A very interesting squeeze

I was doing commentary in the eleventh round of the Izmir Teams Championship 2010

Izmir Turkey above, on the Aegan Sea looks quite lovely.  But I am going to talk about just one board, Board 6.  East-West were vulnerable.  This hand is interesting both bidding and play.  East opened 1NT and South held

109543
void
72
J107642

South who was, no doubt, influenced by the vulnerability bid 2 (spades and a minor).  West bid a forcing 3 and North passed.   East held

Q76
A962
Q53
AK9

What do you like here?  I might bid 3 to see if partner could add something to my iffy spade stopper.  I might bid 3NT with a diamond fit and at least some control of spades.  East bid 3 which I am sure was meant as natural.  South passed and let’s look at the West hand

AJ8
KQ8
AJ10984
8

West was definitely thinking slam and bid 4NT.  I am not sure if this was intended as Blackwood but anyway partner bid 5.  I am pretty sure that East was responding to keycard for hearts.  South doubled showing a heart void which propelled East to bid 6NT rather than 6. 

But the double is going to affect the play as well (or it should have).  Let’s put the hand together

	North K2 J107543 K6 Q53
West AJ8 KQ8 AJ10984 8		East Q76 A962 Q53 AK9
	South 109543 void 72 J107642

South led the J and East won and play the Q.  (South missed the inning spade lead).  North won and returned a club.  East won pitching a spade.  West now run diamonds.  North is as it turns out squeezed in three suits.  North should be thinking, I need to hold five cards.  I know partner has no hearts so I must no matter what hold four hearts.  Therefore I can only hold one spade and no clubs.  North should throw the spade early and similarily the Q.  In fact the Q should go before the 5. 

Now let’s go back to East.  Suppose that North had come down to that ending.  East would then run hearts.  The idea is to squeeze South in spades and clubs.  We arrive at this ending after all the hearts are run:

	North K J – –
West AJ – – –		East – 9 – 9
	South 10 void – 10

Now East has to decide if South has two spades K10  and North is holding the J and the 10 or the spades are as pictured.  If South held the K he would have had 6 spades king and five clubs jack rather than the 6-5 he actually held.  It does seem a bit more likely.  But, the opening lead was a give away.  South would not have lead the J without the 10.  So East should get it right.  So it turns out that not only did South fail to find the killing spade lead but the J was a bit of a disaster.  If South had led a small club and North had played in tempo throwing a spade earlier and the clubs out of order, I think there is a quite reasonable chance that East would get it wrong.

At the other table where there was no opposition bidding South did lead a small club, but East had an even tougher job on the run of the clubs (with no idea about the heart distribution and pitched a heart early on so declarer had no problem here either. 

This hand is not a pure double squeeze.   North was triple squeezed on the last diamond forced to give up spades or clubs.  So I suppose this is not unlike a compound squeeze.  Once North gave up clubs then the double squeeze was set up.   Even if North did not have the only spade stopper he would still have been triple squeezed.  Suppose South held the Q, North would have had to hold his K and abandon clubs, a guard squeeze.  What if South could stop spades on his own with say the KQ?

Now East has no role in guarding spades and can just hold clubs and hearts and there is no double squeeze, the entries just don’t work out.