Pin the Ten and Squeeze on the same deal

Last weekend at the Athens, GA sectional, i got to play this fascinating deal in the Saturday afternoon open pairs.

I probably would have jump-shifted to 3♦ with Bob’s hand and probably would have pulled 3NT to 4♥ but then I wouldn’t have had the chance for this great play.

West led a low club, which went around to my queen. It’s a fortunate lead for me but still fairly normal. I proceeded to test hearts, and when I saw that they were would run, I led the ♦J, not wanting to make all of my discards yet. This diamond play keeps the dangerous opponent off lead (east is the dangerous opponent because a spade through my K could be fatal) while potentially setting up a third diamond trick. When the ♦J held the trick, I cashed the ♣A and ran hearts, hoping for a squeeze against east. Here is the position with the last heart to be played.

Since east started with 4 diamonds to the Q and the ♠A, I was able to take all of the tricks. East can’t pitch a spade or my SK will be my 13^th trick, but if he pitches a diamond, dummy’s low diamond will win the 13^th trick. Kinda cute. Sean will appreciate this – I know how he loves pinning ten doubletons. Here is one time when it is clearly the right play.

Yes, east could break up the squeeze by covering the ♦J with the Q – that would cut off the entry to my hand so the ♠K no longer is a threat card and east would be able to win trick 13 with the ♦9. However, covering looks and feels wrong.

Actually either opponent could be squeezed – if west started with ♦Txxx and ♠A, he would be equally squeezed despite having the A behind the K because in the 3 card ending, I can still hold both the spade threat and the diamond threat.