Squeezing the Dummy

A crafty defensive play to get an extra trick is one of the most fun things in bridge. Even if declarer probably should have made the winning play anyway, giving him that losing option is still satisfying. In today’s deal, west opened 1NT (which I do not agree with, btw) and got to play it there. It’s kind of an interesting declarer play problem as well. Clearly 7 tricks are fairly easily available by knocking out the ace of clubs and then later leading toward the king of spades but is that the best line and if you do, do you cash all of your top hearts first or just trust the defense to lead a 3rd round of hearts later and keep dummy’s pointed honors guarded?

Dealer: E Vul: Both		North
		♠	AT5
		♥	J764
		♦	863
		♣	A42
West				East
♠	632			♠	K87
♥	AKQ82			♥	53
♦	Q7			♦	J942
♣	KQ9			♣	J863
		South
		♠	QJ94
		♥	T9>
		♦	AKT5
		♣	T75

But what I want to write about today is squeezing the dummy to defeat the contract, as you might have guessed. My partner started the defense off with a low heart, taken with the A, declarer then led a big club from hand, partner won the first one and put the 5 of spades on the table. Declarer, not willing to give up the whole spade suit at the time, played low and I won my J. After I continued hearts, declarer took his 3rd heart and cashed the Q, J, and 8 of clubs and came off dummy with a low diamond. Here was the 5 card ending:

Dealer: Vul:		North
		♠	AT
		♥	J
		♦	83
		♣
West				East
♠	6			♠	K8
♥	82			♥
♦	Q7			♦	J94
♣				♣
		South
		♠	Q9
		♥
		♦	AKT
		♣

I took the diamond king and led a spade to partner and on the cash of the jack of hearts, dummy was squeezed. if dummy discarded a spade, partner’s 10 would score the setting trick, and if he unguarded diamonds, my diamond 10 would score the setting trick.