Here's a fun hand from yesterday's set.  It's a good example for a beginner or intermediate player to see that squeezes don't have to be (and usually aren't) all that complicated.

First hand of the set I picked up:

A95 / 84 / K7 / AJ9832

Jeff passed, Righty bid 1 Diamond.

2 Clubs is pretty normal.  3 Clubs is more aggressive (pard is a passed hand, so you don't have to worry too much about missing game) and would probably have been my choice many years ago.

LHO bid 2 Hearts and Jeff raised to 3 Clubs.  Surprisingly it went all pass after that.

LHO led the Ace of Hearts (after you play from dummy Righty follows with the 5):

KT2 / Q973 / T86 / K5

A95 / 84 / K7 / AJ9832

Jeff's raise wouldn't be everyone's choice but he likes 2 level overcalls to promise a 6 card suit and for the most part I concur (though for me it's more of a guideline than a hard rule.)  But if we're committing to 3 Clubs opposite 2 card support and an 8 count, maybe just bidding it directly DOES make sense.  The opps would probably be in game now (That's a primary downside with undisciplined preempts opposite a passed hand.  Yes, the opps often wind up in silly contracts, but it's often next to impossible to punish them for it.)

I wasn't sure which card would be most deceptive against an inexperienced partnership, but I probably should have made the normal play of the 8.  Instead I played the 4 and LHO worked out the position (expecting his partner to play the 8 from 85) and continued a low Heart, which was ruffed by RHO.

Now Ace and a Diamond came back.  I won and drew trumps (they were 2-2 after the ruff.)  Here's the position:

KT2 / Q97 / T / -

A95 / - / - / J983

LHO is known to hold the King of Hearts.  If RHO started with QJ of Diamonds, we're in business.  Even if you can't work all that out, it's just a good idea to play all your trumps in these situations (where you have all the tricks but one) and try to keep as many threats alive as long as you can.  Even if it's not a true squeeze situation, maybe somebody will pitch the wrong thing.

On the next three Clubs I pitched 2 Hearts and a Spade (best technique would probably be to pitch the Ten, but I pitched the Deuce instead.)  LHO pitched the Ten of Hearts, the 3 of Spades and the Jack of Hearts.  RHO pitched the 9 of Diamonds, the 3 of Diamonds and the Queen of Diamonds.


KT / Q / T / -

A95 / - / - / 3

Each player has 4 cards left at this point (duh.)  LHO is definitely guarding the Hearts, RHO is probably guarding the Diamonds (since he bid Diamonds) and both players probably have 3 Spades (since there are 6 Spades still out.)  If that's true, on the play of the last Club LHO will have to pitch a Spade (and keep the King of Hearts.)  That's okay, I don't need the Queen of Hearts anymore so I'll throw it away and now East will have to decide whether to keep 3 Spades or the Jack of Diamonds.  If he throws the Diamond away, my Ten in dummy will be good.  If he throws a Spade away, I'll take the last 3 tricks in Spades.

And so it went.  Both opponents pitched Spades at trick 10 and I took the last trick with the 5 of Spades.

'Nice double' said Jeff.

My friend Joanie was kibitzing and I knew she was scratching her head and wondering what auction Jeff was talking about.

Incidentally, the reason pitching the Ten of Spades is better technique is if the end position looks like this (opps have same last 8 cards, just distributed differently):

Qxxx / - / - / - RHO

KT / Q / T / - Dummy

Jx / K / J / - LHO (2 Spades and both red suit guards)

A95 / - / - / 3 Me

Now when I cash the last Club, both opponents again pitch a Spade but this time I'm dead because LHO is guarding both red suits and RHO is guarding Spades.  RHO's Queen of Spades (this example obviously works the same if RHO has Jxxx and LHO has Qx) will take the last trick.

But if I had pitched the Spade Ten, now when LHO pitches a Spade and I play a Spade to my King and the Jack (or Queen) falls on my left, I can hook my 9 of Spades on the way back and still get home.  Of course, taking that line could result in down 1 (all this work was just for an uptrick at IMPs) so you'd better have a pretty strong inference to justify trying it.

Speaking of 'all this work' +130 was -0.13 IMPs away (as opposed to -0.67 for +110.)  Why am I not surprised?