What & Why (05)

How did you get on planning your play in 6NT? It was not the best slam to be in, but there are some very interesting lessons to be learnt when we go through the play the way it should have developed. Against West’s 6NT North leads the four of hearts. How did YOU plan your play? Let me show you the full deal so we can follow how and why the play should have proceeded.

K93
J974
T842
J6
AQ62
KQ5
K9
Q973
J875
A862
AJ7
AK
T4
T3
Q653
T8542

North leads the four of hearts against West’s 6NT. Note that we earlier discussed a low DIAMOND lead. The diamond lead gives declarer TWO chances of making the contract, as long as he believes that North has led from length. The bad mistake is to try the diamond finesse immediately by putting in the jack. As the cards lie, that will probably lead to failure, whereas playing low from dummy will give declarer three diamond tricks whenever North has the ten OR queen. But let’s turn our attention to the heart lead, which I think is technically safer.

The first thing declarer should do is to test the spades, because the rest of the play will depend on what happens in that suit. So, win the heart in hand and cross to the king of clubs and lead the S5 and put in the queen. This is the best chance of making four spade tricks, if South has Kx. But North wins the king and exits with a club. Now, declarer should take the three available spade tricks and hope that the discards will help declarer find the extra trick. Declarer should always count the top tricks and that is easy enough: three spades, three hearts, three clubs and two diamonds. Where can the twelfth one come from? Obviously if hearts are 3-3 (unlikely given the opening lead), or the nine of clubs if both the jack and ten fall, or the obvious diamond finesse if North has the queen. What will happen When declarer takes the three spade tricks now? North has one discard to find and can let go of a diamond, South can discard one club but no more since that is declarer’s suit. South therefore also discards a diamond. Since declarer always has a diamond finesse available as a last resort, declarer should cash the other tricks first. Three rounds of hearts now confirm that they don’t break, but what does South discard on the third heart? He cannot let go of another club, so must discard a diamond.

Let me now show you what the situation will look like at this stage of the play: Nine cards have been played and there are now four in each hand. They are:

J
T84
K9
Q9
8
AJ7
Q6
T8

North still controls dummy’s heart threat (the eight). South has had to keep two clubs to stop declarer making two club tricks.

Declarer now leads the diamond seven to the king and tries the queen of clubs, hoping to drop both the ten and the eight, but the defenders have been careful with their discards, which in fact have been forced ones. On the queen of clubs, North must discard a diamond because dummy’s heart eight is a potential trick. The eight of hearts has served its purpose and is now no use to declarer so it is discarded from dummy on the club queen. Now there are only two cards left. Declarer plays the nine of diamonds, knowing that North has the top heart and one diamond. When the queen of diamonds does not appear from North, declarer knows the finesse was never working, so goes up with the ace and down comes South’s queen. As I previously pointed out, the discards have been forced on the defenders, and that is what a squeeze is about. This squeeze would have worked if North did have the queen of diamonds, but in that case it would have been what is known as a ‘show up’ squeeze, North’s queen would have popped up under the AJ at the end. It should be easy to avoid a finesse you know won’t work, but how many of us would have finessed the diamond at trick twelve?

Most squeezes are not difficult to execute and often play themselves, but there must be potential tricks as well as top tricks. Usually, a squeeze will generate one extra trick, and will do that when declarer has top tricks that add up to one less than declarer needs. Hence, it is sometimes necessary to lose that early inevitable loser in order to set up the squeeze. This is known as ‘rectifying the count’.

I know this will have been much too difficult for the newer advancing players to comprehend, but if you persevere with squeezes, what a great feeling when you manage to execute one properly. We had a saying in the old days “Play every hand on a squeeze”. Try it! “Practice makes perfect”.