The Squeeze
More than any of the other advanced plays, the squeeze has an aura of mystery. New players are more inclined to believe that squeezes are most definitely the exclusive province of the experts. A squeeze is a play in which an opponent is forced to discard in such a way that no matter what he does, it is to his disadvantage. Look at this game (these hands are after many tricks have been played) to see how the squeeze works.
South, who has the lead, must take all the tricks. It looks as though that is impossible. Either of West's spade honors will knock out dummy's ace, and if the declarer plays the ♠ J, West will win and her ♥ A will also be good.
Look what happens, though, if South plays the ♦ A. What is West to do? She has no diamonds, so she must make a discard. No matter what West plays on the ♦ A, she is ruined. If she pitches the ♥ A, dummy's king will be good and the declarer can throw away the ♠ J. If West discards one of her spade honors, dummy's ♠ J will be good. South needs only to toss the ♥ K from dummy and play a spade to take the last two tricks.
In bridge parlance, West was “squeezed” on the play of the ♦ A. If South had not had a winner to play, there would have been no squeeze.
The squeeze in bridge gets its name from the baseball play. Bridge great Sidney Lenz coined the phrase after noticing a squeeze at work during play. He later analyzed the play and created the name. Prior to Lenz's naming the squeeze, it was referred to as “putting the opponent to the discard.”
Squeezes are so exciting and interesting that the first time you execute one, even if it's not on purpose, you might start looking for squeezes on every hand. That would be a mistake and a distraction for you and your partner.
Squeeze Requirements
There are certain conditions that must be met before a squeeze will work. First of all, you must be within one trick of your target. A squeeze won't produce two extra tricks. Let's look at that end position again with a slight change.
Look what happens now when South plays the ♦ A. West simply discards the ♣ 8, retaining his good spade cards and the ♥ A. Whatever South does, she will win only one more trick, and she needs three. The ♣ 8 in West's hand is known as an “idle” card. It is not needed by the defender. In the earlier diagram, West had no idle cards. He needed all three of the cards he had left to guard against North's spades and ♥ K.
Another requirement for a squeeze to operate is a “threat” card. In the first diagram, North had two threat cards — the ♥ K and the ♠ J. They were threatening to become winners because of the pressure put on West.
Whenever you have a long suit to run but are one trick short of your contract, it can pay off to run that suit and force the opponents to make discards. Even when a squeeze is not actually in effect, the opponents may err in the discarding, effecting what is known as a “pseudo-squeeze,” one that exists only in their minds. Making a contract on a pseudo-squeeze gets the same score as a real squeeze.
The truth is that many squeezes operate without the declarer's knowledge, and in many cases all you really have to do is look for a particular card as you run a long suit. Here's an example.
You find yourself in the great contract of 7NT. The opening lead is a low club (let's say East got to double for the lead at some point). East inserts the 9 and you win your singleton ♣ A.
Count Your Tricks
Taking stock, you have one club trick, six diamonds, three spades, and two hearts off the top. That's twelve tricks, but you need thirteen. What can you do? First, look over your assets and see if there are any potential sources of extra tricks.
You've got six tricks in diamonds but no more. No hope there. The club suit is hopeless. The ace is gone, and East is ready to pounce with that king. So what about the majors? There are definite possibilities.
You have the AKQ in your hand and four to the 10 in dummy. If you play out the top spades in your hand, maybe one of the opponents will have a singleton or doubleton jack — or maybe the suit will divide 3-3, in which case the jack will fall for sure.
There's also the remote possibility that the ♥ Q is all by itself and will fall the first time you play the suit. Since you have two stoppers in hearts, you go ahead and try that one. It doesn't cost but it might gain. You play the ♥ 2 from hand and West contributes the 9. Dummy's ace fetches the ♥ 4 from East, so that remote chance didn't work.
So you go back to spades, hoping for something good to happen there with the jack. That is much more likely than the singleton ♥ Q, but on this day you are disappointed. Both opponents follow to the top two spades, but when you pay the ♠ Q, East discards. Now what?
Well, your only hope at this point is to catch West in a squeeze between hearts and spades. You must hope that West, known to hold the ♠ J, also has the ♥ Q. You have no choice but to run your diamond winners and watch for that ♠ J. It's that simple. You cash five diamond winners, discarding a heart and the useless ♣ Q, to reach this position with one diamond to play.
When you play the winning diamond, West must make a fatal discard. Pitching the ♠ J means dummy's 10 is good, and discarding a heart means you can play low from your hand, taking the queen with the king, and returning to the ♥ J, your thirteenth trick.
