First, let me make the disclaimer: I am not a bridge expert.

This is a collection of hands I found interesting or entertaining. Some of them are elementary, some of them are quite complicated. There is only one artificial hand in this collection. All of the rest are "real hands" in the sense that they were shuffled (perhaps by a computer) and played in some event somewhere.

There are two themes which run through most of these examples. They are:

1. Squeezes for overtricks. At matchpoints, people often take finesses which risk their contracts in order to make overtricks. Often, squeezes are available at no risk.
2. Defenders giving up information, either in the bidding or in mannerisms. On many of these hands, unusual lines are taken because an opponent has told declarer enough about his hand. In one of the cases, the proper line was found simply because a defender considered doubling.

I didn't choose these themes deliberately, they are just the themes that interest me which crop up consistently.

You might guess, from my attitude about people who bid too much, that I'm a curmudgeon just irritated with young folks who interfere a lot in the auction. In fact, I am someone who interferes a lot in auctions, and believes in aggressive preempts. My complaint is with people who fail to conceive of the results of their action. They fail to ask themselves "why am I overcalling?", "why am I raising?" And when their actions fail, they often fails in subtle ways - the opponents buy the contract and take all the right finesses, execute a tricky squeeze, or are warned away from a NT contract because of the lack of stoppers.

When we pass, and it works out, we rarely think of the "pass" as being the winning action. We look at the traveler at the end of the match and think, "How did people make 4 ♠? It looked like it had no play." It had play at other tables because the other tables got more information.

And I haven't even started to cover the positive effect passing has on your other auctions. Playing Roth-Stone with a friend on OKbridge, we get quite a few good results simply by doubling the opponents in partscores, after we have made an overcall.

I have finished converting these articles to conform with Richard Pavlicek's Bridge Writing Style Guide. I'm using a combination of XML/XSL/CSS to generate the (static) HTML files. If you are interested in how it is done, you can read my XML Test Pages, which have sample inputs adjacent to generated outputs. XML lets you write articles without worrying about the formatting, which is done later. This allows the formatting to be more uniform.

There might be some glitches I missed during the change. If you see any flaws, either in layout, grammar, or analysis, please feel free to point them out.

Send comments to bridge@thomasoandrews.com.

I do not agree with my partner's 2 ♥ call - he should probably only raise on a bad three-card fit when there is no other decent bid, and certainly 1 ♠ is crying out as another option. My 4 ♥ call was probably as questionable.

My LHO made the least comfortable lead - the ♦ 10.

So, it looks like I've got a diamond loser and three heart losers - was there any way around that?

If the opponents never led diamonds, I'd have been able to eventually pitch my diamond loser on a spade (of course, if they drew trumps, I'd be stuck with a club loser...)

But I did find one line which gave me a shot. If spades split 3-3 and either player has three hearts to a single honor, I can make by running spades. On the fourth spade, the situation might look like:

Whatever East does, I pitch the diamond. If East ruffs, they get at most three trump tricks, and if West ruffs with a high trump, again they only get three trump tricks.

As it was, my line not only failed, but cost me a trick when West ruffed the third round of spades. My partner, who had left the virtual table to do some household chore, came back and asked 'how did you go down two?'

Dan Piro notices you can play a little deception on East if he holds two spades and any three hearts by varying the order in which you play your spades. Start with a low spade to the queen, then play the ace and a low spade back to your (now bare) king. If East started with two spades he might play you for starting with two small spades and decide to not ruff. Then you ruff a club in dummy and lead a spade to pitch your diamond.

West led the ♥ J against this contract, and declarer won the ♥ Q. Declarer cashed the ♣ A-K, and East's ♣ Q fell, so declarer finished pulling trumps with the ♣ J. That was fortunate.

It looks like declarer must lose a heart, three spades, and likely two diamonds. Declarer, however, found another way. He cashed the ♥ A and exited a heart. The opponents could take their major tricks, arriving at this position:

With the defenders on lead, it is difficult to keep declarer from scoring three of the last four tricks. If they lead diamonds, declarer can assure himself only one diamond loser, and if they lead a major, declarer can pitch a diamond from one hand while ruffing the other in dummy.

The defense can avoid this only if East has both diamond honors and West leads diamonds twice before he is out of entries in the majors.

This is a perfect example of how to play "mirror distributions." Since the shapes of the North and South hands are exactly the same, declarer has no way to score his last two trumps seperately. The answer in this sort of hand is to engineer a throw-in.

Our declarer today is Matt Ginsberg's "GIB" program. GIB has some strange ideas about bidding, including a tendency to open 1 NT rather often. [ This was as of 1997 - GIB's bidding has improved since.]

West led the ♣ Q, and GIB could do no better or worse than the average human, winning in hand.

Short of entries, GIB exited its hand with the ♦ 10, which West won with the queen. East signaled, mysteriously, with the ♦ 8. East's signal was going to prove costly under the eagle eye of GIB.

West continued the ♣ J, which GIB won in dummy, pitching a small heart from hand. GIB then took the spade finesse, which won, and exited with the ♦ K, pitching a spade from dummy.

East won and led the ♥ J, GIB covered and West won the ♥ A. West exited with the ♠ 9, on which East contributed his king, and GIB won the ace. GIB was at this position:

GIB led the ♥ 8, and West very smoothly ducked. If West had won the heart, he'd have to conceded four of the remaining tricks to dummy.

GIB then played ♦ 10, which East won.

East exited a spade, and GIB won the jack. When West failed to follow, GIB "knew" exactly what East's remaining cards were, found the endplay for the overtrick, throwing in East in with the last spade.

East was forced to lead from his ♦ 4-2 into GIB's ♦ 6-3, giving GIB an overtrick.

If East had ducked the ♦ 10, GIB was still going to make its overtrick, by immediately playing the ♠ J-2, forcing East to lead from ♦ J-4 into ♦ 6-3.

West heeded his partner's overcall, and led his stiff club.

Reading the writing on the wall, declarer flew up with the ace, led a low diamond to the jack, crossed to the ♥ A and ruffed a heart. Declarer then cashed another diamond, glad for the good break, crossed to the ♠ A, and ruffed another heart, felling East's king, at this position:

With the lead in hand, declarer lead the ♣ J. Upon winning this trick, East would have to give entry to dummy's two queens, allowing declarer to pitch his spades.

But our East was cleverer - she simply let declarer win the ♣ J. A simple play, but one which entirely destroyed declarer. By giving up the only trick in her hand, she also kept declarer from reaching dummy, and West scored two spade tricks.

I am not sure I follow this auction to 6 NT, but it is obviously a less-than-perfect contract.

It would appear the only chance for a twelfth trick is if one defender has the ♠ J-10-9, allowing declarer to set up the ♠ 8.

Brian Storey (CDundee on okbridge) found a solution which took into account that the defense was not looking at his hand. He knew he had two heart losers, but the defense did not.

Brian got a neutral club lead, which he won in hand and imediately led a heart to the queen. West played low and East won the king. East chose to exit a low diamond, and declarer was able to make his slam. West had started with: ♠ 10-9-6-3 ♥ A-7-2 ♦ 7-2 ♣ 10-6-4-2. On the run of Brian's winners, West was squeezed in spades and hearts. The end position was:

On the last diamond, West had to keep the ♥ A, so he must pitch a spade, and Brian gets four spades.

In this case, the rather clumsy auction probably helped declarer - West can avoid the squeeze by flying the ace and exiting in any suit, but West was probably nervous that declarer might be leading low from K-x - playing the ace might give declarer a running heart suit.

From Brian's point of view, it was likely that the heart honors were split. West would certainly double and lead the suit if he held them both, and, since dummy's first bid suit was hearts, East could have doubled to request a heart lead. So the only real danger for Brian is that one of the opponents wins the heart and leads another heart. That's a difficult play to find in this instance.

This is not a great slam, depending on me guessing the ♣ Q. I sought to find out all I could before making that guess.

I cashed the ♦ A, cashed three rounds of trumps, East showing up with two. I then ran three hearts, East showing up with two.

Figuring many Easts would find a call over 1 ♣ holding seven diamonds, I figured West started with four or more diamonds, along with his three spades and four hearts. Therefore, he probably had two or fewer clubs. That meant that the odds favored East holding the ♣ Q.

For once the odds were right for me:

Making was worth 11 Imps, down one would have been -12.7 Imps.

West led the ♦ 2, East won the ace and continued with the ♦ 9. Declarer played the jack, West won the queen, and inexplicably shifted to a club. Perhaps West thought that partner had started with ♦ A-9-3.

Declarer lost the club finesses, and East continued with another diamond, which declarer won. (Declarer pitched two hearts from dummy on the diamonds.)

Declarer played the ♠ K and ♠ A, and found out about the bad spade split. If spades had split remotely kindly, 3 NT would have been in the bag, with five spade tricks, three clubs, and a diamond.

Our declarer was still able to make his contract. Running the clubs, declarer came down to the following position:

West can safely pitch a heart and a diamond of the first two clubs, but now is stuck. Obviously, he must keep the ♥ A, and just as obviously, he must keep three spades. Therefore the only card to part with is the ♦ 10. Now declarer exits with the ♥ K, and West is forced to win and lead away from the ♠ 10.

West's club switch was awful, and declarer was able to use it to his advantage. Remember, never give a sucker an even break.

Larry Cohen noted that it is far better for declarer to not take the club finesse when West switched to clubs. Then declarer can make if spades are 4-2 or better or hearts are 3-2 or a couple of other friendly instances such as west holding stiff ten or nine of hearts.

Partner led the ♥ K, and I contributed the ten, declarer the queen.

Partner then switched to the ♦ J, and we took three diamond tricks, declarer following.

On lead at trick five, I shifted to a trump. Declarer ducked, and my partner won the jack. Partner exited with the ♣ 10, and declarer covered in dummy.

What to do? I know declarer started with one heart, unless that was a crafty falsecard. Declarer also started with three diamonds and five or six spades. Therefore, declarer has at least three clubs. Partner, thus, has at most two clubs, and would not have lead the ten from the ace and ten. Declarer has the ace.

So it might be right to duck this trick. Why? Consider this position: The crucial card is the ♦ 9 in dummy. If I cover this club trick, declarer wins the ace, cashes the ♠ A (pulling my last trump), then crosses to the ♣ J. When declarer leads the ♦ 9 off dummy, she pitches her last club. Partner will ruff, but with one of his high trumps. Declarer gets off for down two.

At the table, I ducked this club trick. This play neutralized the ♦ 9 - declarer is forced to take her entry before my last trump has been drawn. If she leads the ♦ 9 off dummy, I can still ruff, and declarer is just exchanging one loser for another if she pitches a club.

Down three (-500) was worth 4.75 IMPs, while down two (-300) was worth close to zero IMPs, since we could make four hearts our way.

Koen Grauwels notes that, after my duck of the club, declarer can still ensure down 2 if he endplays West twice.

After winning the ♣ Q, declarer crosses to the ♣ A, stripping partner's last club, and then exits to West with the ♠ 10, leading to this position:

West must lead the ♥ A, which South ruffs. South then plays the ♠ A and another spade to West, and West must concede a heart trick to dummy.

West led the ♦ K, and continued with the ♦ Q. West then shifted to a low spade; East won, and shifted to a heart.

This defense was less than optimal, and declarer, Robin Pleau (robyn on OKbridge), used it to find a surprising overtrick. She won the trump shift and ran her trumps, leading to this four-card end-position on the last trump: On the last trump, East thought a long time, then pitched the ♦ A, perhaps praying that his partner was holding the ♦ J.

Robin cashed the now established ♦ J, and again East was squeezed, forced to ungaurd yet another suit.

Of course, East's best pitch at the four-card end-position would have been a club. Robin would get two clubs here, but would have to concede a trick at the end to West's ♣ 10.

But in the above diagram, I've had West pitch perfectly. In reality, West did not value his club cards, and pitched two of them on the hearts.

It was worth 71% to go plus on this board. The overtrick gave Robin a clear top.

West leads the ♣ 6 against three notrump. How can we make this contract?

We clearly can't attack spades, because the opponents will likely take two spades and three clubs before we can set up tricks.

That means we will have to rely on the heart finesse. We can get a club trick, four diamond tricks (assuming that suit behaves), and four heart tricks.

The only problem with this plan is that we can only take the heart finesse once. That works okay if East has only three hearts to the queen, but West's ♣ 6 is probably from a five-card suit.

When this was played out at an OKbridge tournament, many declarers ducked the club. A few made the inspired play of the ♣ K. Those who did were rewarded with this full deal:

There is certainly a danger in playing the ♣ K to the first trick - you could go down a lot that way. Still, I think that is the better plan.

North and South bid up to 6 ♠ on this hand.

This slam looks pretty easy, if thing break nicely. Whenever that's the case, it is worth looking for safety plays.

West led the ♦ Q, which declarer, Guss Ginsburg, won in hand. His intention was to draw trumps in three rounds, cash the rest of the red suit winners, and exit with the third round of diamonds. Whichever opponent won would have to break the club suit or concede a ruff and discard to Guss.

Unfortunately, East pitched a heart on the second spade. The plan was going to have to change. Guss played out the rest of his trumps, and East continued to pitch hearts. Guss then ducked a diamond. West won and exited a heart, won in dummy. Guss then cashed the rest of his diamonds and hearts. On the ♦ K, East pitched a heart.

So, Guss can count out West's hand somewhat. West started with five diamonds, four spades and at least two hearts. Therefore, West started with at most two clubs. Guss played off the ♣ K-Q, and when West showed out, Guss claimed, taking the marked finesse.

The diamond duck is a fairly basic play, but not many people found it at the table. Even without it, most who played this hand guessed East for the club length.

West led the ♣ Q, and East played the ♣ J, declarer ducking.

West then shifted to the ♥ J. This was covered in dummy by the ♥ Q, East played the ♥ K and declarer won the ♥ A.

Declarer (geno on OKbridge) now appeared to have nine tricks; three spades, four or five diamonds, and two hearts. But if East got in before the tricks could be run, he would be able to lead a club through declarer's king.

Declarer therefore took a basic safety play, playing a diamond to the ace. He was rewarded when East dropped the ♦ K. Had declarer taken the finesse, he would have been down 3, and if West had the king, when he won it, he couldn't safely attack clubs.

The full deal was:

West might set this contract by initially leading a low club to East's jack. Declarer would have to win. Then it is no longer "safe" for declarer to take the ♦ A first. Still, would West have passed South's 1 ♦ opening bid with a good club suit and the ♦ K at favorable vulnerability? An argument can be made to play for the drop still, depending on West's overcalling style.

North was a little light for his 2 NT rebid, which usually shows at least 17-18. Still, I sympathize somewhat. He does not have enough to reverse to 2 ♠, and a 2 ♥ bid sounds weak. 2 ♣ and 2 ♦ are unpleasant options.

West led the ♣ K, East overtook with the ace and continued with the ♣ J. This held, and East shifted to a low spade. West won the ace and continued the spade.

The contract is in the bag, and you don't want to waste too much time hunting for an overtrick at imps. If hearts are 3-3, you have an overtrick, but what if hearts are 4-2? If West holds the length with his presumed ♣ Q, you can squeeze him.

So you win the spade, and run two more spades, pitching a club, then you run three diamond tricks, pitching a heart, to this end position:

West can no longer hold four hearts and the ♣ Q.

While this squeeze is inconsequential - the overtrick amounts to only half an imp here - it is such a basic squeeze that it should be found. This is like failing to take a risk-free finesse for an overtrick, and it requires only slight timing considerations - namely, taking the spades before the diamonds, so that you end up in your hand at the four-card end position above.

Here is the complete deal: Those Wests who found a low club lead set this contract - East wins the first two clubs, then shifts to a spade, and West cashes out, for down 1.

West found an unfortunate spade lead, which had disasterous matchpoint consequences. Moxie, my partner, won in hand and played the ♦ A and, noting East's ♦ J, ducked a diamond, West winning. West made another fateful mistake, playing off two top hearts. He then exited with the ♣ Q, won in dummy.

Moxie crossed to hand with the ♥ Q, and lead another diamond, West playing his king. West exited the ♣ J, won by declarer. The damage was already done.

Moxie scored three spades, one heart, two diamonds, and two clubs, for eight tricks.

How much did that one trick gain? Here are the results from the board:

(1)         3H        N       -3   -300             0.0%
(2)         3H        N       -2   -200             3.5%
(3)         2D        S       -1   -100             8.9%
(4)         3NT       N       -1   -100             8.9%
(5-6)       1NT       W       +1    -90            14.3%
(7-11)      2D        N       +2    +90            26.8%
(12-14)     1NT       W       -1   +100            46.4%
(15-16)     2S        W       -1   +100            46.4%
(17-21)     2D        N       +3   +110            67.8%
(22)        2H        N       +2   +110            67.8%
(23)        3D        N       +3   +110            67.8%
(24)        1NT       S       +2   +120            82.1%
(25)        1NT-X     W       -1   +200            92.9%
(26-27)     2S        W       -2   +200            92.9%
(28)        2S-X      W       -1   +200            92.9%
(29)        2NT       W       -2   +200            92.9%

That one trick moved us from +90, or 27%, to +120, or 82%.

West led the ♣ Q, East encouraged with the ♣ 10, and declarer, Hao on OKbridge, ducked. West continued a low club to East's king, again ducked, and East continued a club to the ace.

If diamonds split, Hao had ten top tricks and is looking for an eleventh, which can only possibly come from hearts or spades.

Hao took the ♠ A and ♠ Q, crossed to hand with the ♦ A, cashed the ♠ K, pitching a heart, and ran the diamonds. East, who started with four spades and the ♥ K, was squeezed on the last diamond:

If East pitches a spade, declarer pitches the ♥ 8 and has two winners left in his hand. If East pitches the heart, declarer pitches his spade, and has two heart tricks.

As a sign that OKbridge play might be improving, making four was worth only 7%, while making five was worth 64%. Either a lot of people found the squeeze, or a lot of Easts pitched a spade early.

West led the ♥ A-K, then continued with a small heart, which I ruffed low in dummy. East followed to all three rounds, showing up with ♥ Q-J-3. It looks like East might find a heart lead after a more normal 1 NT - 3 NT auction, so we've found a good spot.

I started drawing trumps, playing the ace and the king, and West showed out on the second round. As usual, my opponents are playing above their level against me - if my left-hand opponent had not forced me to ruff in dummy, I could have taken care against the 4-1 trump split.

Well, there was nothing left to do but hope my RHO had at least three clubs and two spades. I played out my club winners from hand, both following to all three rounds, leading to this position:

I crossed to the ♠ A and ruffed the ♣ A, East pitching a spade. Then I crossed to the ♠ K, and with the lead in dummy at this trick: I got the last two tricks.

Notice I could have overtaken the third club and ruffed a small club in my hand, but then if East had four clubs, this would technically be a simple trump coup, while ruffing the ace makes it a "Grand Coup." Indeed, you can't get any grander than ruffing your own ace.

West led the ♥ K, ducked around. I won the ♥ J continuation, and exited a club. East won and played a heart, which I ruffed, West following. I ruffed a club high, back with a trump, West pitching a club. I ruffed another club, and again back with a trump. I took the spade finesse, and came back with a third round of trumps, ending up in this position: West pitched his clubs on the diamonds, but on the last diamond, West was squeezed in the majors.

A-Q-x opposite J-x-x always screams out to me. In another hand in this collection, I give an example where West is stripped and endplayed into giving up a third trick to this holding.

Perhaps this holding makes it easier for me to see the squeeze or endplay possibilities. I am already aware that I want the king of the suit to be onside. I visualize West with the king, and a key step in a squeeze or endplay is visualization.

The above squeeze works just as well if I have J-x-x in hand and A-K-x in dummy, but I might be less inclined to find it because I'm not asking myself, "what if West has the queen of spades?"

West led a trump, and declarer won in hand and pulled the rest of the trumps. Declarer then led the ♦ J, ducked all around. When declarer led the ♦ 4 from hand, it was necessary for West to fly the queen, to block the suit, preventing South from from gaining entry to dummy to lead hearts.

If South had continued with the ♦ 10, West would have to duck, again to deny South a diamond entry.

In other words, the only way to keep South from gaining an entry to dummy on this hand is to duck if South leads the ♦ J or ♦ 10, and fly the queen if South leads the ♦ 4.

I won the opening spade lead in my hand. It doesn't take a genius to realize that all I really needed to do was take the club finesse, and, whether it won or lost, score two clubs, two spades, two hearts, and, assuming diamonds broke, four diamonds.

Perhaps it was the potential missed 6 ♦ slam which hindered my thinking. Perhaps I was trying to make 6 NT. Whatever the reason, on the second trick, I ducked a heart to East. East returned a low spade, and West won and continued spades, which I won, having pitched a heart and a club from dummy.

Disheartened, I played the top diamonds with West showing out on the third round. Well, at least they split. If hearts split also, I'd still make this contract, even after my initial misplay. When I played off the top hearts, I got bad news. West showed out on the third round.

Somewhere, out of the fog that was my brain, I started counting. East started with four hearts, five spades (presumably, from the bidding), and three diamonds, and thus only one club. Aha! I played the ♣ A , planning to play the queen to West's king. Instead, I dropped East's stiff king, which allowed me to make an overtrick.

Phew.

West led a low heart, ruffed in dummy. What is the best line for declarer?

Declarer's goal is to go down as little as possible. If clubs split 3-2, declarer loses a spade and two clubs. What if they split 4-1? Declarer has a chance to endplay whoever holds the stiff, if that stiff is not the six.

Declarer should immediately lose a spade to West. If West finds the club continuation, all is lost, but he is unlikely to find it ; if he holds something like ♣ K-Q-J-6 or ♣ Q-J-10-6, he'd have to find the lead of the ♣ 6 to still get three tricks in the suit, and if he holds the stiff, he will be hard-pressed to lead into your presumed club strength.

So, assume that West exits a heart. Ruff in dummy, ruff a spade high, lead a diamond to the ten, ruff another spade high, a diamond to the jack and ruff another spade high. Now lead a low club from hand at this position:

If one of the defenders holds a stiff club other than the 6, he will be endplayed, forced to concede a ruff-and-sluff. And if his partner overtakes the club, declarer can duck a club continuation and, if clubs were 4-1, the defender on lead again has to yield either a ruff-and-discard or lead a club from, say, ♣ K-6, while declarer still has ♣ A-5 opposite ♣ 9-8.

This line, protecting against most 4-1 breaks, allows declarer to be down only 3, for -500. This is still not likely to be a great results, as many pairs will not likely find the heart slam (diamonds are 0-2, with West holding the ♠ A, so the slam makes.) Still -500 would have been worth about 6 IMPs more than -800, against the +480 at the other table.

West leads the ♣ J. Now, how are you going to make this contract?

It looks like you have three heart losers, a club loser and at least one spade loser.

Larry Weil (larry), of Cambridge MA, guessed spades right, and found a nice endplay to make his contract.

He won the club lead in dummy, and played the ♠ 8 from dummy, ducked all around. Another spade was led, to East's queen and Larry's ace, West following small.

Larry then cashed the ♦ A before throwing East in with the third round of trumps. East, stuck with the lead and no hearts to his name, had no satisfying exit.

If he led a low diamond, Larry would pitch a small heart from his hand, and, if West won, West would be endplayed (assuming West's ♣ J was a singleton.)

If he led the ♦ K, Larry would again pitch a heart, and East would have to give up a trick in whichever minor he led next.

In practice, East led a low club, which Larry allowed to ride to the ten in dummy, giving him his ninth trick.

Notice that West's bidding and lead allowed Larry to make the inferences necessary to bring this contract home. Without the bidding, the auction might likely go 1♠-1NT-3♠-Pass, and Larry would have had no guide on how to play the hand.

Also, notice East made a fatal error by not splitting his honors in trumps. In this case, he needed to split his honors simply to preserve his small trump as an exit card.

Richard Pavlicek has noted, via email, that declarer can still make with an endplay if East splits his honors. Declarer plays the ace, and exits with the trump jack. East wins and exits with a trump.

Declarer cashes his ♦ A and runs all of the spades leading to this position on the last spade:

If East pitches a club, declarer plays the ♣ K and another club, and East must give up a diamond at the end.

If East pitches a diamond, declarer plays the ♥ K to West, who is then endplayed into leading diamonds, which forces East to lead clubs - a stepping-stone endplay!

Our auction was less than successful, and West started ominously, leading a club to East's ace. After taking the ♣ Q-J (with me pitching spades from dummy), a wonderful thing occurred - East shifted to the ♠ Q. Apparently, the clubs were blocked. Hallelujah! Now I could even make 10 tricks. Sure, I could have taken the nearly marked heart finesse, but on okbridge, you never know whether East has the full strength for his takeout double. It was matchpoints, so I considered risking it anyway, in an attempt to beat those in five diamonds making six.

But instead, I decided to play for a showup squeeze, playing for East to have four or more spades.

I played the ♠ A-K, and ran the diamonds. The end position, with one diamond to go, was:

On the last diamond, East must either give up a heart, or his high spade. If he gives up a heart, I pitch my spade and play a low heart to the ace. If East pitches a spade, my spade is good. If East had started with ♠ Q-J-x-x ♥ J-x-x-x-x ♦ x ♣ A-Q-J, then my line would drop West's stiff ♥ K, which would make me look like a genius.

Often, the showup squeeze at matchpoints is a big win - it gives you a chance for an overtrick without the risk of taking a losing finesse and going down. And occasionally you drop an honor offside.

In reality, the East/West hands were: and when East didn't pitch the high spade, my heart felled his K. On this hand, I might as well have finessed, but next time...

North led a spade to South's jack and West's queen. Declarer led a club to dummy's king, and then led a diamond to the jack and north's queen. North continued trumps, South winning. South shifted to a club, won by West's ace. West then lead a heart to dummy's queen, and a diamond back to the ace, and then cashes the club queen, pitching a heart from dummy. Declarer then led the club ten at this position:

North followed, dummy ruffed, and South pitched a heart. North is known to have the ace of hearts and the last trump (or south would have overruffed.) So when declarer calls for the heart off dummy, and south plays the ten, declarer can play low, sticking north in this position:

If South is allowed to win the heart, declarer scores the last three tricks on a cross-ruff. If north overtakes and leads a trump, declarer scores two trumps and a heart.

I was left to play 4 ♥ as South. While 3 NT looks to be the room contract, 4 ♥ is all but solid and could gain against bad breaks.

The ♦ 6 lead looked to be singleton. I won the jack with the ace, cashed the ♥ Q, crossed to ♥ K and played the ♥ A. All followed. This is not good; playing in hearts I could deal with 1-3 diamonds and 5-1 hearts [by using diamonds as trump substitutes] to beat the pairs in 3 NT.

When I led the ♦ 10, east covered with the queen, I won the king, and west followed.

This is disastrous, all the pairs in 3 NT - no doubt the popular contract - will score 12 tricks by default.

I must confess that at this point I consoled myself with the thought that at least we beat those in 5 ♦, cleared a club trick and claimed 12. It was later in the bar when we almost glossed over the hand as a bidding view that the answer jumped off the page.

At the point where both red suits are known to split you have:

Eleven tricks on top and a high club to force the twelfth, but this will lose to all the pairs in 3NT. What can be done? Take the Spade finesse!

This is a true non-material finesse. Twelve tricks were available before the play and only twelve are available after. The difference is that now the tricks can be cashed without giving up the lead. After the finesse, run the diamonds then the last heart: This results in an automatic squeeze against either defender holding ♣ A and long spades.

Should the play be found? Yes. The field contract rates to be 3 NT which makes 12 tricks on any lead for 490. If the finesse works and the squeeze is on you score 510, if the finesse works and the squeeze fails your partner will look quizzical but you still come to 12 tricks and if the finesse fails you lose a point to all those in 4H and two points to all those in 3NT making 11 tricks. These rate to be minority groups.

The (IMP pairs) scores on the day:

 
	 4H+1    608
	 4H+2    835
	3NT+3   1318
	 4H+3   1715
	  TOP   3018

It would be hard not to double with East's hand, given that partner has made a vulnerable preempt and East has what looks like three tricks in hand.

West led the ♦ K, and declarer, Jeff Miller (OldProf on OKbridge,) won the ace in dummy and led the ♥ 7, ducked all around. The ♥ 9 was then lead, again ducked all around, West pitching a diamond.

Jeff then led a high club off dummy, and East won. East then led a diamond, and ruffed a diamond, leading to:

East exited a spade, and declarer won in hand, played a club to the queen, ruffed the ♣ J, and then ran the spades. East was caught in a coup, forced to ruff in front of declarer's ace-queen. Somehow, with all those beautiful trumps, she managed to only score one of them.

East can score two trump tricks by expending a high trump early. Why? Well, notice that when East got her diamond ruff, she was down to king-jack-ten in trumps, so she was ruffing with one of the high cards, anyway. By covering the ♥ 7, she forces South to use a higher trump, and she can ruff the diamond with one of her low trumps.

West led a spade, declarer ducked from dummy, and East won the ♠ K and continued the suit. Declarer then played a third round of spades, pitching his diamond loser, West ruffing.

West then tried to take his side's diamond tricks, leading the ♦ Q. Declarer covered with the ♦ K, East played the ace, and declarer ruffed.

Declarer drew two rounds of trumps, both following. With West's ruff, that accounted for all the outside trumps.

The declarer I was watching looked at this situation and did not see his chance for an overtrick. Instead, he just lead a club to dummy. He got lucky. West, holding the ♣ K-Q, failed to split her honors, and declarer made 11 tricks.

But wait, if West has the ♣ K-Q, why play for her to misdefend? Instead, play her for the ♦ J. On the run of the hearts, the situation is: On the last heart, West must give up in one of the minors.

The full deal was: Note that this contract can be set with a ♣ K lead.

It could also have been set with a club shift after the spade lead. Declarer would be forced to win in dummy. In danger of losing a heart, a diamond, a club and a spade, declarer has to pitch a minor loser immediately. If Declarer pitches his diamond on the third spade, West leads a high club and a third round of clubs, and East ruffs with the ten, promoting a second trump trick for the defense. If Declarer pitches a club, then West leads a diamond to East's ace and East and East leads a fourth round of spades, again promoting a second trump trick for the defense.

Richard Pavlicek, Sr., showed the advantage of planning on this deal.

It looks like smooth sailing if trumps split 2-2 or East has the jack. Pavlicek considered another danger, as well - a bad diamond split.

West led a spade, which Pavlicek won in hand. He led a club to dummy and ruffed a club, then ruffed a spade and ruffed another club. Both defenders followed to the club plays. Pavlicek then exited with the trump queen, hoping to pin a stiff jack. East won the ♥ K, West following low, and returned a diamond, which Pavlicek won in hand.

Pavlicek again exited in hearts, and was fortunate enough to find the suit splitting 2-2. West, who won the second trump, exited in spades, which Pavlicek ruffed in hand. When Pavlicek ran his trumps, West, who was guarding the long club and also started with four diamonds, got squeezed.

The full deal was:

Note that Pavlicek needed the 2-2 split in trumps or for one opponent to hold the stiff jack. Also, this line provided almost no added risk. The biggest risk is that some trump promotion can occur in clubs, but it is not hard to see that that is unlikely on the bidding. The only chance for a trump promotion is if East started with the AK of hearts and the long clubs, which leaves West almost nothing for his double.

Also, notice that Pavlicek cannot succeed if he starts with hearts immediately, even with the friendly trump split. Whoever wins the first trump can force him to ruff a spade immediately, leaving him only one club ruff, which allows East to retain the ♣ J.

Also, note that on winning the second trump trick, West was caught in an interesting bind:

If dummy's second club were instead a worthless spade, West could break up this squeeze by leading the ♣ K. The second club becomes a secondary threat - if West leads his club here, declarer's long club in dummy is set up. Declarer could not set up this "natural" trick for himself, because he has only one entry remaining.

The diamond situation is also interesting, because if West leads a diamond, declarer can claim immediately. If West leads a low diamond, declarer can insert the nine, and if East follows, the suit split, while if East does not follow the nine wins. If West leads a high diamond, declarer plays low from dummy, and again is either rewarded with a marked finesse or an even split.

North opened a slightly odd strong notrump, and South made a few too many slam tries, finally landing in 5 ♠ contract.

West found the good lead of a spade. Declarer won in dummy, and led a heart to the king. If the ♥ A was onside, declarer would have only two heart losers. Sadly, West won and continued spades, East following.

Declarer won and cashed the ♦ A and ruffed a diamond, East playing the king. After drawing the last trump, declarer ducked a heart at this position (pitching a diamond from dummy:)

West won and returned a diamond, East pitching a heart, and declarer ruffing. Declarer then cashed the ♥ Q (pitching a diamond from dummy). If East started with four or more hearts, the position would be something like:

On the ♠ 10, West can not part with a diamond, so he must part with a club. Declarer pitches the diamond from dummy, and East is now caught in the squeeze, forced to part with either a heart, setting up the heart in declarers hand, or a club.

As it was, West showed out on the third round of hearts, having started with ♥ A-J tight. Declarer could have claimed on learning that West was guarding the diamonds and East the hearts.

Was there any better defense?

The full hand was: West couldn't duck the heart, because he was holding the ♥ A-J. If he had played the jack, declarer's ten in dummy would have become a useful card, and again declarer would have lost only two heart tricks. Could West have broken up the squeeze? I don't see an obvious way.

As you can see, the clubs are both in West's hand. Technically, East was never squeezed as the cards lie. The club situation keeps West from ever leading clubs. If East had both clubs, West could lead clubs every time. The spade lead was necessary to keep declarer from ruffing out his diamonds - two of his entries to dummy are in spades, but to be useful for setting up diamonds, they needed to be used after the diamonds ace entry had been used.

Against 3 NT, West led the ♠ 7, which went to the 10, jack, and ace.

Declarer then led a heart to the king and ace, and East exited with the ♦ J. This was duck all around, and East continued with a low diamond to the queen and West's ace. West continued with his last diamond, won in dummy, declarer pitching a spade from hand. Declarer then cashed his two hearts and three rounds of clubs at this position:

Declarer has found nothing breaking. Still, on the ♣ K, East is squeezed in three suits. If he parts with the a spade, declarer gets two spade tricks. If he parts with a diamond, dummy's diamond is good. And if he parts with a heart, declarer's heart is good.

This is a triple squeeze. Note that the count has not been rectified.

Sadly, our declarer decided that West led the ♠ 7 from a doubleton, and therefore thought the end position was:

When East parted with a spade, declarer led his last heart, which declarer hoped would force East to lead spades into the ♠ K-10. As the cards were, however, East cashed the ♦ 9, setting the contract.

Might West's spade lead be from a doubleton? It certainly might, but West is know to have started with only two hearts. If he held two small hearts and two small spades, and he chose to lead a major, about half of the time he would lead a heart. But with three spades and two hearts, he will almost always choose the spade.

This is a subtle form of restricted choice, and I think it leads to the conclusion that West is more likely to have started with three spades.

The spade lead was the only one with a chance to set this contract. All other leads give declarer his ninth trick.

North's 6 ♥ bid was an aggressive tactical bid. There is a risk of missing a grand or going off in six, but the immediate bid has the advantage of muddying the defense.

For instance, here, by not showing his spades or his club shortness, our intrepid North has not made the killing diamond lead obvious to the defense.

Sadly, West finds the lead of the ♦ Q anyway. Is there any way to save this contract?

There is. If one defender started with a stiff ♥ A and exactly two spades, you have a chance: You win the diamond lead, play a spade to the king, overtake the spade queen with the ace, and play the ♠ J. East must follow, you pitch a diamond, and West can ruff with his natural trump trick.

This line also works anytime the person with the long spades has all three hearts.

It also works when East has two spade and all three hearts. In this instance, East must ruff low on the third spade, declarer overruffs, ruffs a club in dummy and plays another spade winner. Again, East must ruff low, and declarer overruffs, ruffs another club, and leads another spade winner. Whether East ruffs with the ace or not, declarer pitches his diamond loser.

The declarer I watched simply gave up after the opening lead, leading trumps immediately, praying, I suppose, that the opponents were too blind to take their diamond trick. The opponents, staring at dummy, could easily figure it out. As it was, the cards were not favorable, so declarer could not make his contract. That does not excuse declare from trying, however. The difference between making and down one was 22 imps.

This is the sort of ill-conceived auction that one can have when opening with little defense. It is probably right for East to pull the double due to his pathetic defensive values and diamond void.

West led the ♥ 6, and East contributed the jack. Declarer, Marvin Elster (magpie on OKbridge,) won in hand, crossed to the ♥ K, finessed with the ♠ Q, then cashed the ♠ A. Marvin then cashed a single top trump, finding the expected bad break.

Marvin exited a spade, and West pitched a heart. East led a heart, and Marvin pitched his club. When East next led a club, Marvin ruffed in hand, and led his fourth spade at this position: West clearly could not afford to ruff this, high or low. So West pitched a club. Marvin ruffed in dummy, ruffed a club, then exited with the ♦ 9. West had to give the last two tricks to Marvin, who made an overtrick.

If East had cashed his ♣ K before playing the third heart, Marvin would have had to ruff, and then West could overruff and hold the contract to three.

There was no way to set this contract. The results on this board were all over the map:

(1-2)       3D-X      S       +4    870     11.66 Imps
(3)         3D-X      S       +3    670      9.45 Imps
(4-7)       3NT       N       +3    600      8.41 Imps
(8)         2C-X      W       -2    300      3.55 Imps
(9)         2S        S       +4    170      0.79 Imps
(10)        3H        E       -3    150      0.41 Imps
(11)        4D        S       +5    150      0.41 Imps
(12)        2S        S       +3    140      0.24 Imps
(13-15)     3D        S       +4    130      0.10 Imps
(16-18)     3D        S       +3    110     -0.48 Imps
(19-20)     3H        E       -2    100     -0.76 Imps
(21)        3H        E       -1     50     -1.83 Imps
(22-23)     2H        E       +2   -110     -4.76 Imps
(24)        3H        E       +3   -140     -5.41 Imps
(25)        5D        S       -2   -200     -6.55 Imps
(26)        5D-X      S       -1   -200     -6.55 Imps
(27)        3NT       N       -3   -300     -8.45 Imps
(28)        4S        S       -3   -300     -8.45 Imps
(29)        1NT-X     N       -2   -500    -11.21 Imps
(30)        5D-X      S       -2   -500    -11.21 Imps

West led an unfortunate ♥ Q, which declarer won in dummy. Declarer then finessed in diamonds, and ran diamonds. West had to find four pitches. The first three were two hearts and a club. But on the last diamond, West is stuck: West cannot part with a spade, or the ♥ Q, so he must part with another club. Declarer can now lead a heart towards the jack, and East/West can only take two club tricks before conceding the rest.

Of course, this line fails when the spades were 3-3, but then West might pitch a spade. When West pitches the ♣ 10 or ♣ J, declarer might figure the hand out.

Some pairs managed to bid these hands up to 6 ♥, but the pair I watched had an auction that got them to 5 ♥.

West led a spade. East played the ace and switched to a diamond.

Declarer won the ♦ A, drew trumps, cashed the ♣ A-K pitching a diamond, and ruffed a club. After cashing the ♠ K, declarer then ran his remaining trumps, to this position: West is squeezed on the last heart.

By playing the ♠ A, East rectified the count for declarer, as well as ensuring that his partner had the only spade guard.

But if East plays the ♠ 10 on the first trick, declarer could cash the top clubs, pitching his spade loser, then cash the trump king, followed by three rounds of diamonds. Whatever West does, he can't keep declarer from ruffing the fourth diamond in dummy, making 6.

But that is not necessarily the best play - it might be right for declarer to play two rounds of trumps before conceding the diamond - in fact, I think that is technically the right play, because it makes the contract whenever the hearts are split 2-2 or diamonds are split 3-3, but also when the diamonds are 4-2 and the doubleton includes an honor. This better line fails here, with West winning the third diamond and continuing a trump. Declarer cannot now ruff the last diamond in dummy.

So East's blind play of the ♠ A left declarer only one rather low-probability chance to make the contract, and it worked. The play of the ♠ 10 on the first trick would give declarer some options, with only the lower-percentage option working.

Not that I think I would have played the East hand differently - I don't think I could have found this duck.

Here are the results on this board:

(1-6)    6H     N    +6   1430        90.00%
(7)      6S-X   W    -6   1400        76.00%
(8-9)    4H     N    +7    710        70.00%
(10)     4H     N    +6    680        64.00%
(11)     3NT    S    +5    660        60.00%
(12-19)  4H     N    +5    650        40.00%
(20)     5H     N    +5    650        40.00%
(21-22)  4H     N    +4    620        18.00%
(23-26)  6H     N    -1   -100         6.00%

West leads the ♦ A and his partner contributes the four. West shifts to a trump, and you draw trumps in two rounds ending in hand, then lead a club to the queen. East wins the ace and leads a heart. Should you take the heart finesse at this position?

The contract is in the bag. The question is, how can you make the overtrick? You have two clubs, a diamond, a heart, and four spade tricks. East has cruelly made me make the red-suit decision now, it seems.

The heart finesse would be 50%, but it is slightly better than 50% that the ♥ K and the ♦ Q were in different hands. You play the ♥ A, cash the ♦ K and run the spades, pitching a diamond and the ♥ Q. You reach this position: If the red suit honors were split among your opponents, then neither could hold three clubs at this end position. Even if they weren't split, if the person with both honors also held four or more clubs at the beginning, you'd still have that person squeezed. This makes this line much better than 50%.

Sometimes, when presented with a choice of two finesses, you should choose neither.

Technically, this isn't a double squeeze, in that only one person is guarding clubs. Still, it operates like a double squeeze.

Incidentally, I found this play at the table, but when I cashed the ♦ K, East's queen dropped. East also held the ♥ K and long clubs, so anything I did, short of taking the diamond finesse, would have given me the overtrick. The full deal was: West could put pressure on me by continuing diamonds at trick two. If he had, I had already decided to fly the king, to avoid losing four tricks on the hand.

What happens if, after winning the ♣ A, East exits a club? That then kills the entry for the squeeze above. Instead, you win the club return, cash the other top club, the ♦ K and run the spades. The end position is: On the last spade, if East doesn't pitch a club, you pitch the club from hand. If neither opponent pitches the ♦ K, you play the heart to the ace, hoping that one of the opponents was forced to bare the king.

This line fails whenever West has the long club and exactly one of the ♦ Q and the ♥ K, or if he holds the ♥ K and no other control. If either opponent has the ♦ Q and the ♥ K there is an automatic squeeze. If East holds the ♥ K and the long club, there is a positional squeeze.

I think this all adds up to more than 50%, but it's difficult to tell given all the different pieces of information you have so far - for instance, if East has the ♦ Q, why didn't he signal a clear encouragement? Tough to figure that kind of thing into probabilistic analysis.

What happens when West hold the ♣ A and wins the second club? Obviously, he'll want to exit in clubs or diamonds. If he exits with a diamond, you play the ♦ K, cross with the trump ten, cash the ♣ J, pitching a heart, then run your trumps. This reaches the 3-card ending noted above.

Paul Wendt has noted that the defense can break the squeeze if they hold up the ♣ A twice. This gambit gets rid of my club loser, but it fails to give me any more winners, and it keeps me from rectifying the count for the squeeze. My best bet is to try both of the red-suit finesses. If one of them is on, I've got my overtrick. If both are on, I've got two overtricks.

But why on earth would either opponent duck the club twice? I'd be dealing either with an act of either extreme cunning or extreme stupidity. Maybe my opponent is aware that both finesses are offside?

If both red honors are offside, I can only make the overtrick, double-dummy, if East is holding the ♣ A, via a strip squeeze at this end position: On the last spade, East clearly can't part with a diamond or the club ace, so he must part with a heart. Now I cross to the ♥ A and throw East in with the club.

Perhaps it is right, given that one of my defenders has brilliantly held up the ♣ A, to play for both finesses offside. Or maybe that's just what they want me to think. I would certainly start feeling quite paranoid if they ducked clubs twice.

Still, I don't anticipate too many defenders will find that defense. I know I wouldn't.

West led a low diamond, East contributed the jack, and declare won the king. As he led a low club, declarer said, "I sure hope the clubs don't split, because if they do we've missed a cold grand slam." He played the ♣ A and ♣ K, East showing out, and declarer was in a bind. No matter how he twisted, he had to give up at least two tricks.

This is a common mistake. Declarer was thinking about the contract he might have been in, rather than the contract he was in. Declarer only needs five club tricks, and a simple safety play can greatly increase his chances - all he needs to do is play the a club to the ten at the second trick. This safety play still assures you of five tricks in the club suit on any even or near-even split. The 5-1 and 6-0 splits are the problems.

Eddie Grove has suggested to me that running the ♣ 8 is an even better play. The only time it loses over my play is when East has the stiff ♣ 9. It has chances to win when West started with six clubs, or when East has any stiff jack.

But does it win when West has six clubs? It wasn't clear to me that you could successfully make if clubs split so badly, but you can.

We will play West for holding and fewer than four spades and fewer than four hearts. Trick three, we duck a spade. The defense must exit in spades, diamonds, or clubs.

We win in hand (if a club exit, win in dummy and cross with the ♦ K) cash the rest of our diamond and spade winners (pitching two clubs from dummy), then play the ♥ A and ♥ Q and run your top clubs. The position on the last club trick is: East is caught in a classic showup squeeze, forced to pitch a spade or else he will be down to a singleton heart.

By keeping the ♦ 5 in dummy, this line also works when West has four spades. Any time West has a void or singleton heart, you can take the marked finesse against East's ♥ J. If West has two or more hearts, along with six clubs and four spades, West will have at most one diamond. Once you've cashed the second diamond, this will become known to you, and you carefully watch to see if East is forced to part with the diamond guard, rather than the spade guard. A similar showup squeeze as above occurs.

But this line seems to work however I play the clubs at the second trick, so I am still not convinced, one way or the other, that playing the ten is wrong at trick two.

North's 3 NT was a matchpoint stab - a good tactical bid. Partner might be able to rattle off nine tricks when he gets in, and a slower auction might let the opponents find the right lead.

West led the ♣ 2, and declarer, Jacques Carel (wert on OKbridge) played low from dummy, and East inexplicably played the ♣ 5, letting Jacques win the ♣ 6 in hand. East's play, while bad, doesn't seem to obviously give up any tricks.

Jacques then ran six diamonds, pitching two spade and two hearts. West pitched a heart and a spade, but on the last diamond has a problem: East and Jacques both pitched spades, and West was squeezed in three suits.

If West pitched a heart, Jacques could duck a heart to West's stiff ace.

If West pitched a club, Jacques could play ace and a club, setting up the ♣ J while still holding an entry.

In reality, West pitched a spade, Jacques played the two black aces, then threw in West with a club, forcing him to give up a heart trick at the end.

What happens if East plays the ♣ 8. Does that set the contract?

This would be the end-position if East had played the ♣ 8 at the first trick. East has to keep two clubs to keep West from being squeezed. On the last diamond, East pitches a heart, Jacques pitches a spade, and West can pitch a spade. Now Jacques ducks the ♣ 10 to West's ♣ K, wins the spade or club return, cashes the other black ace and exits a low club.

So the misplay did not cost East anything.

Okay, an overtrick here isn't worth much - only 13% more. Bidding and making 3 NT was good enough to get a majority of the matchpoints. Still, the spade pitch West chose (partly because partner echoed in his spade pitches) was actually the pitch that made it easiest for Jacques to make the overtrick without risk. If West had pitched a heart, it would have required an iron will for Jacques to duck a heart. Jacques, who showed me this hand, claimed he'd figured out the position, but it's certainly better to make him work for it.

It's not clear why partner didn't bid 3 NT over 3 ♦, but here you are, playing an awkward 4 ♠ contract. To beat the field at matchpoint, you have to make one more trick than the rest of the field in notrump - that's a rather tall order.

West leads the ♣ 9, you play low from dummy and East wins the club king. To your surprise, he shifts to the ♦ 6, you play the 8, West plays the jack and you win the king.

You lead the ♠ J off dummy, which loses to West's queen, and West comes back with a diamond to East's ten and your ace. Well, that clears up that suit. You draw three rounds of trumps, showing West to have started with four trumps. You now run your diamond and spade winners, pitching hearts from dummy at this position: On the last spade, if West started with the ♥ A and four clubs, he is squeeze. Even after you pitch the ♥ K from dummy, if East started with four clubs and the AQ of hearts, he is squeezed. You also make five if clubs split 3-3, of course.

The declarer I watched play this hand found another way to make the overtrick - after drawing trumps, he led the ♥ J from hand, and West, holding ♥ A-x-x-x decided to give declarer a guess, and played low. Declarer guessed right.

This is a blind spot I personally have as a declarer - I rarely assume that my opponents will misdefend, even when the correct defense might be difficult to find. Still, this time it is wrong to play for the misdefense. It only does better when West has the ♥ A, not the queen, two or fewer clubs, and chooses to play low. In all other circumstances, the squeeze does as well or better.

Making five was worth 88.5%, making four would have been very close to 50%.

West led the ♠ 4 against this game. Declarer inexplicably played low, winning East's nine with the ace.

Declarer sees a probable three clubs, two hearts, two diamonds, and two spades. But timing is everything on this sort of hand, and of course, clubs might not behave.

Declarer started with a heart to the jack, East winning the king. East exited with the ♥ 10, won by declarer.

Declarer next attacked clubs, leading a low club to the jack, which won. Declarer continued clubs, East showing out, pitching a diamond. Unfortunate - the trick count is down to eight now.

Declarer ducked this club to West's 10, and West exited in hearts. Declarer pitched a club from dummy, winning in hand.

Here is the end position with seven tricks left to go (double dummy): Declarer led a low spade to the queen, guessing wrong, but East was endplayed. After cashing the high heart, he was forced to lead a diamond. Declarer guessed right to play the jack. Declarer then played two more rounds of diamonds, and West was pinched: A double whammy - an endplay followed by a squeeze.

Making 3 NT was worth 2.12 IMPs, but going down one would have been worth -7.84 IMPs, for close to a 10 IMP swing.

Out of the 39 tables that played this hand, 12 North/South pairs bid to 6 ♥, and of those, nine made. (Another two pairs ended up in 6 NT, making.) Six hearts is not a slam I'd want to bid.

The unfortunate pair I watched played in the more reasonable 4 ♥ contract. While dummy joined us in spectator mode, we commiserated, and one of the other spectators said, "Six hearts doesn't make without help from the defense." While most who made 6 ♥ seemed to have some defensive help, dummy and I disagreed.

Any long-time reader of these web pages will spot the ubiquitous A-J-x opposite Q-x-x combination. A good start.

Assume a trump lead. Declarer draws trumps in two rounds, and ducks the ♣ 10 to East's ace. East is stuck for a decent exit, but, in fact, his best exit is a diamond. Declarer wins dummy's jack, pitches a spade on the ♣ K, and the plays three rounds of spades, ruffing the third round, declarer runs trumps, leaving this end position at the second to last trump: West must either pitch his top spade, his top club, or unguard his ♦ K. This squeeze operates a trick early because West is guarding three suits. West can delay the squeeze one trick later by covering the ♣ 10 with the queen at trick three, but he cannot avoid being squeezed in diamonds and spades.

I have close to the values for a 2 ♠ reverse, and I don't have a problem making a natural reverse here with only four spades, but I was unhappy about the stiff ♦ K, and I prefer to have a better suit when I reverse. Several people suggest I should have called 2 NT.

When my partner finally took his 4 ♦ cue-bid (a bid I really like, given his excellent help in the other suits) I found that we had a double-stop in diamonds and had bypassed 3 NT. I figured that there was no way 5 ♣ could beat 3 NT, so I bid the slam.

West thought long and hard before he passed the 6 ♣ bid. Perhaps he could tell I was taking a shot, but I was almost sure he had the ♥ A, and probably the ♥ Q as well. How could I make this contract with the ♥ A offside?

West led a diamond, which road to my king. If I played him for the ♥ A, it was futile to try to attack hearts. I needed to pick up the spades for four tricks, plus two diamonds, a diamond ruff, and five club tricks, to make twelve. I had to get to dummy twice, once to ruff diamonds and once to finish drawing trumps. I couldn't afford to overtake the ♣ J and ruff a diamond with another club honor, so my two entries had to be in spades.

The plan was, I would lead a low spade to the 10, ruff a diamond, take the top two clubs, and lead a spade to the nine. After running the trumps and cashing the ♦ A, I would be pitched down to: There would be only two spades outstanding, and West would be marked with one of them - the queen. On the lead of the ♠ K, I'd have him. If East followed, I would overtake, dropping the ♠ Q from West. If East did not follow, I would play low on the spade, and then endplay West with a heart to his ace, forcing him to lead his last spade to my ace.

Of course, the ♠ Q was with East, so my plan fell apart immediately. East fired back a heart through my hand, and I was down three when East turned up with a stiff heart and four clubs.

Sigh. At least I was right about the ♥ A.

West found a poor low spade lead. Declarer played low, East played the queen, and declarer won in hand. Declarer drew trumps ending in hand and played the ♠ 10, ducked around. Declarer then played a club to the queen, a diamond to the ace, and a club to ace, and pitched a club on the ♠ K. Declarer ruffed a club, arriving at this position: Declarer played a diamond from his hand, and West was forced to win the queen. West was caught in a throw-in, and had to give declarer a ruff and discard in one of the black suits.

West could have avoided this endplay by dropping the ♦ Q under the ace. That was the main reason for taking the ♦ A before showing the position in the black suits.

Only six players who played 4 ♥ got a spade lead. Of those, only one player, Curt Hastings (curt), found this extra overtrick. It was worth a measly IMP, but an IMP is an IMP.

West led the ♥ 2. While tabling dummy, my partner said, "You have a right to be mad."

What he didn't know was that I was looking at nine top tricks. This being a matchpoints event, it was time to start thinking about overtricks.

East played the ♥ Q, which I ducked. East thought for a moment, then switched to the ♣ Q. I ducked again. East continued with the ♣ J, which I won. I cashed my second high club, West showing out, and ran the diamonds. West started with all three diamonds, so East had to find six pitches.

Against me, East pitched all of his hearts, perhaps playing his partner for the ♥ J (not unreasonable, given that West led a low heart, but then, why didn't East continue hearts after the first trick?)

But even if East pitches perfect, I can make the overtrick. East must hold the ♠ A and two hearts at this end-position: At this point, I lead a low spade from both hands, East's ace wins, and he must lead a heart for me to finesse.

Of course, I don't know for sure that East has the ♠ A, but when I run the diamonds, East will be forced to hold two hearts, and, if he holds the ♠ A, he with have to pitch away all of his clubs. If he doesn't hold the ♠ A, he will probably pitch away all of his spades, instead.

So when East pitches all of his club, I will play him for the ♠ A, and nail him. And if East was brilliant enough to pitch all of his clubs when he didn't hold the ♠ A, I would congratulate him on his fine defense, and move on.

In retrospect, I don't think much of my bidding. Partner might well have the ♠ A, rather than the ♠ K, and then 6 ♦ is cold. Even as it is, if West has the ♠ A, 6D is cold, making the slam close to 50%. There is even some chance that we could miss an excellent grand slam. Since partner is well shy of his opening bid, and slam is still 50%, I'd have to say I bid my hand timidly.

North's double is not to my taste. Perhaps it was made in frustration; East/West were a famous bridge father and son, and they were clobbering the talented North/South pair.

West led a low heart, ducked to his partner's queen. East, spying the potential for a club ruff in dummy, switched to a spade. West cleared away dummy's trumps, playing the ace, king, and a third trump.

Declarer played a club to the ace, a diamond to the king, and a diamond, West winning the ♦ A. West exited a heart, won in dummy. Declarer ruffed a heart, getting to this end position: Declarer led the ♣ 10, and West could either duck or be end-played. In either event, declarer got three of the last four tricks.

Making was worth 4 IMPs and down one would have been worth -1.25 IMPs, for a total swing of 5.25 IMPs.

South ended up declarer in 2 ♠ on this hand.

West led the ♥ J, which South won. Declarer then played off the top two trumps, to find the unfortunate split. Looking at five losers in the other suits, declarer needed a way to score all five of his trumps, yet he had no entry to dummy to take the marked trump finesse. East (Marc van Kreveld, who reported this hand) was confident of his trump trick.

Marc was to find that his confidence was unwarranted.

Declarer exited a heart, and the opponents led clubs. Declarer won, and exited a club. The opponents took their two clubs, then exited a diamond to declarer's ace. Declarer exited in diamonds, and the West took two more diamonds, yielding this position: West led a heart and declarer played the trump nine from dummy, pinning Marc mercilessly. If Marc pitched the club, declarer would underuff and execute a coup on the lead of the diamond. If he ruffed, either high or low, declarer would easily score the trumps in his hand.

Marc asks, "Can East and West beat the contract somehow?"

No. All declarer has to do to create this endplay is to play the ace and king of trumps plus all his side aces, then exit in any side suit. If the defenders don't take all their tricks before giving declarer a "ruff-sluff", they will let declarer pitch a loser from hand. And if they take their winners, they reach the end-position above. Since declarer can play the first five tricks in any order, it doesn't matter what is led on opening lead.

Dave Metcalf (sphinx on OKbridge and a regular face-to-face partner of mine in the early 90s) played this hand nicely to make his contract, with a little help from the bidding. As his partner, I have to admit, I passed 3 ♥ not due to any caution or wisdom on my part, but because I thought Dave had opened 1 ♦. I'm not sure what to make of Dave's 3 ♠ call - he certainly isn't ready for a 4 ♦ call if he reopens with a double, and his spade suit is pretty good. Pass is an unpleasant option, although not unreasonable.

The ♣ Q was led, and Dave won the ♣ A, cashed the ♣ K, and ruffed a club, West's jack falling. Dave led a trump to the king, which won. Crossing with the ♦ A, he led another trump, and East flew the ace, West showing out. East exited a heart, which Dave won with the ace.

It looks like Dave still had to lose a trump, a diamond and a heart, but Dave made an inspired play - he cashed the ♠ Q and the good ♣ 9, pitching hearts from dummy, then threw East in with the trump. East could cash the ♦ K, but then had to give up a trick in diamonds, allowing Dave to pitch his heart loser.

If West had been quiet on the auction, we would either have played 3 ♠, making, or 4 ♠, which would be down one when Dave took the diamond finesse. The bidding gave Dave enough information, though - West showed up with the ♥ K-J-x-x-x-x and ♣ Q-J-x, so he was quite unlikely to have the ♦ K as well. Also, East was marked with only the one heart, so it was a sure thing that he was left with only diamonds at the end when he was thrown in with a trump.

So again, let me argue passionately for passing. We often see cases where preempts and overcalls win, but we rarely comtemplate the subtle instances when they lose. Against a good player, describing your hand can be very dangerous.

I've had spectacular wins when I've failed to overcall. While it is nice to find that nine-card solid fit during the auction, it is much nicer to find it on opening lead against 3 NT. It is often nice to conceal those 6-1 and 7-1 breaks in side-suits, as well.

Opening lead: ♥ 8

I was playing 6 NT, a rather awkward slam. I won the heart with the ace and led the ♣ K, hoping to rectify the count and squeeze East in diamonds and spades. Annoyingly, West wouldn't help me; after a moment of thought, he ducked the ♣ K.

This put me in a pickle, and the line I chose at the time was basically to give up, taking my tricks and going home. I was a wimp, and got what I deserved.

There are actually a number of lines which give me a chance to make this contract.

For example, assume West has both diamond honors and at most two spades. Take the top spades, then play a diamond from hand, finessing if West doesn't split his honors. Assuming he does split the diamond honors, win in dummy, and run the hearts.

I am in this position:

On the last heart, I pitch the club Q. Assuming West had at least six clubs for his call, I know the count in that suit at the end. If he pitches down to one club, I endplay him in clubs and he is forced to lead a diamond, giving me two more tricks in the suit. If he pitches down to one diamond, I can drop his ♦ Q.

This line also works if West started with a stiff diamond honor and two or fewer spades, because East would be squeezed.

If West started with three or more spades and the ♦ Q-J, and I ascertain this somehow, there is still a squeeze on this line, but I have to be careful about him coming down to: at the end. Then when I try to endplay him in clubs, he can exit a spade. If I have reason to believe he is still holding a spade, I have to play for the diamond drop.

If West has four spades, there is a different squeeze available. After he ducks the club, I lead a low diamond to the ten. Assume that loses to East, and East continues a spade. I win, cash ♦ A-K and run the hearts.

On the last heart, we are at: I pitch the ♣ Q and West must give up in one of the black suits.

Notice how the ♣ 4 becomes a threat card once I know East has no more clubs. West's bid has given me information which I would not otherwise be able to work out.

Of course, it seems unlikely that West has both diamond honors, and even more unlikely that West has four spades. Still, this second line brings to mind other options. Notice that even though the opponents have an ace outstanding, it is safe for me to rectify the count in another suit as long, as I can lose the trick to East, because he can't lead a club back. I might be able to later squeeze him in spades and diamonds.

Clearly, I need to lose a spade trick to East, because losing a diamond trick to him gives up my diamond threat. If he holds the ♠ Q-J-10, all I need to do is lead a low spade to the nine. His best exit is a diamond at this point - if he exits in a major suit, for instance, I don't even need East to hold the diamond guard. Instead, I execute a double squeeze.

I win his return, and cash the two top spades. Now I cross to the ♦ K and run the hearts, pitching clubs from my hand. When the last heart is played, the position is: East must pitch a diamond, or I score my ♠ 5. I pitch my spade, and West must pitch a diamond or I score the ♣ 4.

What if I play ♠ A then a low spade, to protect against a stiff queen, jack, or ten in West's hand? That seems to cause entry problems if South exits a high diamond. I win the diamond in dummy and run the hearts, to this four-card end position: On the last heart, I need to guess what shape East has pitched down to. East might fool me by pitching down to: and yielding the ♠ J on the last heart.

So are there any other options? What about a squeeze without rectifying the count? Assume East is guarding both diamonds and spades. After West ducks the club, I simply cross to the ♦ K and run the hearts: On the last heart, if East pitches a diamond, I get another diamond, and if East pitches a spade, I pitch a diamond, and play three rounds of spades, setting up the fourth. When East is in, he has to lead a diamond to the ace and my good spade is my twelfth trick. A good East will put me to a guess at the end. For example, he might unguard the spades, pitching down to three early, and then, on the last heart, pitch the ♦ J from:

But if West can find the club duck and East can find such a deceptive sequence of pitches, perhaps I should concede the hand to their superior skill.

For a hand I gave up on, there certainly were quite a few options.

West leads his stiff diamond.

Declarer unblocks the diamonds, then plays a spade to the jack, which wins. Declarer finishes off the diamonds, pitching two hearts from hand, then runs the clubs. On the last club, West is squeezed in spades and hearts: If West pitches the ♥ Q, South leads the ♥ K and West must lead away from the ♠ K. If West pitches a spade, declarer gets two spade tricks.

Of course, declarer has to read the end position properly, but at least he has a sporting chance. This contract is much harder to make without the double, so East might be inclined to call it a "shut-up squeeze."

West leads a heart to East's king and your ace. You have gotten to a satisfying slam. You have 12 top tricks, can you find a way to take the 13th?

At first, you might think to try to ruff good the spades. Play ♠ A, ruff a spade, ruff a heart, ruff a spade, then take the ♦ A-Q If spades are splitting 4-3 and diamonds 2-1, you make an overtrick.

There is a slight risk in this line. If spades are 4-3 and diamonds a 3-0 with the long diamond in the hand with the three-card spade suit, you may never be able to cash your second top spade without someone ruffing. This is only a slight risk, because East would have to be void in clubs to hold three spades and three diamonds. Wouldn't West lead the ♣ A if he had seven of them, looking for partner's ruff? West might be hold three spades and three diamonds, but that would have East opening with three spades also.

But why take the risk? There is a squeeze option on this hand. Indeed, as the cards lie, it is the only way to make the overtrick. If West has five or more spades and the ♣ A, as he has here, you can squeeze him on the run of the red suit winners.

I did not see the squeeze on this hand, even though I was kibbitzing double dummy. Someone had to point it out to me. This was a pattern recognition problem. If South had held a doubleton spade and the stiff ♣ K, I certainly would have seen it, but for some reason I did not see the king as a threat card in the K-7 holding.

East makes things only slightly more difficult for you if he ducks the heart. Then you have to ruff a heart before you draw trumps. This can be done at no risk, however.

The East/West pair were clearly having some fun in this auction.

West, perhaps thinking his partner's double was lead directional, led the ♠ 2. What do you do?

If you guess spades, then you appear to have thirteen tricks - eight spades, two clubs and three diamonds. But wait, the spade lead has killed your only entry to the ♦ K. How are you going to work your way around that?

If East has the ♣ Q, you can try a position squeeze against him in hearts and clubs, but it fails because there is no way to get off dummy in clubs.

Perhaps a double squeeze? The position is wrong for that, unless East has all the hearts and your small hearts in dummy are a threat. You run the spades, pitching six hearts and a club at this position: Crossing to the ♦ A, you cash two clubs, pitching a heart and... As you can see, you have to decide before East does on the second club, so this squeeze fails.

Is there another line? Even if East does have the ♣ Q, you can't squeeze him because the entry position is all wrong.

Well, what if East alone was guarding the diamonds - either holding J-10-9-8 or six of them? That wouldn't be inconsistent, on the bidding. Then on the run of the spades, you pitch five hearts and two spades to reach this end position: You cross to the ♦ A and play the top clubs, and East is caught in a heart-diamond squeeze - he must keep the ♥ A, but he also has to hold the top diamonds, or else you can overtake the ♦ Q.

Now admit it, this would have been easier to find if you had held ♦ A-8 in your hand...

If you think it is more likely that West has ♦ J-10-9-8 or six of them, you are able to squeeze him in diamonds and clubs, but you have to decide which as early as possible, and it seems more likely that East is holding the diamond guard.

Your partner leads the ♣ 10. How do you plan your defense?

Attacking hearts is probably futile; partner is likely to be void.

Perhaps partner led from ♣ Q-10-9-x-x and a side ace? That's a pipe-dream, of course, but certainly one worth playing for at imps.

Since this is matchpoints, perhaps you should worry about overtricks. Assuming declarer has the last three hearts, there is a danger of declarer squeezing you in hearts and diamonds.

So you win the ♣ A (so partner doesn't get deceived about the suit) and cash the second club (declarer dropping the jack). You then lead the ♦ 10 to smother the nine in dummy. If partner has a diamond card, you might be providing the entry to his clubs, if he did lead from ♣ Q-10-9-x-x.

As it is, declare wins the ♦ Q, partner discouraging. Declarer leads the ♠ Q, and partner follows low. What now?

You should duck. The end position you should fear is: On the play of the last club, you would be squeezed.

For declarer to get to this position, he needs to somehow cash the fourth spade without using the ♥ A entry. He might be able to do that if you win the ♠ K, on this deal:

If you win the ♠ K and exit anything, partner is under pressure to do the right thing when declarer next leads the ♠ J. Partner will have to duck the jack to break up the red suit squeeze against you. Perhaps he can see that, perhaps not. In any event, if you duck the ♠ Q, you won't have to worry about it.