[Jojask]

Hello all. Just an hour ago I was in a small slam and went down 2. My partner called my play poor, so I left the table to check on the tables that made. As far as I can tell each of those made because of misdefense except one. This was the deal, South lead diamonds:

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Basically I played for a club split of 3-3 (the spade play in the beginning was due to my nervousness. I thought I needed a Spade finesse). That did not work so I tried to cash some winners, then endplay South and hoped for a misdefense. Did not work either so in the end I finessed hearts, again hoping for a misdefense. Instead of going down 1 I then went down 2.

This was the table that made, after a heart lead:

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During the play South was squeezed. I know very little about squeezes, but I can recognize one when I see one. Why was South squeezed here and not during my play? Sorry, but I really cannot see it...

Edit: By the way, is there a way to make the hand diagrams bigger?

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

I am not good at declarer play, but the year ends, I did not post this year
on declarer play, so I will try, maybe I have improved a bit, otherwise, I will
wait for another 12 month before posting again

You have 4 spades, 3 clubs, 3 diamonds, 1 heart, i.e. 11 tricks.

Hearts can provide the 12th trick, the standard way to tackle the suit is to
play small to the 9, planning to play small to the Jack next, this will win
when North has the 10.
Also if it looses, you have given up / conceded the necessary trick, to make a
squeeze play work.

If North raises with the Queen, you should duck, I am not sure I would find this
at the table, the purpose being, to give up the trick.

After that you can play on your winners, relying on the final heart finesse against
North, if neither the 4th club or the 4th diamond got promoted.

A good introduction / nice and simple, low key approach, to squeeze play is
http://books.google....uAC&redir_esc=y

With kind regards
Marlowe

[P_Marlowe]

Added:

Basically your line was the one I suggested, you gave up the trick as you tried to
endplayed South, and your entries in the hand were still active, otherwise you could
not have made the final finesse in hearts.

So calling your line of play poor, is just ..., so it may just been a matter of getting the
order correct, and observing the discards.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[Antrax]

Jojask, on 2012-December-14, 01:44, said:

Edit: By the way, is there a way to make the hand diagrams bigger?

Theoretically yes, an explanation is here: http://www.bridgebas...a-hand-diagram/
However I was unable to fix what you've used.

[Jojask]

I think I did find out why this one table was able to squeeze defense while I was not. Before cashing the last spade (and keeping a high club) I - theoretically - could have played hearts twice. Defense would either be down to 2 hearts each, so by doing that I would have set up my third heart, or South would have to give up a club or a diamond. So the 12th trick was there, at least double dummy, only - in my line of play - not via a sqeeze but via a promotion.

Thanks, P_Marlowe for the helpful link. I think I will get that book. "Yes, even you!"
And thanks Antrax. I had just copypasted the address of the movie. Now I modified it accordingly. Much better.

[Fluffy]

Jojask, on 2012-December-14, 01:44, said:

During the play South was squeezed. I know very little about squeezes, but I can recognize one when I see one. Why was South squeezed here and not during my play? Sorry, but I really cannot see it...

The hand that made was very lucky on a 3 suit rare squeeze withou the count. the hand makes very easilly if you lose a trick early. Rectify the count is the key for basic squeezes (that's where you should start). Basic squeezes (most of the squeezes are basic) have all the remaining tricks except one easilly asigned to the declaring side, and only the figth for the 13th is what matters.

This is how you should had though of the hand:

Clubs 3-3 you have 12 tricks, but you have no hurry to try it, if they are 3-3 they will be 3-3 in the end. A 3-3 break on a 4-3 fit when you have AKQ should always be your last resort, they can provide you 3 or 4 tricks, but untill you must try for it you should avoid it, if you try to cash them early 3 bad things happen:
-You create a trick for defenders when they don't break (your second down)
-You tell the opponents you have 4-3 AKQ there, so they know to keep the 4th card wich is good now (make their life easier)
-You lose comunication as you waste AKQ early that might often be used as entries for both hands. Also you lose comunication for squeezes.

You have time for losing a trick trying something, that something is very clear: try to develop a trick in hearts. Making a trick in hearts its very easy, it requires north to have ♥Q10 or ♥K10 or ♥KQ10, its around 37%, its a very good extra chance (indeed it might be better than club break).

So here it is: win diamond in dummy and play a heart to the 9, if the 9 foces a honnor, you are now around 66% odds on for heart to the jack working later if you take into account that south was on opening lead and didn't lead ♥K then much more). But it doesn't matter how likelly your hearts are to work, all you have to do is to test your clubs before commiting to hearts. Yu cash 3 clubs ending in dummy at some point and if they don't break you go for heart finese.


So far so good, but heart loses to the 10, now only club 3-3 remains? well also a squeeze might develop. Here is the position after south returns a diamond and you cash 3 spades:

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As you can see south has already been squezed, he has 8 cards and rest have 7, he must concede a trick at this point, this is because of the rare 3 suit squeeze that forces him a lot, but more hearts to north, and he is still toasted, on third spade e pitches ♥8, on the 4th spade he can ditch ♥K, but then whe you cash ♥A he must go away from a minor card.

[Cyberyeti]

To keep this reasonably simple (and this is an over generalisation), to squeeze an opponent in two suits, you need only one loser, to squeeze a single opponent in three suits, you need 2 losers, you also need the requisite communication.

You may not need a squeeze at all, if N has KQ10, K10 or Q10 of hearts, just playing a heart to the 9, then another to the J will do (although beware a crafty S with KQ10 winning the first one with the Q or K).

So the first thing to do is to play a spade to dummy and lead a heart to the 9. This will lose to the 10, now you pursue your other options. Cash the spades and what does S discard ? discarding 2 hearts is easy, but he's actually squeezed on the third one and squeezed to death on the 4th. The key is to cash the spades first, before the minors to retain flexibility of entries. If you think about it, if S is void in spades, and N follows to one heart, there must be a squeeze here of some sort, and there must be a simple squeeze unless the shapes are something like 6340/0436 where you need a more complicated sort of squeeze which is likely to fail.

You may not be able to read it however, if S is 0535 or 0553 he is likely to discard a card from each minor on the spades after 2 hearts, and you're going to have to guess which one he holds particularly if he plays another diamond when in with 10♥ cutting your comms in that suit.

If you think he has 5 diamonds, you pitch a heart on the 4th spade and cash 3 rounds of clubs finishing in the short hand leaving dummy with ♦Qx ♥x, hand with ♥AJ ♣x and S unable to hold 2 cards in both reds (in fact the club will be a winner as this would mean they were 3-3, but this works against 0652 as well).

If you think he has 5 clubs, you pitch a club on the 4th spade, cash the A♥, cross to the K♣ and cash Q♦ ditching the J♥ leaving dummy with ♥x ♦x ♣x, hand with ♣ AQx and S unable to hold 3 clubs and a heart.

As it happens, S controls all 3 suits so the contract just falls into your lap.

[billw55]

Short version: to make a squeeze work, you should lose your losers early in the play. If you can do so in a manner that creates extra chances for a trick, so much the better.

For example, at the table you show where 6NT made, I think declarer's correct play is to refuse to win trick one.

By the way, nice job diagramming in your first post!

[TWO4BRIDGE]

Jojask, on 2012-December-14, 01:44, said:

Edit: By the way, is there a way to make the hand diagrams bigger?

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I changed : 400|300| to 500|400|

[Jojask]

Thank you very much for your input and your analyses. They were extremely helpful. It is like you opened a new door for me. That may sound silly, but I mean it. Good luck to you all.

[billw55]

Jojask, on 2012-December-15, 01:33, said:

Thank you very much for your input and your analyses. They were extremely helpful. It is like you opened a new door for me. That may sound silly, but I mean it. Good luck to you all.

Hey, it sounds like you are leaving or something. It's ok to come back you know we all started with zero posts after all.

[Jojask]

I certainly will. I just need some interesting hands or troublesome problems and I will be back in no time.