Thursday, December 29, 2005 3:50 PM

Hand Evaluation – Declarer Play ( Trump Squeeze )

 

PITBULLS:

 

            The simple trump squeeze is a criss-cross” squeeze that succeeds because the last trump can become an additional entry when needed. Since the defender must guard an extra card to prevent the suit from being established by ruffing it out , the squeeze culminates early. The 2nd to last winner is the squeeze card with the count rectified at one. With a trump as a possible entry , declarer does not need to worry about “Vienna Coups”  . The ruff only occurs after the squeeze is executed .

 

A

3

10

A

6

 

4

K

4

 

3

8

2

 

2

5

 

 

 

 

 

K

A

A

J

3

 

K

4

 

 

Q

3

 

 

J

 

 

 

8

 

 

 

6

 

 

 

5

 

 

    You are in 7 with a heart lead. In 7NT you would have only one alternative , Cash the top clubs ( Vienna coup) and hope the person with the club queen has 5♠. In a trump contract , you have the trump squeeze as a choice. You do not need a Vienna coup with a trump squeeze as the ability to ruff keeps you out of trouble for an additional entry. The trump squeeze will work if either defender has 4 and the club queen. Much better odds

 

 

 

     

 

RHO has 1098x  Qxx when declarer leads her 2nd last trump  discarding a club from dummy. Your play. In a trump squeeze

You not do any ruffing until after the squeeze works. When you do it early , you have blown the squeeze. If the defender let a club go , no ruffing needed at all. Just the threat of a ruff to establish a suit was good enough to make the trump squeeze work.

 

The trump squeeze is a simple squeeze meaning one defender & two suits. However the defender is “extra busy” due to the additional card needed to prevent ruffing out a card for suit establishment.