Wednesday, February 01, 2006 1:28 PM

Hand Evaluation – Declarer Play ( Squeezes – Patterns )

PITBULLS:

There are many advanced declarer techniques that are not available to Bridge players who do not “think in patterns” or apply patterns. The entire field of executing squeezes is dependent on patterns as are other techniques like end plays , squeeze strip and endplays . Patterns allow you to visualize the hand. Squeeze techniques like identifying threat cards rely on pattern recognition. Even finesses like the “intra-finesse” require thinking in patterns. When the tormentees have most common patterns ingrained in their memory banks , a next step is to tackle some more advanced play techniques like squeezes. Patterns must come first though because these plays are too complicated without them.

Dora and I got to a nice slam the other day.

J	A	Q	K
9	x	x	Q
x	x		9
	x		8

We bid up to 6♠ , Dora got a heart lead. Dora dropped the spade queen doubleton on side , so had 12 tricks. She now made an error as she claimed saying you get a heart for making 6. Without going into the details of squeezes in great detail whenever you have two threats located in your hand or the board and you have the rest of the tricks but one anyway , you can try a squeeze. However, you cannot even visualize a squeeze unless you “think in patterns” .

A	K	A	A
K	x		10
10	x		x
x			x
x

You have all the black tricks so the two threat suits must be diamonds & hearts. The diamond queen could be a trick when they were forced to throw the diamond king away but where is the other threat coming from ? Try heart patterns for your answer . When the heart pattern is 4-3-3-3 then there is no threat card as both defenders can guard hearts . But what if the hearts are 4-4-3-2 ? These means that one defender has only two hearts so they must be played under the Ace & King . What if the person with 4 hearts also holds the diamond King ? When you run all your black tricks with your diamond Ace that is 10 tricks . This means that this defender must come down to 3 cards. She cannot do it without giving you your 13 th trick QJ10 of hearts & the diamond King . On the last spade what do they discard ? Death by fire or death by water , their choice .

Familiarity with hand patterns over time will bring you to another level in declarer play eventually. Have I ever mentioned that patterns are important in the game of Bridge ☺