Wednesday, February 4, 2026

A nice Double Squeeze

This hand came across on IntoBridge recently. How do you plan to make the contract?

After the spade lead, you count 10 top tricks. One more is certain in diamonds. Your first look should be if there is a finesse for two more tricks. The only one you find is in diamonds, playing small from the table towards the hand, hoping that East has the K. Unfortunately, he hasn't.

Okay, then your next best chance is to check the diamonds for a 3-3 drop. They don't. Along the way, you learn that West has the remaining diamond.

This should ring the bell to see, if there isn't a squeeze against West, who might have to hold a diamond and discard something else instead, either clubs or hearts, at the time you cash your last spade. But that would imply that West has to cover one of the suits completely, and you have to guess which one. if it was clubs, you'd have to cash all tricks keeping 53 and ♣K6. If West keeps his diamond, he can have only three clubs left, and your clubs are high.

But this is really to much to expect. Instead, we can should select the hearts to squeeze both opponents. So we cash three top tricks in clubs and three spades, ending in this position.

When we play A now, we know that West must keep the 9 and consequently has only two hearts left. We discard the 5. East must have the ♣B now and thus can keep only two hearts too. Your hearts are good now.

♠  -     -     -   ♣  



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High there! Looking forward to hear from you.