Am I Worth My Salary?

I am sitting here today on this day of repentance working on Bridge Squeezes Complete.  You might wonder what there is to do to a book the has been named by many people as their favorite book of all time.  Originally I thought that I would be primarily updating the language.  Love was a very formal person with a wonderful nineteenth century way of expressing himself which was probably obsolete when the book was first published in 1959.  But in addition to the he was a mathematician and many of the explanation remind me of my college math classes.  Solutions are often more or less left as an exercise for the reader.  The language is often almost a mathematic-like short handed.   “If K then double squeeze” else simple.”

I also remembered that when I read Love I found the concepts challenging with the case 2 type c1 double squeeze or whatever.  I knew I would have to read and understand sections of the book and then rewrite then to make them easier to remember and more approachable.

As it turns out this was a bigger challenge then I expected since it was often unclear what Love was trying to say and surprisingly there were more errors in the book then I had expected, perhaps naively.  Here is an example of one kind of error, let’s call it a “cook”.  There is more than one solution to the problem. often a much simpler one than envisioned by the author.

North

J1063

83

76

AKQJ9

South

A74

AK9

AKQ95

102

 

You are in 6NT on the lead of the Q.  You have eleven tricks off the top and twelve if diamonds are not worse than 4-2.  Since you may need to duck a diamond you win the heart lead and play diamonds.  But East show out on the second round.  Now what?  Figure it out before continuing…

Squeeze aficionados will know that there is no possible heart-diamond squeeze because you fail U (or upper).  South has both red suit threats and West is guarding both red suits and South has to pitch ahead of West.

Love concludes that you must give West the KQ and he will be subjected to a triple squeeze.  Well that isn’t actually correct.  If you put the KQ in East’s hand there is a strip squeeze and endplay on East.  Assume this is the hand.

	North
	J1063
	83
	76
	AKQJ9

West		East
982		KQ5
QJ106		7542
J10843		2
7		86543

’

	South
	A74
	AK9
	AKQ95
	102

 

After the heart lead East followed to the first diamond and then threw a heart.   You cash the Q and play five rounds of clubs East has to hold three spades or you just concede one so he comes down to three spades and a heart.  When you cash the A you have completed the strip.  East is down to three spades.  You play a spade to the 10 and East is end played.  Woops!

Even if we give West the KQ careful play leads to the exact same ending although in that case Love’s solution also works.  You can play the hand on a Vienna Coup and triple squeeze by cashing the A early.  That was the ending that Love was after; that was the lesson on this deal.

Of course if West has a doubleton spade honor you can make it by simply leading a spade towards dummy without any squeeze at all.

So how do I fix this deal?  I guess I have to get West to bid something such that he has to have both spade honors.  And then maybe I can describe both squeezes, the strip and end play and the triple with the Vienna Coup or maybe I need to monkey with the hand or even come up with a new one to illustrate the point.  Here is the deal as it appears in Love.

	North
	J1063
	83
	76
	AKQJ9

West		East
KQ2		985
QJ106		7542
J10843		2
7		86543

’

	South
	A74
	AK9
	AKQ95
	102

 

If you find a mistake in my description of this deal, I am not surprised (but please let me know).

Well am I worth my salary as an editor?