Conference turris::bridge

	I don't think there's anyway to find out enough information about
	the hand.  You might guess the SQ is offside when you lead ST from
	the board and it's not covered - but with so many entries, the ST
	might be ducked anyways.

	It seems the only way to make it after losing SQ is to hook the CT.

	-Dave

	Did 3C promise extras?  In my book, 3C sets up a game force after
	a 2/1 promising 16 opposite 10.  After which, you can't blame partner
	for going on to slam.

  After DA,SQ,HA, I'd run spades pitching two D's, CK, DK, intending to
 throw a heart, but watching all discards.  If there is any guess, which
 most often, there won't be, I'm going for a redsuit squeeze on LHO.

  Thus, I would NOT cash the HK before C-AQ.  This gives up on the C-D
 squeeze on RHO.  But how likely is that with LHO having S-Qx and leading DQ ?

  I think this will work out against many distributions, as there are
 multiple squeeze chances.

  bb

If LHO really started with QJT of diamonds and no more than 3 clubs, the opps
are set up for a double squeeze with hearts in the middle. But if LHO has 4 or
more clubs, LHO can retain a club and diamond stopper while RHO retains 2 hearts
and the double squeeze fails. I think LHO is holding QJ of hearts and QJT of
diamonds, in which case s/he can be the victim of a simple squeeze in the reds.
Cash all dummy's winners outside of hearts (pitch a club on the KD) and run the
black suit winners. The 3 card ending is:

	Dummy
	S:-
	H:K2
	D:9
	C:-
LHO		RHO
S:-		irrelevant
H:Jx
D:J
C:-
	You
	S:5
	H:T7
	D:-
	C:-

LHO is squeezed on the last spade. Just discard the 9D if the J and 10
are still missing.

Dave

	To review, this was posed as a play problem on the following hands:

		Dummy:     S- T76      H- AK2    D- AK965    C- KT
		Declarer:  S- AKJ95    H-T76     D- 7        C- AQ76
on an opening lead of the DQ, and given the information that the spade
finesse loses.

	On the actual hand, all of the lines proposed succeed, including the
inferior choice of finessing the C10, but it seems to me that the best line
is to make the early plays to set up the double squeeze with hearts in the
middle.  Here is the actual hand, but a more interesting hand puts one of the
heart honors and the CJ with RHO:

            Dummy:  S- T76      H- AK2    D- AK965    C- KT
LHO:  S- Q4		RHO:  S- 932
      H- QJ93		      H- 854
      D- QJT42		      D- 83
      C- J9                   C- 85432
          Declarer:  S- AKJ95  H-T76     D- 7       C- AQ76

Planning for the double sqz from the outset requires very careful technique,
as follows:

QD to KD; SA in case SQ stiff; CK to reenter dummy, note that using a heart
entry opens you to having the second heart entry knocked out later and one
must always have a late entry in the center suit; losing spade finesse; and
HQ to HK at trick 5 (or if we are postulating split heart honors, a low heart
or DJ exit).

Now cash DA pitching a heart (this timing is also very important!) and then
your three high spades to reach this 4-card ending (the last spade will have
squeezed RHO down to one heart in order to protect his three clubs):
                           Dummy:  S-  H- A2  D- 9x   C-
     RHO:  S-  H- J9  D-J  C-x                           LHO:  S-  H- x  D-
 C- 8xx
                            You:    S- just cashed last one,  H-x  D-  C- AQ7

Now when you cash the CA and CQ, your LHO is squeezed in the red suits, and
to protect against the D9 (dummy discards after she does!) will also come
down to a stiff heart.  When the H2 wins the last trick, wonderful
recriminations should ensue.

 There is a required order in which to cash your winners (in Love's book on
squeezes, I think he labels the suits L, R, and F, for (guarded by) LHO, RHO,
and Free (your runnable suit).  This time the required order is L (diamonds),
F (spades), R (clubs), first squeezing RHO out of his heart stopper, then LHO
out of hers.  But I don't try to remember the formulae,  I just have to pause
and reinvent it at the table each time.  Am I missing a useful memory device
to help me?

Unfortunately, at the table my partner played this one, going down one when
the C7 lost to the C8 at trick 13.  Slam was made at only two of twelve
tries, and we even beat two instances of grands that were down two.  Not a
strong field in Wellesley.  Would I have found the right line?  We'll never
know.

Incidentally, re .1:   Dave, you are listening to the auction in the wrong
language.  We are not playing 2/1 gf, but are instead playing Precision so
the 1S bid was limited to 15, 2D only promised 10, 3C only showed a second
suit, and the 3H fsgf bid is required to give us some slam exploration room.
 When partner bid 3NT I was amazed she didn't have the HQ.  I'd prefer
3S-4N(RKCB)-5D(3KC)-5H(Qask)-5S(deny)-6NT(because it's MP, although 6S may be
right if we need a club ruff).

						-- Alan

	I definitely need to read some books on squeezes.

>Incidentally, re .1:   Dave, you are listening to the auction in the wrong
>language.  We are not playing 2/1 gf, but are instead playing Precision so
>the 1S bid was limited to 15, 2D only promised 10, 3C only showed a second
>suit, ...

	Whew.  Then bidding 3C seems like an action that might get you in
	trouble.  I'd have bid 2S - sort of a waiting bid seeing what partner
	was going to do.  Partner will probably have to bid 4N now.  And you
	get the "preferred" sequence you pointed out.
	

These comments were sent by Steve Root to Alan Frantz, who forwarded them to me
for posting here.  -Neil

==============================================================================

squeeze hand


                S  10 x x
                H  A K x
                D  A K 9 x x
                C  K 10


                S  A K J 9 x
                H  10 x x
                D  x
                C  A Q x x



6NT, in a competent field, you need to do this. Before anything else
happens, you're on one out of two finesses to make this. If your field
is very random, you're going to get a pretty good result for 6S, which
is going almost always make. So you don't need the 6NT push.

So the lead is the queen of diamonds! Most curious, as dummy has bid
them. This lead takes away your best (a-priori) squeeze chance of a
double with common diamonds. Although, such a squeeze is less of a
chance than the club finesse.

But with dummy having bid diamonds, it really looks like LHO has all
three diamond honors. So now we have a squeeze with hearts the common
suit, assuming that RHO has the club length. This is a tad better
than 50%, as RHO has (presumed QJ10 of diamonds wired into his hand).

You're expecting to come to an ending of:


                S  -
                H  K x
                D  9
                C  -

S  -                            S  -
H  ??                           H  ??
D  J                            D  -
C  -                            C  J

                S  x
                H  10   (or little)
                D  -
                C  x



For reasons of entries, I'd finesse the spade 10 at trick 2.
Now, LHO takes the spade queen, and leads the queen of
hearts!!!!

Curiouser and curiouser. WHAT is going on here? Normally, one would
expect LHO to continue diamonds and finish off the entries there.
Does LHO have so many diamonds that he knows the entry's already
gone?

If LHO has


        S  Q x x
        H  Q
        D  Q J 10 x x
        C  J x x x

this has been a first class campaign to talk you out of taking the
club finesse !! He 'gave' you a double squeeze. In case you didn't
recognize that, he is 'giving' you a single squeeze in the red
suits !!

It's time to stare at LHO, is this a top class defender or not?
The problem is that there are now THREE lines of play! The club
finesse, and two different squeezes. You can't do both squeezes.
For either squeeze, you have to get the diamond king out of the way,
and that card squeezes your hand. For the double squeeze, you have
to pitch a heart. For the red suit squeeze, you have to pitch a club.

Well, I'm going to squeeze, but let's cash all the spades first.
Maybe something will happen. We have two free diamond pitches off
dummy.

If nothing changes my mind again, it's the double squeeze (well,
technically, it's a single played as a double). The final position
has a club winner in the hand in place of the spade winner shown
above. (the reason you have to cash the diamond king, is so you
can tell whether the diamond nine has become a winner!)

After the spades, the club king, the diamond king, and slide back
to the hand with the club ace...

Note, if you feel that you have to lead diamonds from Q J 10 and
whatever else, it's generally better to not lead the queen against
something like 6NT. The 10 gets the job done, and the fall of the
cards (and the bidding) will almost certainly tell partner that
you're lying. If it sounds like dummy really has length, and declarer
has nothing, you can get away with pushing through some medium size
top-of-nothing-looking spot!

Against a competent declarer, giving away information can cost you!

If LHO really had something like


S  Q x x
H  Q J 9 
D  Q J 10 x
C  x x x

The diamond 10, followed by a low diamond upon getting the spade
queen gives you a problem. The club finesse is simply better odds
than any squeeze. You need the spade entries to take the finesse
and unblock the clubs. So it's the second round of spades to your
hand, club finesse, down three!

Also, lying on opening lead when you have all the stuff is less
likely to induce partner to make an error.

ROTO

When I see Steve I'll have to tell him there are 3 possible squeezes.
The one he missed is a double squeeze with CLUBS as the common threat.

Dave

    Ah, the famous hand from Wellesley! The funny part about the hand is
    that you make 7S, if you are in 6! My partner had a momentary lapse of
    reason, could not count up to 5 (keycards) and had me play in 5S making
    7. However, because of the large number of people going down in 6N and
    7S by taking the spade hook, we got 9 out of 12 for +710, proving once
    again that it is better to be lucky than good.
    
    I played the hand on a dummy reversal, ruffing D in hand and being
    willing to lose to the SQ but LHO obliged by dropping the SQ doubleton
    in the end game!
    
    Shekhar