[JLOGIC]

I'm not very good with the harder squeezes but this one coulda been from a textbook.

T987xx
J9x
Txxx
---

KJx
AKx
AKJ8
Kxx

You open 2C, LHO doubles, and you end in 4S from the strong side after a transfer. They lead a low diamond and you win the ten, lead the ST RHO winning and you unblock the jack just as a matter of technique. RHO returns a heart, you win and ruff a club and play the S9 and it goes Q K small. You cash the DA and they are 3-2. How do you finish the play?

The position you want to reach is this

x
J9
x
---

--
K
J
Kx

When you cash the DJ, LHO must either pitch a heart in which cash the HK dropping his queen, or stiff his club ace in which case you ruff a club and lead a heart. So run your trumps except for 1 discarding a heart, and then lead a diamond to the king. Note that your nothing play of unblocking the SJ was necessary for this.

[Hanoi5]

Is that a trump criss-cross squeeze?

[gwnn]

Nice one. I would definitely find this one at the table, too bad that squeezes never come up in the boards I play.

Spoiler

the second sentence is sarcastic. please read it accordingly.

[bluecalm]

This ending is similar to standard criss-cross squeeze:
--
J9
x
A

--
K
J
Qx

But this time instead of A♣ we have a small trump in dummy which plays the same role as A♣ on this layout.

[bluecalm]

Quote

Nice one. I would definitely find this one at the table, too bad that squeezes never come up in the boards I play.

Haha yeah... I was quite surprised recently after going through all bm2000 hands that those squeezes started to appear in real life too!

[JLOGIC]

bluecalm, on 2012-February-06, 09:04, said:

This ending is similar to standard criss-cross squeeze:
--
J9
x
A

--
K
J
Qx

But this time instead of A♣ we have a small trump in dummy which plays the same role as A♣ on this layout.

Yes I believe it's a criss cross trump squeeze as hanoi said.

[billw55]

How cool.

All that work for an extra overtrick .. must have been matchpoints. For a better story, fudge the bidding to be in 6

[phil_20686]

This is just an ordinary trump squeeze. Since the trump is always in the opposite hand from the long menace, you always need a re-entry so the other menace is always blocked. This is called the Simple Trump Squeeze, or the Simple Ruffing Squeeze, or more normally just "a trump squeeze".

I recommend Kelsey on Squeeze Play, I found it readable and instructuve, and its really four books in one, his books on single, double, triple and strip squeezes all rolled into one 400 page monster.

For harder squeezes from real play its hard to beat bridge with the blue team. About a third of the declarer play hands have some form of ruffing squeeze. They are actually surprisingly common, its just seldom you have reason to play for a ruffing squeeze rather than just "set the suit up" or "ruff down Qxx".

[paulg]

My wife, who does not play much, thinks this squeeze is passé now - http://thebeercard.b...d-in-rough.html. I'm always impressed by them though.

[JLOGIC]

Hmm I always thought a trump squeeze was like the first example in this one:

http://en.wikipedia....i/Trump_squeeze

but you are right, the second example is exactly like this position. I guess they are really the same position at their core. Thanks.

[BunnyGo]

As people have noted (and phil correctly corrected) this feels like it should be called a criss-cross trump squeeze. All (basic) trump squeezes are necessarily similar in feel to criss-cross squeezes because of the nature of using the last trump as either a possible entry or used to ruff out a winner.

Thanks for the hand Justin, very cool; I've never found one at the table myself.

[Phil]

Other Phil is right - just a vanilla trump squeeze. Cool hand though - did you find the play at the table?

[JLOGIC]

My last trump squeeze thread was a much better hand.

http://www.bridgebas...__1#entry441702

Although somehow half the hand seems gone now? Lol.

In that hand you could play for the trump squeeze and be 100 % to make it but you'd have to guess the shape very well. That is usually the problem with trump squeezes, you always have to guess the shape. Like in this hand in the end game I had to guess whether to ruff a club or cash the heart at the end.

[JLOGIC]

Phil, on 2012-February-06, 09:48, said:

Other Phil is right - just a vanilla trump squeeze. Cool hand though - did you find the play at the table?

Obv. Amusing anecdote, it was the towards the end of the swiss and we wanted to play quickly and leave to watch the superbowl. I tanked for like ~45 seconds at the point I posted this hand so trick 6 or w/e, and announced "oh sorry, this took me a long time to figure out" and my partner (dummy), said "yes it did." Who was my partner who had figured out this hand without even knowing my cards before I had? None other than the great Bob Hamman.

[billw55]

JLOGIC, on 2012-February-06, 09:54, said:

it was the towards the end of the swiss

Sorry, I gotta ask. Did you gain an IMP or did ops also find this at the other table?