Lucky Break

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...