[inquiry]

Hi..

In an effort to keep the Introduction to Squeezes thread on topic, the quiz hands will be posted in this thread. I think everyone should be encouraged to participate here by adding their own hands, offering alternative lines of play. Etc.

If some shows a squeeze hand, where there maybe a better line of play, we can evaluate that as well. Identifying squeezes become easier with practice. And in this thread, we can stick in tons of practice hands, especially if everyone who is interested will participate in some way. I will start it off by offering two quiz hands here for the beginners/intermeidate players. One was already posted elsewhere on this forum, the other is new here. I would think the goal should be 40 simple squeezes just to get us use to the idea.

Ben

[inquiry]

Here is a hand posted by cf_John0 in the interesting hand forum. Maybe as a beginner, you decided to skip that forum. Well this one you can work out. In that thread cf_John0 asked the question, do you take the finessee or play for the squeeze to land your grand slam. I will turn it around, I know you see the finessee, but do you see how the squeeze would work on this hand.

Scoring: IMP


Quiz 1,

Contract 7♦ by south
Opening lead ♥2

Analyze BLUE: What is the loser count? What are the threats? What is the primary entry? Is there a secondary entry? What is the squeeze card?

---

Anyone intersted can find this hand easily enough in the correct forum. As to cf_John's question? The right answer is to play for the finessee after trying to ruff out the king of spades... but for our purpose, lets just see if we can spot how the SQUEEZE would work on this hand.

Ben

[inquiry]

Scoring: MP

Quiz 2

West       North       East       South
               1 ♦        3 ♠        4 ♥
4 ♠         Pass          Pass      5 ♥       
All Pass

Opening Lead ♣K, East plays the ♣7.Opponents playing standard count and attitude

---

Five hearts looks hopeless. West can cash 2♣’s, and they will win the ♠A, plus you have a possible ♦ loser. Even though the contract looks hopeless, you have one small chance. What if West has a long ♣ suit and the ♣7 was a singleton? West with ♣A-K-T sixth will have to decide which of you have a singleton and which a doubleton ♣. West might be afraid to try and cash a second ♣, since the ♣ Q-J in dummy might provide you with two pitches for potential two ♠ losers. But, be careful. If you play the ♣3 at trick one, and EW are playing normal signals, West will know you still have the ♣9. So you have to false-card at trick one with the ♣ 9. West thinks awhile but ends up leading the ♠9 to ♠3-A-Q.

You hold you breath, but to you delight, East returns ♠J as you discard ♣ 9.

One loser has evaporated, examine BLUE and figure out which threats and entries you have.

[jillybean]

Hi,
Quiz 1.
Loser count: 1 ♣Q
Threat: ♣Q?
Entries: ♥
Squeeze card: ♣J?

I don't see the squeeze here, it looks like a finessee of ♣K ?

Quiz 2

Loser: 2? ♦T, ♣Q
Threat: (Im confused, loser and threat seem to be the same thing)
Entries: ♥

Cash ♥&♠ until...

Upper hand: ♦AKT, ♣Q

West: ♦Qxx,♣A

Other hand: ♥xx, ♦J8

Lead ♥x, West must follow with ♦ making ♦AKT good or ♣A, making ♣Q good ?

Hmmm,
jillybean

[inquiry]

inquiry, on Nov 24 2004, 03:40 PM, said:

Scoring: IMP


Quiz 1,

Contract 7♦ by south
Opening lead ♥2

Analyze BLUE: What is the loser count? What are the threats?  What is the primary entry? Is there a secondary entry? What is the squeeze card?

---

Let's make a rule. You CAN NOT TAKE A FINESSEE here, it is not legal. The squeeze being consider is one where an opponent, either opponent has both black kings. So one Threat card is the spade QUEEN. If the spade Queen was a threat card, should the club queen be a threat card? The answer is no. The reason is that both threat cards will be in the same hand... we know we can do it that way, but the problem is that the positional squeeze and will not work against EAST.

A much better threat card is the CLUB Jack, because that means you will have a threat card in both hands, so that there will be an upper threat against both opponents. To count losers, count winners. We have 1♠, 1♣, 5♥ and 5♦ (assuming the required 3-2 ♦ split), so loser = 1. What about entries? If the club jack is the threat card, then the squeeze card will have to be the last red card.

So can you imagine the squeeze now? Yes, of course.. The squeeze is the very first one we looked at, the basic squeeze position. The primary entry is in the thread suit held opposite the squeeze card. Pull trumps cash the club ACE (vienna squeeze) so you can reach the basic squeeze position.

---

Now if the club King doesn't show up on the heart ACE, you play a spade to the ace.

The answer to the question, however, is the finessee better or the squeeze, well the answer to that is the combined chances trying to ruff out the spade king by trumping two spades, followed by club finessee is better chance than the squeeze. See cf_John0 thread in interesting hand if you want to see the mathematics why this is true.

[inquiry]

inquiry, on Nov 24 2004, 06:49 PM, said:

Scoring: MP

Quiz 2

West       North       East       South
               1 ♦        3 ♠        4 ♥
4 ♠         Pass          Pass      5 ♥       
All Pass

Opening Lead ♣K, East plays the ♣7.Opponents playing standard count and attitude

---

This is a nice feature of squeezes.... You have 10 tricks (7♥+1♠+2♦) so loser count is right. One threat card is the club queen, the other is the ♦J or ♦T. If West has the diamond queen, he will be squeezed in two suits, with the primary entry being the diamond ACE (or king). So Both is right, and entry is right.

By why worry about squeeze when you can finesse? The answer is this. If west has three small diamond and EAST has doubleton queen... look what happens...

---

When you cash the last heart, WEST has to keep teh club ACE. Dummy throws away the club queen when WEST keeps the club ACE. Now you lead a diamond and you don't hook.. becasue if WEST has the diamond Queen it is going to fall down. So this is a bonus squeeze. If the finesse is working so is the squeeze, but if the finesse is losing, the bonus is you might drop the doubleton queen off-side. This squeeze is often called a "show-up squeeze".

Ben

[inquiry]

jillybean2, on Nov 25 2004, 01:11 AM, said:

Hi,
Quiz 1.
Loser count: 1 ♣Q
Threat: ♣Q?
Entries: ♥
Squeeze card: ♣J?

I don't see the squeeze here, it looks like a finessee of ♣K ?

Quiz 2

Loser: 2? ♦T, ♣Q
Threat: (Im confused, loser and threat seem to be the same thing)
Entries: ♥

Cash ♥&♠ until...

Upper hand: ♦AKT, ♣Q

West: ♦Qxx,♣A

Other hand: ♥xx, ♦J8

Lead ♥x, West must follow with ♦ making ♦AKT good or ♣A, making ♣Q good ?

Hmmm,
jillybean

Hi Jilly,

I think we have some more work to do. In both quiz hands, you had your "entry" in the squeeze suit. The entries we are looking for should be ithe THREAT suits. In quiz one, the entry is in spades, in quiz two, the entry is in diamonds.

Thje loser count was one on both hands.

The threat cards were spade Q and club Jack n the first example, and Daimond T (or jack) and club Queen in the second hand.

The last heart was squeeze card in both.

Jiily, we will chat in a chat room about these hands and squeeze sometime, but in the mearnwhile, re-read the squeeze threat to see if you can get a better grasp on the logic of simple squeezes.

Ben

[Wackojack]

[quote name='inquiry' date='Nov 24 2004, 05:49 PM']

Scoring: MP

---

You have played east for a club singleton since it wasn't returned, so your [cl]2 is a threat card. Double dummy I suppose the threat against west can equally be in the north hand (Upper) but west under pressure might just forget that you have [cl]2 in your hand and discard all his clubs. OK unlikely

[jillybean]

Hi, thanks,
I’m getting tangled up with the terminology.

The squeeze suit contains the card that is going to perform the squeeze?
The threat is the card, which if the squeeze is successful, will secure the contract?
"threat to the opps defeating the contract"

What do you call the cards the opps hold that we are trying to squeeze out?

Also, I’m finding it difficult to determine which cards each opp holds, how the hand is played to the last 3 or 4 tricks.

Back for more reading…
jillybean

[Rebound]

This stuff must be sinking in, man! My partner went down unnecessarily on the following hand I played just a few hours ago on BBO. The person I was playing with rated himself an expert but that is suspect given he played for finesses both on the opening diamond lead and the heart return. Of course, they both lost. I discussed the hand with one of my brothers, a genuine expert if there ever was one, and he disagreed with my line, but could not dispute that it is foolproof as the cards lie.

Scoring: IMP

Contract 6NT by E, opening lead, ♦5. I was W

---

Please decide how you would play this hand before you read on.


I also would play low on the opening lead but I go up A on the ♥ return. Do you see where I am headed? Now, a low ♣ to the Ace and the J falls. Due to restricted choice, I now play a low ♣ to the Q (North shows out) and take the marked finesse on the way back, picking up the clubs. The last club and KJ of diamonds are cashed and with 4 cards left, this is the position:

Scoring: IMP

Contract 6NT by E, opening lead, ♦5. I was W

---

And now......... Woohoo! I cash the ♦A (pitching the J of ♥) and South is sunk. Having assumed the person with the ♥K also holds the ♠Q, to keep the ♥K, South can hold only 2 ♠ so the Q will drop. To keep 3 spades, the ♥K has to go, establishing the ♥Q

Please note, I did not come up with this line double-dummy. I reasoned that if I duck the diamond and it wins, that's 12. If it loses to the Q, the count is now correct for the heart/spade squeeze provided they are in the same hand. Now, the big question, the one I don't know the answer to, is there a better line? I don't agree with the one my brother proposed, which involves rejecting the diamond finesse and playing for a spade/diamond squeeze. Give it to me straight, I can take it lol.

[EricK]

Is your brother's line to take the first ♦, finesse in ♥ win the ♦ return, take 5♣ (discarding ♥), cross to ♠K, and cash AQ♥ discarding ♦. Which will squeeze North in ♠ and ♦?

If so, I don't like it much. Firstly, a ♠ switch after the ♥ finesse loses means you would lose your entry to the squeeze card (the ♥). Secondly, there are restricted choice implications of the lead of a top-of-nothing ♦. I think it reduces the chance that North holds honours in both majors.

The trouble with taking the ♦ finesse on the first round is that is almost certain to lose (who leads from ♦Qxxx against a NT slam?) and you don't yet know if you have 5♣ tricks. So My cursory analysis is to win the first trick, cash ♣A. When the J falls I reckon I have 5 tricks, so cash ♦K to see if ♦Q falls doubleton. When it doesn't, give up a ♦, and if we get a ♥ switch, play for the ♥/♠ squeeze.

Eric

[Rebound]

Honestly, I'm not certain of his line. I believe it was along the lines you describe, but I wouldn't swear to it. I'll have to ask him.

[inquiry]

You line is fine. Not sure if it is better than cash heart ace and just finessee in spades. The other squeeze line is win diamond ACE and try heart hook. The problem with this line isn't the diamond return.. on that you actually have a nice heart spade squeeze. The problem is if the heart hook loses and they return a spade. If you play the spade JACK and it is covered, you lose your spade threat, and your only entry to declarer's hand. If you win the ACE, you are pretty much sunk anyway for entry problems. So all in all, hooking trick one looks good to me.

[inquiry]

Scoring: MP



Quiz 3

West North East South
1♣    1♠    Pass   1NT
Pass  2♣    Pass   3NT
All pass

Opening lead ♥King

---

Your partner’s 2♣ cue-bid was at least game invitational, so with sound values you leap to game. Looking at dummy, you wonder why your partner didn’t correct the contract to 4♠.

This is matchpoints, so you have to worry about how many tricks people in spades will win. At trick one, you can see that if ♠s split 3-2, people playing in spades are likely to win 12 tricks. North would win the expected ♣ lead with the Queen, cross to the ♠Q, play ♥A and ruff a ♥, then pull trumps. Then play ♣A and a club. The ♦A serving as an entry to the long ♣’s for a ♦ discard. So now you have to figure out a way to win 12 tricks in notrump if you want to assure a good matchpoint score.

Assuming ♠’s split 3-2, what is the best line to try and win 12 tricks so you can get a good matchpoint score? Can you find a squeeze? What will be the squeeze card? What will be the primary entry? What will be the two threats against West?

When ♠’s split 3-2, you have 7♠ + 1♥ + 1♦ + 2♣ (assuming on the bidding that the ♣ hook wins). So currenlty your loser count is two. From the bidding and opening lead, you assume that only West can guard against the ♣J and with the opening lead, it looks like WEST has ♥KQJ so only he guards against the ♥10. However, for a squeeze, BLUE is currently violated. For one thing, “L” is two, for another, both the ♥10 and the ♣J are in the South hand, so the “U” requirement is violated.

If you think about it, you can fix the “L” count by simply ducking the first trick. It turns out that a ♦ switch will destroy your entry condition, and you WANT to encourage West to continue ♥’s, so you drop the ♥9. If he does, that will correct your Loser position. what about the problem with Upper (U) requirement. Wait a minute, in light of West’s opening club bid, you expect he has at least 3 clubs, so East has at most two. This means that instead of the ♣J as a threat, you can use the ♣5 in dummy as the threat, so Upper is correct after all.

After you duck the first ♥, West continues with the ♥Q. Win the ace, unblock the ♠Q, take the winning hook of West's ♣King, and run ♠s.

The ending you should have envisioned at trick one when you tried to encourage West to continue ♥’s is the one below, where the primary entry is the ♣A, the threats are the ♣5 and ♥10, and the squeeze card is surprising one: the ♦A.

---

For his opening bid, West held originally ♠852 ♥KQJ8 ♦K5 ♣K1084. If you saw the squeeze at trick one, you also should have seen that if West switched to a ♦ it would destroy your entry situation. It is unlikely that West would find the ♦ switch, but it is worth noting that you could realize the danger and play a high ♥ at trick one to make it easier for him to continue the suit. Full credit to anyone who, on their own saw the diamond ACE as squeeze card, the club five as the threat club threat and the need to try to encourage WEST to continue hearts. Finding this squeeze was worth 12 out of 12 possible matchpoints, as an unexpected diamond lead beat the two pairs in six spades. We can return to this hand and play it in 6♠ with a diamond queen lead. Turns out this should not beat 6♠ either. But you have to win the diamond ACE (else heart switch will beat you). The squeeze that you ahve to play is one with loser count = 2, so we are not yet ready to look at that one. But after we cover those kind of squeezes, you should be able to identify this one as well (it is a vulnerable stopper squeeze, example of which has been covered in the expert discussion group on squeezes, if you want to read ahead, there is one ending where this type of squeeze plays a role (as well as a developmental threat).. you can see it in the following post (but we haven't prepared the groundwork for you see how it works.....http://forums.bridgebase.com/ind...indpost&p=44125

If you want to see it work on this specific ending, you would win the diamond ACE, cash spade queen, hook the club, and run spades to reach this position with the last spade about to be played... What would WEST discard on the last spade?

---

This last ending shows the real secret to the hand.. which is, after we complete our stufy of squeezes (something to look foward too, we are not there yet in our lesson), you will not have to rely on WEST continuing a second heart! You can play the same squeeze at notrump, and win the first trick with the heart ACE, cash the spade Queen, hook the club, run the spades, coming to a very similar ending, but with diamond ACE in dummy instead of heart ace... the ending will be...

---

[inquiry]

When you master squeeze plays, sometimes one will crop up in the end game that you didn't necessarily plan for, and you will have to decide do I play for the squeeze or some other line, such as a fineesee. Here is one such hand,

Scoring: MP


Quix 4

1NT - 2♦
2NT - 3NT
All pass

1NT = 13-15 hcp
2♦ = game forcing stayman

Opening lead [sp[2 to ACE, back comes spade [sp]J you win king

---

You probably will eventually have to take teh heart finessee (what else?). But you lead a diamond to the queen and play a small club from dummy. When EAST plays small, your nine loses to WEST's JACK. West returns a spade and east follows suit with the ten (your spade 7 in dummy is now the 13th). So you play a a small diamond to the ACE (both follow) and cash the good spade. On the spade, WEST discards a ♦. Things are beginning to shape up nicely. 4♦, 3♠, 2♣, and the ♥Ace is ten tricks. If clubs split 3-3 or if the heart hook is on side, you have 11. But there is alos a squeeze possibility now, if clubs are 4-2 and the person with 4♣ also has the heart King. You cash the club ACE, and then lead a diamond JACK and overtake it with the ACE. West discards the heart nine.

You cash the last ♦ West discards the ♥Ten and east a small heart. This is the position when you lead a low ♣ to the king. West follows suit but east discards a ♥.

Scoring: MP


Quix 4

1NT - 2♦
2NT - 3NT
All pass

1NT = 13-15 hcp
2♦ = game forcing stayman

Opening lead [sp[2 to ACE, back comes spade [sp]J you win king

---

West had 3♠-3♥-3♦-4♣.. while EAST had 3♠-5♥-3♦-2♣,. You lead a low ♥ from dummy and east play low ♥. At this point you can make 11 tircks if you "guess" right. If East has the heart king, you simply finessee by playing the queen. On the other hand, if WEST has the heart king, you managed to squeeze him on the last diamond and going up with the ACE will drop the king.

This is where bridge logic (or bridge percentages if logic will not help). This was a neat hand that got me 12 out of 12 in a regional tournament on this line of play (I guess you can see I played for the squeeze). But with East having five hearts and West 3, the odds where 5 to 3 that East had the heart queen. Can you see why i refused teh finessee?

[inquiry]

Back to the quiz format : This was a bbo hand

Scoring: IMP


Quiz 5

West North East South

 2♥    3♣    Pass  4NT
 Pass  5♣    Pass  6NT
 Pass  Pass  Pass  

---

Opening lead Heart Queen


Fill in these answers, what is?

1) The both threats
2) What is the squeeze card
3) The upper threat
4) The primary entry
5) What should you play to trick two

[inquiry]

This was a BBO hand

Scoring: IMP


Quiz 6

West North East South

 -     Pass  Pass  1♠
 3♥    3♠    Pass  4♦
 Pass  4♠    Pass  4NT
 Pass  5♦    Pass  6♠
 Pass  Pass  Pass  

---

Opening lead

Heart JACK.

You see your main worry is who has the diamond queen. You win first heart and ruff the second one with the heart ACE - as east discards a club.

Do your blue analysis to see if squeeze might be worth it? You play a club at trick three and west wins the ACE and returns another heart, which you ruff with the jack. What next?

[inquiry]

BBO hand from just yesterday

Scoring: IMP


Quiz 7

West North East South

 -     1NT   Pass  2♥
 3♣    Pass! Pass  4♣
 Pass  4♦    Pass  6♠
 Pass  Pass  Pass  

---

Opening lead a small trump, RHO follows suit. You are up...

The club ACE will be onside... so take it from there... Squeeze card, Both threats, primary entry, etc...

Takes club ace and returns a club.
Ben

[Rebound]

I take it that it doesn't matter what W returns when he is in with the A of clubs?

Or perhaps that is a dumb question. I was thinking of eliminating the clubs and coming down to ♥xx ♦Q10 opposite ♥AQ ♦ Ax but I see it is also possible to use the K of clubs. I'm a bit lost on this hand though, I will admit.

[inquiry]

Scoring: IMP


QUIZ 8
West North East South

 -     -     Pass  1NT
 Pass  7NT    Pass  5♣
 Pass  Pass   Pass  Pass

Opening lead HEART EIGHT (2nd/4th best altered)
   

---

Your options are, play low if WEST lead from heart King,
Consider playing for 3-3 clubs
Consider hooking EAST for the club JACK
If there is a squeeze here, what is it? And what is B, L, U and E.

Bonus question, why play the squeeze?

Ben