Puzzle 7E75 Main

No Squeeze

by Richard Pavlicek

You may not approve of the bidding, but there you, in a grand slam with 12 tricks. Where there are 12, there are usually 13 — or so say the squeeze experts. Certainly there are excellent squeeze chances here:

	A 4 2			West	North	East	South
	A 7 5 2				1	Pass	1
	A K Q J 10			Pass	2	Pass	3
	6			Pass	3	Pass	4 NT
				Pass	5	Pass	5 NT
Lead: 9				Pass	7	Pass	7 NT
				All Pass
	K 8 7 5
	K 4 3
	4 2
7 NT South	A K Q 8

West leads the 9, and 7 NT cannot be made. The following conditions exist:

1. At least one defender has a singleton.
2. West has exactly two even spot cards.
3. The sum of West’s club spots equals the sum of East’s spade spots.

Note: Spot cards are deuce through 10

What are the East-West hands?

Solution

For starters, both majors must split 3-3. If not, declarer would have a positional major-suit threat behind at least one defender, allowing 7 NT to be made on a compound squeeze. (To understand this, see my article on Pure Squeezes.) For the same reason, East cannot hold five or more clubs. So West cannot have a club singleton; nor East a diamond singleton (East will have too many clubs); nor East a club singleton (he’ll have at most 12 cards). Therefore, the 9 lead must be the singleton, giving West 3=3=1=6 shape, and East 3=3=5=2.

If West has only one even club spot, his minimum club-spot count is 26 (J-9-7-5-3-2); whereas, East’s maximum spade-spot count is 25 (10-9-6). Therefore, West has two even club spots; and East has all the even major-suit spots ( 10-6 10-8-6). East’s third spade must be the nine, else his spade-spot count could never be great enough to equal West’s club-spot count. The only West club holding with a spot total of 25 is J-9-7-4-3-2. So the full deal must be:

7 NT South	A 4 2		Trick	Lead	2nd	3rd	4th
only layout	A 7 5 2		1. W	9
	A K Q J 10			Win 12 tricks
	6
Q J 3		10 9 6
Q J 9		10 8 6
9		8 7 6 5 3
J 9 7 4 3 2		10 5
	K 8 7 5
	K 4 3
	4 2
Down 1	A K Q 8

And as most people would surely agree: Who really cares!

Puzzle 7E75 Main

Top No Squeeze

© 1979 Richard Pavlicek