Whatever Squeeze

Playing in the national board-a-match, we reach 3NT quickly and easily.

	K52 52 KQ5 Q8532

	QJ AQ103 A942 K64

Declarer	Dummy
1NT	3NT
Pass

I get the opening lead of the

J against 3NT. I have two spades, one heart, three diamonds, and one club on top with chances for more tricks in every suit but spades. It seems obvious to start on the clubs, so I do.

I win the K in dummy and play a club towards the king. RHO inserts the 9, and my K loses to the ace. LHO thinks for quite a while and continues with a small diamond. That gives me a trick, so I'm up to 8 tricks now and I can create at least one more, probably two more, in clubs. I let the diamond run around to my curse as RHO shows out, pitching the 10, upside down. Continuing setting up the clubs, I play a club to the 8, which holds! RHO discards a small heart.

Hmmm. I have nine top tricks so far. LHO has nine minor suit cards and probably has the A, so I have great hopes for heart finesses. If both hearts are onside, I can make 11 tricks for a sure win on the board. If either heart is onside, I still have 10 tricks, which is at least half a board. There may be blockage issues, but I think I can overcome them. I want to try to make 11 tricks, so I lead a heart to the ten. Ick. It loses to the J. That was probably a singleton; had I hooked the Q instead, I'd have had my 11 tricks. LHO exits with a diamond to dummy and I don't even have 10 tricks for certain, though RHO surely has the K and while spades are blocked, I may be able to squeeze RHO in the majors to get my tricks back. If the J really was a singleton, I have a really cool end position. The cards are now:

	K52 5 — Q53

	QJ AQ3 A 4

I need to cash the

A in order to squeeze RHO, so I take the heart finesse now. It succeeds as LHO shows out, pitching a diamond. Yep, I blew to the stiff. 11 tricks were available. That means the hand is double-dummy now, so let's look at the whole layout.

	K52 — — Q53
A63 — 10 J10		987 K98 — —
	QJ A3 A 4

I cash the

A pitching a club from dummy, and RHO can spare a heart. On the

A, however, LHO is squeezed. He can't pitch a club or I can run the clubs, so he must come down to a doubleton spade. That isn't too painful; the

6 doesn't look very important. When he pitches a spade, I can get rid of dummy's last low club. Now I can continue with a spade from hand. If LHO ducks this, spades are unblocked and I have my ten tricks, so he wins it. If he exits with his spade, again, I have all my tricks, so he plays a club, locking me away from my last spade winner in dummy. But now RHO feels the pain:

	K5 — — Q
6 — — J10		98 K — —
	Q 3 — 4

If he pitches a spade, dummy's spades are good, whereas if he pitches his last heart, I can cross to my

Q and cash my heart. He tries a heart, so I face my hand, scoring one spade, three hearts, four diamonds, and two clubs for ten tricks.

The core of the end position is an "overtaking squeeze," an uncommon relative of the steppingstone. But this one was a non-simulataneous double squeeze. And RHO was squeezed on the trick his partner led, so it was a suicide squeeze. So I guess it's a non-simultaneous double suicide overtaking squeeze. Or just a whatever squeeze.

It turns out that nothing I did mattered. Our teammates led spades and beat 3NT two tricks. I don't see how that is possible, but declarer must have lost his way a few times. Still, this is one of the coolest end positions I have ever seen; in the ending, the defense had no choice but to force it to happen or give me ten easy tricks.