Declarer cashed a second spade (both opponents following, West with the ♠T), played 3 rounds of diamonds pitching a club (all follow, no ♦J). He then led a low club from the table, East playing the ♣J as he ruffed. He then exited a trump to East, to this ending:

A complex ending to be sure. If East gets out the JD, declarer is more or less compelled to play for a club/heart squeeze against West. If East doesn’t get out a diamond, then declarer has a number of options, ranging from playing East to be endplayed to a simple diamond/heart squeeze against West to many more complicated squeezes against either or both opponents. This can also lead to some interesting deceptive options for the defence.

Consider this East hand:

If you exit the ♦J when you are on lead with the ♠Q, declarer has no real choices other than the (winning) heart/club squeeze. If, however, you exit with a low club, declarer may go wrong in a number of ways. (Discarding, playing for the wrong squeeze, etc.)

No guarantees that declarer will go wrong, of course, but it always pays to consider alternative defences, even when an ‘obvious’ play is available.

Post Mortem: East did not hold the diamond at the table, and my friend got the ending right to make the rest of the tricks.

Post from: YouHold

	QJ9x
	x
	JT
	KT9xxx
	x
	QTx
	AKQ8xxx
	Ax

West cashes both major suit aces (AS, A from AK) and plays another heart.

It’s tempting to simply ruff the heart, ruff a spade, ruff a heart, ruff a spade and draw trumps. However, we are missing 9xxx of diamonds. If we take 2 diamond ruffs on the board and trumps are 4-0, we will establish a 3rd defensive trick. Given the bidding and the fact that West might shift to a trump if she had one, this seems more likely than usual. What else can we do?

It seems very likely that East has one of the major suit kings, most likely in hearts. If that is the case, we can set up a double squeeze around the club suit. (Technically, it’s a single squeeze played as a double. Only one opponent can guard clubs, we just don’t know who.)

So I embarked on this line of play: ruffed the heart, ruff a spade, diamond to the board, ruff a spade. This would have ruffed out the KS if East happened to have it. It didn’t appear, so I played all my trumps leading to this position:

	Q
	KT9
	Q
	x
	Ax

On the last diamond, West must keep the KS, so they cannot keep 3 clubs. The QS is discarded from the board, and it is East’s turn to be squeezed. If East has the KH, they also cannot keep both that and 3 clubs.

The opponents defended well on this board. East did in fact have the KH. West, who only had 2 clubs, discarded the JC early in the hand to show that she couldn’t guard the suit. In the ending above, East tried discarding the KH, hoping their partner had the QH. Today that didn’t happen, and I made my 5D.

Of course, today West had a diamond, being 5-5-1-2 in pattern. So the simple line of play would have worked after all. The opponents were sure to point this out to me after the hand was over.

Post from: YouHold

The ABA recently had its summer nationals in Atlanta, where I live. I had obligations which kept me from playing throughout the tournament, but I was able to play in one national event, a swiss team event.

It was an enjoyable experience, if a little different. There were a number of interesting difference between the organizations that was easy to see even from 1 day of play. The level of competition was overall not nearly as strong as in the ACBL, but I had been expecting that from everything I knew. What I hadn’t been expecting was the large number of procedural irregularities in that one day of play. (Revokes, people missorting their hand, that sort of thing.)

One hand stands out during the day as my favorite.

¹ Pick a game

Opening Lead: Ace of Spades (A from AK).

	QJ9x
	x
	JT
	KT9xxx
	x
	QTx
	AKQ8xxx
	Ax

East discouraged spades. West shifted to the Ace of Hearts (East encouraging) and played a second heart.

I’ll leave you here to plan the play. Conclusion in part 2.

Post from: YouHold

	2
	A2
A
KJ		QT
		A
	3
	2
	A

South plays the Ace of clubs. West must keep the Ace of spades or North’s spade becomes good. North then discards the now useless spade, and East is squeezed. A discard of the Ace of diamonds lets South cash the diamond before leading to the Ace of hearts. Therefore East also discards a heart, allowing North’s 2 of hearts to be the final winner.

A non-simultaneous double squeeze is similar to above, except that the opponents are squeezed on different tricks. While simple double squeezes are relatively common (for squeezes), a non-simultaneous double is more rare. In order for it to occur, one opponent usually needs to be squeezed in a long suit before it is cashed. Cashing it later then squeezes their partner.

Example: (South to lead, no trumps.)

	2
	2
	A2
		A
KJ		QT
KQ
		2
	A3
	2
	A

South cashes the Ace of clubs. West must keep both of their diamonds, or all of North’s diamonds will be good. North discards the little diamond. Now a diamond to North’s ace squeezes East in spades and hearts. If East keeps his Ace of Spades, then a heart to South’s ace and the 3 of hearts is a winner. Notice that the squeeze against West occured on trick 10, the squeeze against East on trick 11.

At the recent ACBL summer nationals in Chicago, I came across the greatest trick differential for a non-simultaneous double squeeze that I’ve ever seen; the squeeze tricks were 6 and 11.

Contract: 7 Spades
Lead: Jack of Spades

	Q742
	K6
	AKQ43
	52
JT		653
QT83		J952
JT865		72
J3		Q986
	AK98
	A74
	9
	AKT74

There are many reasonable lines of play on this hand, but the one I chose led to an interesting ending. I won the spade in hand and played a spade to the Q on the board (in case the trump lead was a singleton). I drew the last trump, West discarding a heart. I then played Ace, King and a third club trumping on the board. On this trick (6), West needed to keep all of their diamonds so they discarded a second heart. I then played Ace of diamonds, King of diamonds (pitching a club from hand), and ruffed a diamond in this position:

	K6
	Q43
QT		J952
JT8
		Q
	9
	A74
	T

East discarded a heart to keep the boss club. A heart to dummy’s king and the Q of diamonds squeezed East in hearts and clubs, completing the non-simultaneous double squeeze on trick 11.

As a side note, there is one danger on the hand to the careless declarer. If you play the Q of diamonds in the above position before ruffing a diamond, you squeeze your hand before East is squeezed.

Post from: YouHold