Give the girls a break will ya’

Ray joined me in another practice session with Krista and Katie, my wonderful young mentees.  And he did it again!  Last week he pysched and this week he squeezed them in a lovely trump squeeze.  I saw it coming from the dummy.  Here is this wonderful deal.  (Sorry ladies).  I have rotated the deal.  We were not vulnerable against vulnerable and

Dealer: Vul:	Linda ♠ AQ73 ♥ QJ7 ♦ K10 ♣ AK82
Krista ♠ 9 ♥ 65 ♦ AQJ6 ♣ QJ9643		Katie ♠ 1065 ♥ AK10982 ♦ 93 ♣ 75
	Ray ♠ KJ842 ♥ 43 ♦ 87542 ♣ 10

Katie opened the West hand with 2♥ and this was passed to me.  I was (I thought) a bit to0 good for 2NT so I doubled.  Ray chocked out 2♠ and I decided it was game or nothing and bid 4♠ .  So now my darling husband had to make it.  (He did whine a bit).  Krista led a heart and Katie led a diamond back to Krista’s ♦ A for another heart through.  Ray ruffed the third heart high.  This is the position with a lot to think about.

Dealer: Vul:	Linda ♠ AQ73 ♥ – ♦ K ♣ AK82
Krista ♠ 9 ♥ – ♦ QJ6 ♣ QJ964		Katie ♠ 1065 ♥ 1098 ♦ 3 ♣ 75
	Ray ♠ J842 ♥ – ♦ 8754 ♣ 10

If trump split then you have the rest of the tricks, no problem.  You will be able to ruff two clubs in hand and dummy will be high.  So the question is what to do when trumps are 3-1.  Forcing you to ruff a heart with an honor was not helpful to your cause and now with the 10 and 9 missing you could promote a trump trick.  One choice is to still try to ruff two clubs in dummy.  You cash the top club and then ruff a club in hand.  Cross to dummy on the ♦ K and ruff the last club hoping that  no overruff or promotion happens.  Now you are home.  And on the lie of the cards that would have worked.  But Ray decided it was better to draw trump.  If they split then nobody was going to ruff his winners and if they were 3-1 well there were still chances.  So he played a spade to dummy’s ♠ A.  And then noting the drop of the ♠ 9 in Krista’s hand he cashed dummy’s ♠ Q to keep a position over Katie.  When Krista showed out Ray was still in excellent shape.  He knew that Katie had three minor suit cards and the play to the earlier tricks did not suggest she was now void in diamonds.  (if she had a diamond void she really should cash the second heart and THEN lead a diamond back).  This meant that Katie had both minors guarded.  Now Ray had the answer.  He cashed dummy’s ♦ K and played the third round of trump drawing Katie’s last spade and squeezing Krista in the minors.

Dealer: Vul:	Linda ♠ 7 ♥ – ♦ – ♣ AK82
Krista ♠ – ♥ – ♦ QJ ♣ QJ9		Katie irrelevant
	Ray ♠ 8 ♥ – ♦ 875 ♣ 10

If she threw a diamond he could ruff a diamond in dummy and his diamonds would be good.  If she threw a club then dummy’s clubs were high.  Trump squeezes are very sweet and it has been quite a while since I have seen one at the table.

Well girls, shall we kick him out of our game!  (No way, I love squeezes).