Column 7B26 (10-21-84) by Richard Pavlicek

The Compound Squeeze — a Rare Breed

The top three finishers were: 1. Helen Shanbrom, Emily Nevins; 2. Gracie Gabbai, Fred McBride; 3. Jackie Molovinsky, Evelyn Patten.

Some of the deals were quite challenging, including this gem from the second session. Several pairs went for all the marbles by bidding seven notrump — not unreasonable with the North cards after partner has opened the bidding.

7 NT by South

Both Vul	A 5 2 9 A K Q J 5 A K 9 4
J 7 4 3 8 3 10 7 2 10 8 6 3		Q 8 6 Q 10 6 2 6 4 3 Q 7 2
Lead: 3	K 10 9 A K J 7 5 4 9 8 J 5

West Pass Pass Pass

North 2 3 7 NT

East Pass Pass Pass All Pass

South 1 2 3 NT

West chose to lead a club, taken by dummy’s king, and declarer had little choice but to try the heart finesse. When this held, South had 12 sure tricks (assuming the diamonds ran); but where would the 13th trick come from? With hearts splitting four-two, the contract seems hopeless.

Enter, the compound squeeze! To facilitate following the play, readers may wish to lay out the diagram with a deck of playing cards.

After finessing the heart jack, South cashes the heart king to discard a club from dummy. The diamond suit is then run, South throwing two hearts and a spade. East is caught in a triple squeeze and must find two discards — the best he can do is discard two spades (other variations are left for the reader to solve).

The spade ace is then cashed, followed by a spade to the king, and East is squeezed again (poor guy). East can postpone the denouement by discarding a club, but now it is West’s turn to get crunched. The heart ace neatly squeezes West in the black suits and the optimistic contract is made.