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A Most Unusual Squeeze

By Mike Pomfrey
Reproduced from Sheffield Bridge Club Newsletter, Special 100th issue, by the kind persmission of Mr Barrie Partridge.

Lovers of abstruse end positions may be amused by this hand, which came up in the Roger Mixed Pivot Teams.

			K Q J 4 2
			6
			Q 10
			J 10 9 7 5
	10 6 3	N   W E   S			A 7 5
	9 7				K J 10 2
	J 9 4				8 7 5 3
	A K Q 3 2				8 6
			9 8
			A Q 8 5 4 3
			A K 6 2
			4

My partner, Pat Powell, and I bid unopposed to 4 by the sequence 1, 1, 2, 2, 4. I suppose I should feel flattered by Pat's confident raise to game!

By the way, was anyone tempted to overcall on the West hand? Serves you right if you went for 1100!

East led 8 to Q. West promptly returned a trump to the Queen and Ace and another trump came back. In normal circumstances, you're more or less forced into a winning line - draw trumps, finesse Q and use dummy's diamond entries to ruff out the hearts. You have to overtake Q to get to the hearts at the end, sacrificing one diamond trick but making two small hearts in return. However, an inspired West had led 10 rather than a low one. Having covered, I was now in a position to win the second round with dummy's 9, and it seemed silly to overtake and lose a trick to the apparent 4-2 break.

Now what? A desperate and, as it happens, successful line is to finesse 10, draw trumps, cash Q and finesse Q, but I didn't fancy that, so I returned to Q to draw trumps in, to my surprise, one round. Now a heart finesse, A, ruff a heart but the suit doesn't break and the contract appears doomed. Or is it? The position is now as shown:

			J
			-
			10
			J 10 9
	-	N   W E   S			-
	-				K
	J 9				8 7 5
	A K 2				6
			-
			8 5
			A K 6
			-

You've been careful to keep all dummy's diamonds and now you play the last trump. What does East throw? Obviously not K. A diamond makes dummy's 6 good and if he throws a club, he breaks the link with partner's hand. You would discard a diamond, cross to a diamond, lead a heart and East has to put you back to dummy.

In the event, East kept his club and threw a diamond with apparent unconcern. Now I had to decide whether he had started with his actual hand or with 3451 shape. But in that case, maybe West might have overcalled.

I had another lucky escape on a slam hand. The only issue is the trump suit, which is

I haven't seen this one in the text books but it occurred to me that I might improve my chances by leading the 3 first. If West plays the 10 or Jack, you put on the Queen, which presumably loses. Next time you finesse the 8, losing only to J10 doubleton (restricted choice shows this is barely half as likely as singleton Jack or 10).

However, on the 3 the 7 appeared. With some misgivings, I played the 9, losing to the King, which turned out to be singleton. Phew! Of course, if West had stuck in the 10 or Jack, I would never have read the position. Moreover, suppose West had held KJ7 or K107 and had played low smoothly, again, I would have gone down.

It just goes to show how psychology overlays probability in so many apparently simple positions.