Posted 2014-January-12, 03:54
To decide if there is a squeeze or not, you need to project how the play will go up to the point just before you play the squeeze card. If the first attempt doesn't work, you have a rethink.
So my first attempt it:
Ruff the opening lead, draw trumps, cross on the ace of hearts and ruff another spade, then run trumps. You are planning to come down to a 5-card ending:
x
x
-
AKJ
-
K9x
x
x
now think through the possibilities
- if LHO started with 7 spades and the queen of clubs, then (apart from taking the club finesse) we cash our red suit winners and he is squeezed
- if LHO started with 7 spades and 3 hearts we've misplayed it, we needed to keep the HA in dummy and cash the AK of clubs earlier
- if RHO started with 3 hearts and the queen of clubs then the last trump discarding a a major suit card squeezes him
so on two of these layouts, we simply cash the last diamond discarding a heart, then the HK discarding a spade if it isn't good and if the hearts aren't good we play clubs from the top
Now we think through an alternative line. Instead of crossing on a heart to ruff a spade, we cash the AK of clubs (discarding a heart) and ruff a spade then run trumps, coming to
x
Axx
-
J
-
Kx
xxx
-
If LHO started with 7 spades and the queen of clubs, he isn't squeezed
if LHO started with 7 spades and 3 hearts we discard a club on this trump and he is squeezed on the next one
if RHO started with 3 hearts and the queen of clubs there's no squeeze because we've kept both our menaces in dummy and he is over dummy
So although this line succeeds in one case where the first one didn't, it fails more often.
Finally, what if we don't ruff a second spade in hand but just run trumps.
x
Ax
-
AKJ
-
Kxxx
x
x
This is going to pick up the same layouts as the first line, except that we may need to take the club finesse if LHO has the queen
So, finally: yes, there is a squeeze (of course) but I don't think you have a single dummy 100% line
WEST LEAD ♠K Plan the play.