintain your squeeze entries.

[inquiry]

I have eight top tricks, they have won two. I can either lead a club and let East consider if he wants to squeeze west, or I can return a heart and let west decide if he wants to squeeze East. Since East has the longer suit (5 clubs opposite a stiff, compared to 4 hearts opposite a doubleton), I return a club. The idea is west will have to keep two hearts and presumably four spades (his diamond pitches suggest he will not stop them). I think West is 4-4-4-1. If West is 3=4=5=1 I have no trouble anyway (4S, 1H, 2D, 2C), so the squeeze is useful. In case East doesn't cash the last club, I think I have to keep three spades in dummy so I pitch a diamond.


Nice hand.

[billw55]

You guys really give the details. My line was "duck a club and hope something good happens".

[CSGibson]

Nice. In real play there were two differences - I covered the heart with the T, and Kasle pitched a spade and a diamond, not two diamonds, so there was no need for fanciness, but I had it planned if a spade wasn't discarded....

Oh, and I call BS on Brian with his "not in your class" comment.

[wyman]

I thought about this for a bit this morning. If you exit a club to east and he exits a diamond, aren't you cooked? You'll need to cash the diamonds to squeeze west, but can't he keep 4=1=0=0? Then you can throw him in with a heart, and he's pretty much toast (unless he exits the 8 from J8xx?) but you can't get back to hand to cash the 4th spade. Think Jxxx / Tx, and west exits a low spade, east playing a high spade. You can hook west for the other high spade, but now you're pinned in dummy.

[quiddity]

wyman, on 2013-August-13, 11:18, said:

I thought about this for a bit this morning. If you exit a club to east and he exits a diamond, aren't you cooked? You'll need to cash the diamonds to squeeze west, but can't he keep 4=1=0=0? Then you can throw him in with a heart, and he's pretty much toast (unless he exits the 8 from J8xx?) but you can't get back to hand to cash the 4th spade. Think Jxxx / Tx, and west exits a low spade, east playing a high spade. You can hook west for the other high spade, but now you're pinned in dummy.

When you throw him in with a heart you establish the long heart in dummy as the ninth trick.

[wyman]

quiddity, on 2013-August-13, 11:31, said:

When you throw him in with a heart you establish the long heart in dummy as the ninth trick.

Apparently I didn't think about it hard enough this morning

[quiddity]

What was the ♥7 lead anyway, was he just messing around? If he leads 4th best and then wins the king on the second round and then squashes the T can you still make the hand?

edit - sorry, KJ97, i'm still asleep too. But can you make the hand if he wins the king?

[kayin801]

quiddity, on 2013-August-13, 11:39, said:

What was the ♥7 lead anyway, was he just messing around? If he leads 4th best and then wins the king on the second round and then squashes the T can you still make the hand?

edit - sorry, KJ97, i'm still asleep too. But can you make the hand if he wins the king?

I think so but you have to duck 2 clubs to set up the major suit squeeze against LHO. If after winning the heart K LHO switches to a diamond and then RHO plays a diamond when in on the second round of clubs you have to duck that diamond now in lieu of ducking a 2nd club. I think you're okay now, even if LHO overtakes and squashes the heart ten.

[kayin801]

double post

[johnu]

kayin801, on 2013-August-13, 12:18, said:

I think so but you have to duck 2 clubs to set up the major suit squeeze against LHO. If after winning the heart K LHO switches to a diamond and then RHO plays a diamond when in on the second round of clubs you have to duck that diamond now in lieu of ducking a 2nd club. I think you're okay now, even if LHO overtakes and squashes the heart ten.

You can't afford to have west win the diamond and with your spots, you can't really control the play. Since you've already lost 2 hearts and a club, west can win the diamond and cash the winning heart for down 1. Just win the diamond in hand and duck another club to rectify the count for a possible major suit squeeze against west..

[JLOGIC]

It's a common theme on suicide squeeze hands that if they don't cash the last winner, you can either strip squeeze LHO or sqz them without the count like here. In books ofc not cashing always breaks it up

[inquiry]

quiddity, on 2013-August-13, 11:39, said:

What was the ♥7 lead anyway, was he just messing around? If he leads 4th best and then wins the king on the second round and then squashes the T can you still make the hand?

edit - sorry, KJ97, i'm still asleep too. But can you make the hand if he wins the king?

Before we deal with your suggested line, let's cover the actual line.

If East cashes all his club winners, you have a simpe major suit squeeze on West. If East wins the club and switches, you have what Clyde Love called a CLE squeeze with two losers. (Companion, Lead, Entry). When you cash the top two diamonds, West has to A) give up the spade quard, or B) discard a heart. If he throws a spade, you cash your nine tricks. If he discards a heart, you duck a heart while having the spade king as an entry to the extablished heart (which is why I threw a diamond in my response, in case East exits a spade, you need three spades in dummy or you have bungled your entries).


Now to the proposed defense you suggest. West jumps up with the King of hearts and exits the Jack of hearts smothering the Ten. Now you have lost two hearts, you can go ahead and duck a club like before and if East continues clubs the simple squeeze works. But if he switches there is more problems. The best chance if spades are not 3-3 is that West has four spades to the JT and East has the spade eight. Now you have a strip squeeze on West, who has to keep all his spades and the heart.

So when you eventually play a spade up to dummy, West has to split (win in dummy). Cash two diamonds ending in dummy and throw West in the heart. If all goes well he will have Jxx of spades. If he leads low you win the nine. If he leads high, you win the Queen unblocking the nine. Winning and continuing hearts as you suggest is the best defense, but perhaps it doesn't save the hand.