Squeeze hands… do you have one to contribute?
As part of the update to Clyde E. Love we will have a number of squeeze practice hands available as a free download from www.ebooksbridge.com. Of course these hands will be available to everyone not those who buy the book. There are also a number of references in the book to other good online resources that they might wish to try.
If you have a hand that you think might be interesting then send it to me at linda@masterpointpress.com. You don’t need to have done all the analysis but if you want to that is fine. If we use it we will give you credit for it. I am aiming to have some deals available in January but we can always add to the download in the future. All kinds of squeezes are needed. Since these are intended to be practice problems we don’t want all of them to be compound squeezes or complex trump squeezes etc. It is always good to have some easy ones and some harder ones. If there is a story that goes with it we will be happy to tell the story too.
Simple squeezes and strips and throw ins occur quite a lot I have noticed. Here is a problem for you to try. It will be included in the download. It is an original problem from the book which in the end we decided to move to the practice problem section. Answer tomorrow.
North  854  AKQ1087  –  A765 |
||
| South AJ6 65 AKQJ1054 Q |
| West | North | East | South |
| pass | 1 |
pass | 2 |
| pass | 4 |
pass | 4NT |
| pass | 5 |
DBL | 7NT |
| all pass |
Opening Lead: 9
East plays the Q and you win with the A. You play two rounds of diamonds and East shows out on the second, playing the 2. How should you proceed?
One of the nice thing about doing squeeze problems is that you get to play in a lot of slams.
The weather is cold here today, snow and sleet. My daughter is sending me these gorgeous pictures from Peru. But I have Love to keep me warm I suppose.
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Dear Linda, It’s Howard again hoping you are still keeping tabs on my blog. Seem to be getting interest from Venezuala of all places ( or so says cluster map data ). Anyway, like to give you hand that appeared in one of our old newsletters ( problem page ) which no one solved !. I guess the hand was borrowed from a book somewhere with the source not quoted. So here it is: North holds KQ75….103…..Q10743….AQ, opposite South’s AJ8642….K96…void……K852. The contract is 6S. All I can tell you at this stage is that West has the AQ5 of hearts in a 2-3-3-5 distribution, while East holds AKJ86 in diamonds in a 1-5-5-2 distribution. West leads 10 of spades. Over to you and all of your bridge friends…..and of course the contract can be made. Yours staying in touch Howard.
I see a solution. I will write this up in a blog but I won’t give up the answer completely yet. I want to use this one in the Love downloads. Nice hand.
Well done, You’re certainly a cut above us mere mortals here in Sheffield. Secret of course was to subject West to a squeeze in diamonds/spades in what turns out to be an ” over-taking trump squeeze “….or so I’m told.
CORRECTION: I meant to say in my previous comment, the squeeze against East was in diamonds and HEARTS ( not D + S ). I beginning to think I’m losing my marbles. Howard.
Have another hand from a practice team match we played this week. Got aggressive in the bidding, but that always just makes for more interesting play problems:) Anyways, playing IMPS, no one vul, you hold KQTxxx J7 QTx Ax and open 1S in first seat, this goes 3D on your left, double by pard, 3S by you, 4D by pard, 4N by you, 5H by pard, 6S by you. The opening lead is the A of Hearts and partner puts down AJx KQ9x Ax QT8x. The A of hearts holds the first trick, and the 3D bidder leads a second Heart, RHO discouraged on the first Heart, then followed with a middle Heart to the second.
The key to the hand appears to be to isolate the Club and Diamond guards in 1 hand (if possible) and then try to squeeze that hand (trumps are 3-1 on your right). You just have to decide how to isolate the guards and which side to attempt it against.
The whole hand was
KQTxxx
J7
QTx
Ax
xxx x
xxxx ATx
xx KJxxxx
Kxxx Jxx
AJx
KQ9x
Ax
QT8x
As you can see, the winning play is to run the Q of clubs, after Trumps and Hearts, which is covered by the K, then run the rest of the trumps, squeezing E in the minors.