[pilowsky]

In which I bid a makeable 2NT with a singleton, claim after playing the ♣K get rejected, then dejectedly play out my remaining winners only to see the ♣J fall and think that GIB has made a mistake.
And then realise I made a simple squeeze. Ending 2NT-1 for 81.5% and still getting a lousy overall score.
Here's the link, and the hand.

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[Stephen Tu]

pilowsky, on 2020-September-13, 22:22, said:

J fall and think that GIB has made a mistake.

GIB did make a mistake. It should simply throw a spade not the CJ. For some reason East apparently thinks you opened 2nt with 5413 shape, and can't rely on a count signal from its partner in clubs to peg your real shape.

It's not truly a squeeze. Maybe you could call it a pseudo/memory squeeze against a bad opponent.

For it to be a true squeeze, East has to be screwed if he discards either suit on the last heart. That requires you to have an actual spade threat, instead of just SA. This would be the case if the A7 (with the KQ98 already being played) were in dummy, and you had a small spade in your hand, an "automatic" simple squeeze. Or if the lead had been in dummy, you had a small club behind his big club, and say A9 over his JT tight of spades (pretending the bot had been more clever earlier and just led low spade rather than an honor, otherwise you could just finesse him), with a good heart being played as the squeeze card and you being able to discard after him (keep spades if he pitches spade, ditch low spade and keep good club if he pitches high club). This would be a "positional" simple squeeze.

You might want to look at
https://en.wikipedia.../Simple_squeeze
and
https://www.bridgeba...-squeeze-plays/
or various declarer play books that will teach basic squeeze play, and later on maybe specialized books on squeezes like David Bird's book "Squeezes for Everyone".


You should have thrown a club on their diamonds, and kept the 4th heart; with 8 cds between you and dummy in hearts, and GIB's penchant for not leading from long suits, it's much more likely that the hearts break 3-2 and will be good than one opponent has JT9 tight of clubs.

Plus in the long run I doubt opening 2nt is a winner on small stiff. But I don't really do research on anti-bot tactics so this I'm not sure of.

[pilowsky]

Stephen Tu, on 2020-September-13, 23:45, said:

GIB did make a mistake. It should simply throw a spade not the CJ. For some reason East apparently thinks you opened 2nt with 5413 shape, and can't rely on a count signal from its partner in clubs to peg your real shape.

It's not truly a squeeze. Maybe you could call it a pseudo/memory squeeze against a bad opponent.

For it to be a true squeeze, East has to be screwed if he discards either suit on the last heart. That requires you to have an actual spade threat, instead of just SA. This would be the case if the A7 (with the KQ98 already being played) were in dummy, and you had a small spade in your hand, an "automatic" simple squeeze. Or if the lead had been in dummy, you had a small club behind his big club, and say A9 over his JT tight of spades (pretending the bot had been more clever earlier and just led low spade rather than an honor, otherwise you could just finesse him), with a good heart being played as the squeeze card and you being able to discard after him (keep spades if he pitches spade, ditch low spade and keep good club if he pitches high club). This would be a "positional" simple squeeze.

You might want to look at
https://en.wikipedia.../Simple_squeeze
and
https://www.bridgeba...-squeeze-plays/
or various declarer play books that will teach basic squeeze play, and later on maybe specialized books on squeezes like David Bird's book "Squeezes for Everyone".


You should have thrown a club on their diamonds, and kept the 4th heart; with 8 cds between you and dummy in hearts, and GIB's penchant for not leading from long suits, it's much more likely that the hearts break 3-2 and will be good than one opponent has JT9 tight of clubs.

Plus in the long run I doubt opening 2nt is a winner on small stiff. But I don't really do research on anti-bot tactics so this I'm not sure of.

Fascinating, thanks. I'm not a good player (as you know), but I have noticed that bidding NT with a singleton is an effective anti-bot tactic - more commonly with an honour I must admit.
I'll look over the line more carefully.
Regarding leads, I find that GIB tends to make passive leads more often when it has no clues from the bidding. But that's just a guess - I haven't tested that formally.

[nige1]

Pilowsky "In which I bid a makeable 2NT with a singleton, claim after playing the ♣K get rejected, then dejectedly play out my remaining winners only to see the ♣J fall and think that GIB has made a mistake. And then realise I made a simple squeeze. Ending 2NT-1 for 81.5% and still getting a lousy overall score.
++++++++++++++++++++
Thank you for another interesting hand PIlowsky. 2N seems a reasonable gamble on the South hand. As Stephen Tu points out, however, you should keep your small heart so as not to have to rely on a pseudo-squeeze for 1-down.
At trick 2, when East switches to ♠J, if South rises with ♠A, then a genuine squeeze is available. (Another example of the effectiveness of running the long suit, in case something happens).
South cashes the hearts to triple-squeeze East. East can discard a ♠ without pain -- but his second discard fatally weakens his hand, allowing declarer to succeed in his 2NT contract, with the right views.

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[pilowsky]

Wow, now I see it. Amazing.

[dsLawsd]

It is the wild West- in ACBL-land as opposed to other games the singleton must be the A,K, or Q.
But the question is how to improve your game and this hand should open 1♣ in MHO. The bots frequently crush my efforts, but I want to be a better player in those Tough Games. There are too many major suits fits that will score higher- perhaps a lot higher -
I enjoyed your report and the play problem it creates!
Thanks for that.