[lamford]

---

MP Pairs.

Your partner shows unjustified faith in your cardplay on this recent hand and West, a world-class player, leads the ♣Q against your poor slam and you duck. West switches to a trump, and you draw three rounds ending in dummy and all follow, West discarding a low club. What next? And would you play any differently at IMPs?

[manudude03]

Well, this is a very poor slam. Even if we get the diamonds right we are only up to 11 tricks. My guess is that the club lead tends to indicate length, and so I'll commit to East having the queen of diamonds and run the jack on the first round. When I get to my hand on either the first or second round of diamonds, I'll play 1 more trump throwing a heart before cashing the diamonds ending in dummy. I'll need to read the ending from here with regards to whether I am playing for a simple trump squeeze against East or a double trump squeeze. The switch to me implies a simple trump squeeze is needed (double could have been broken up by a second club), but I'd be putting more weight into the discards they make.

[lamford]

manudude03, on 2016-June-02, 08:58, said:

Well, this is a very poor slam. Even if we get the diamonds right we are only up to 11 tricks. My guess is that the club lead tends to indicate length, and so I'll commit to East having the queen of diamonds and run the jack on the first round. When I get to my hand on either the first or second round of diamonds, I'll play 1 more trump throwing a heart before cashing the diamonds ending in dummy. I'll need to read the ending from here with regards to whether I am playing for a simple trump squeeze against East or a double trump squeeze. The switch to me implies a simple trump squeeze is needed (double could have been broken up by a second club), but I'd be putting more weight into the discards they make.

Indeed; poor is not the word for it; Tottenham springs to mind. My thinking was that the only realistic squeeze was the heart-club squeeze, just requiring East to have 5 hearts and the ace of clubs. That makes it more likely that West has the queen of diamonds ... I had one other thought too ...

[Winstonm]

lamford, on 2016-June-02, 09:36, said:

Indeed; poor is not the word for it; Tottenham springs to mind. My thinking was that the only realistic squeeze was the heart-club squeeze, just requiring East to have 5 hearts and the ace of clubs. That makes it more likely that West has the queen of diamonds ... I had one other thought too ...

My thinking as well. Can't hurt to ruff a low club to see if the Ace drops first, though.

[alok c]

Winstonm, on 2016-June-02, 10:18, said:

My thinking as well. Can't hurt to ruff a low club to see if the Ace drops first, though.

Apperantly West's switch from Club indicates ♣A may be dropping on a ruff,particularly when he switched to a trump while South has nothing to ruff in dummy.

[lamford]

Winstonm, on 2016-June-02, 10:18, said:

My thinking as well. Can't hurt to ruff a low club to see if the Ace drops first, though.

My worry then was that if it did not drop, and East did have five hearts, that she would break up the squeeze if I got the diamonds wrong and I would go two down for a small extra chance. That might not cost and I was probably overthinking the problem. The reason to ruff a club now is that if the ace does drop, then you will play East for the queen of diamonds, as she has more available spaces. If West had the queen of diamonds, he would continue clubs, and you might well wonder why he has done this. So bluff and double bluff.

[Winstonm]

lamford, on 2016-June-02, 12:12, said:

My worry then was that if it did not drop, and East did have five hearts, that she would break up the squeeze if I got the diamonds wrong and I would go two down for a small extra chance. That might not cost and I was probably overthinking the problem. The reason to ruff a club now is that if the ace does drop, then you will play East for the queen of diamonds, as she has more available spaces. If West had the queen of diamonds, he would continue clubs, and you might well wonder why he has done this. So bluff and double bluff.

I was only thinking of making. Down 1 or 2 is likely the same score.

[Phil]

I'm not going to try to get between the ears of LHO and determine why he didn't play a 2nd club and break up the 'obvious ' trump or double trump squeeze. Depending on spots and who I hate more I'll try to determine who to hook for the diamond and who to squeeze (maybe both). The discard on the 3rd spade will be a clue as well.

[rhm]

Forget about the double trump squeeze.
If East has at least ♣Axx(xx) and West ♣QJT9(xx) almost any player would have continued clubs.
A world class player might have switched to trumps being worried about a dummy reversal.
But I can not come up with a hand for South given the bidding where a dummy reversal might bring in the 12th trick and I expect a world class player to come to the same conclusion.

A trump squeeze is not required, a simple squeeze against East (or West) will do just as well and requires no guessing.
Theoretically it also works against West, but it seems unlikely that he underled the ♣A against this bidding.
The clue that West did not continue clubs is strong.
Ruff a low club and if the ace does not drop play for a heart club squeeze mainly against East.
For the squeeze to operate East can have at most 2 diamonds unless he has QJT in hearts.
So finesse against West in diamonds after discarding a heart on your last trump.

Rainer Herrmann

[lamford]

rhm, on 2016-June-03, 02:32, said:

Forget about the double trump squeeze.
If East has at least ♣Axx(xx) and West ♣QJT9(xx) almost any player would have continued clubs.
A world class player might have switched to trumps being worried about a dummy reversal.
But I can not come up with a hand for South given the bidding where a dummy reversal might bring in the 12th trick and I expect a world class player to come to the same conclusion.

A trump squeeze is not required, a simple squeeze against East (or West) will do just as well and requires no guessing.
Theoretically it also works against West, but it seems unlikely that he underled the ♣A against this bidding.
The clue that West did not continue clubs is strong.
Ruff a low club and if the ace does not drop play for a heart club squeeze mainly against East.
For the squeeze to operate East can have at most 2 diamonds unless he has QJT in hearts.
So finesse against West in diamonds after discarding a heart on your last trump. West was, however, good enough to continue clubs with the queen of diamonds and to switch without it!

Rainer Herrmann

Yes, I came to a similar conclusion, and played West for the queen of diamonds, but went down. The ace of clubs was indeed doubleton on my right, and East was 3-5-3-2 with the queen of diamonds, so I went off. If I had ruffed a club first, I would then have played East for the queen of diamonds when the ace dropped, doubleton. My worry about going two off (say when East is 3-5-2-3 with Qx of diamonds) was indeed unjustified, as I only got 3 matchpoints out of 20 for -50.

[Phil]

rhm, on 2016-June-03, 02:32, said:

For the squeeze to operate East can have at most 2 diamonds unless he has QJT in hearts.
So finesse against West in diamonds after discarding a heart on your last trump.

Rainer Herrmann

Sure but it costs nothing to play the 4th trump before playing diamonds as you can change tack away from a rounded simple against east if you judge that's the case. If you want to look for cAx, it's also coming down in a trump squeeze at T9.

[rhm]

Phil, on 2016-June-03, 07:41, said:

Sure but it costs nothing to play the 4th trump before playing diamonds as you can change tack away from a rounded simple against east if you judge that's the case. If you want to look for cAx, it's also coming down in a trump squeeze at T9.

If nothing else, if the club ace drops on the second round (clubs being 7-2) would change my mind whom to play for the diamond queen

Rainer Herrmann

[johnu]

The use of trump squeeze and double trump squeeze is confusing. Double trump squeeze is normally used to describe a trump squeeze where both opponents have the choice of guarding one suit and discarding length in another suit so that the remaining high card can be ruffed out. (Single) Trump squeeze is where one opponent is faced with a choice. On this hand, there are only 2 suits to guard and only 1 opponent can possibly guard both.

This is such a bad slam going down an extra trick probably isn't going to cost much, so I'll ruff a club after drawing trump, and try to guess diamonds.

[lamford]

johnu, on 2016-June-03, 11:48, said:

The use of trump squeeze and double trump squeeze is confusing. Double trump squeeze is normally used to describe a trump squeeze where both opponents have the choice of guarding one suit and discarding length in another suit so that the remaining high card can be ruffed out. (Single) Trump squeeze is where one opponent is faced with a choice. On this hand, there are only 2 suits to guard and only 1 opponent can possibly guard both.

This is such a bad slam going down an extra trick probably isn't going to cost much, so I'll ruff a club after drawing trump, and try to guess diamonds.

While going down an extra trick is not likely to cost much, you might lose to the pairs in 5S (there was one) and you only gain the small extra chance of Ax of clubs, and even then it only improves your chance of getting the diamonds right. If you play West for the queen of diamonds, you will still make when East had five hearts and Ax(x) of clubs, provided of course that you get the diamonds right. I think West should continue clubs when he has the queen of diamonds and switch when he does not, but he should of course mix his strategy.

[johnu]

lamford, on 2016-June-03, 17:47, said:

While going down an extra trick is not likely to cost much, you might lose to the pairs in 5S (there was one) and you only gain the small extra chance of Ax of clubs, and even then it only improves your chance of getting the diamonds right.

I think it's pretty hard to stop in 5 with 4 out of 5 keycards and ♠Q, with big club duplication. I think it is a stop in 4 or bid 6 type of hand these days when most players are using RKC.

The squeeze still needs a favorable heart break and club position which is odds against so I would not worry about going down 2.