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Very Non-simultaneous Squeezes

by Tom on July 31st, 2006

A double squeeze is a squeeze performed against both opponents.The classical ending is something like this, south to lead (assume no trumps):

	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.

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POSTED IN: Declarer Play, Expert