Several Squeeze Possibilities
From the club game last night came one interesting hand. I had been drinking rum and coke all afternoon and evening so my focus wasn’t there nearly as much as it will be Friday for the Nail LM Pairs, but it doesn’t take much focus to win that game, and I was able to recognize the squeeze on this hand.
| Dealer: W
Vul: none |
||
| West
♠ AKTxxx ♥ K9xx ♦ J ♣ Jx |
 |
East
♠ Qx ♥ Jx ♦ 9xxx ♣ AKxxx |
Our auction got us all the way to 2♠ after LHO had overcalled diamonds but when dummy came down I was kind of wishing we had bid more. The defense started with ♦A and K. I crossed to the ♣K and led a low ♥. East was a little helpful going up with the ace and returning a trump. This opened up a number of possible squeezes for an 11th trick. The ♣Q return would have thwarted any legitimate squeeze chance but that defense would be too much to expect from these opponents – I’m clearly trying to trump a heart in dummy and they best way to keep me from doing that is to lead a trump, but it’s too late for that to do any good. Anyway, this is about recognizing a squeeze and assuming spades split 3-2 and hearts split 4-3, I have 10 tricks: 6 spades, 1 heart, 1 heart ruff, and 2 clubs. So I won the trump in dummy, played a heart to my K, ruffed a heart, ruffed a diamond, and then ran trumps.
With 3 cards to go I have left a trump, ♥9 and the ♣J. In dummy, I have ♣Ax and ♦9. If north started with 4 clubs, he is squeezed in clubs and diamonds and it is a show-up. If south started with 4 hearts and 4 clubs, he is squeezed and also just a show-up squeeze. If clubs started 3-3, it is a double squeeze. North must hold the top diamond, south much hold the top heart, and neither defender can protect clubs. So, this is actually a fairly easy squeeze to execute once the defense helps out by keeping transportation open. Note that if south takes the second heart (and still returns a trump), only the club-heart squeeze works, because the diamond threat in dummy goes away when I have to ruff both diamonds to get to my hand to ruff a heart and pull the rest of the trumps. See you in Orlando.
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Bridge-related
I always thought “show-up” meant that you had a finesse for an extra trick, but you gave yourself an extra chance by squeezing the opponent you were finessing through down to one card in the key suit, so that if the finesse is working, either the key card will “show up” when you lead the suit or that opponent can’t have it (and you can go up and hope to drop the key card offside).
Well, yes, this one slightly more complicated than that but to me it is show up because when you cash your winners, all you have to do is watch and see whether they make your heart 9 good. if not, continue cashing winners (the top club) and the other club honors show up. You don’t actually have to know or guess who has what cards – your cards just naturally become good if you cash the winners in a sensible order.