From: desj@ccr-p.ida.org (David desJardins)
Newsgroups: rec.games.bridge
Subject: Re: Play problem
Date: 11 Oct 92 20:16:29 GMT
Organization: IDA Center for Communications Research, Princeton

Adam Beneschan <adam@irvine.com> writes:
>>           Axx AQx AKT T9xx
>>
>>           JT KJTxxx Jxx AK

> I tried to come up with a way that you could make it if RHO has the
> diamond queen, perhaps on a show-up squeeze or some other type of
> squeeze, but I couldn't figure one out, because dummy has to discard
> before RHO.  If anyone can come up with a better line of play, I'd
> love to hear about it.

There are a lot of squeezes which potentially work against West:

Squeeze 1.  A trump squeeze.  Duck the opening spade lead, win the spade
continuation, cash five rounds of trump discarding a spade and a
diamond, cash ace-king of clubs, cross to dummy with the ace of
diamonds.

Now if West started with the queen of diamonds and at least four clubs,
West is trump squeezed.  West has to choose three cards to keep in the
following position:

                ---
                ---
                K
        ---     T9      ---
        ---             ---
        xx              Qx  
        Q       ---     Jx
                x
                Jx
                ---

Squeeze 2.  A criss-cross squeeze.  Duck the opening spade lead, win the
spade continuation, cash six rounds of trump discarding a spade, a club,
and a diamond.

Now if West started with the queen of diamonds and at least five clubs,
West is criss-cross squeezed.  West has to choose four cards to keep in
the following position:

                ---
                ---
                AK
        ---     T9x     ---
        ---             ---
        xxx             Qxx
        xx      ---     QJx
                ---
                Jxx
                AK

Squeeze 3.  A strip squeeze.  Win the opening lead, draw two rounds of
trump, cash ace-king of clubs, cross to dummy with a third trump, ruff a
club, cash the remaining trumps discarding two spades, cross to the ace
of diamonds.

Now if West started with the queen of diamonds and at least four clubs,
West is strip squeezed.  West has to choose three cards to keep in the
following position:

                ---
                ---
                KT
        ---     T       ---
        ---             ---
        xxx             Qxx
        ---     J       Q
                ---
                Jx
                ---

I would take the third option, the strip squeeze.  Ducking a spade is
too dangerous because I have to guess what to do when a club honor drops
doubleton.  And if I try to cash two clubs and then return a spade to
rectify the count, the opponents can always break up the trump squeeze
by winning in the correct hand and returning the correct suit.

The strip squeeze has some chance of counting out with little risk.  For
example, if East shows out on the third round of clubs, then I am likely
to get an almost exact count on the hand and be able to throw West in
safely in the end position.  I also have the option of switching to a
spade throw-in if that looks right.  And, finally, I can always just
take the diamond finesse.

                                        David desJardins