Canada is king! The bridge exhibition at the Salt Lake Winter Olympics was won by the Canadian national team: Keith Balcombe, Gordon Campbell, Nick Gartaganis, Fred Gitelman, Peter Jones and Joe Silver. Many saw this as an upset, but with bridge now a winter sport (ha-ha) I guess it’s no surprise that our northern neighbor surged to the fore.
This deal from the round-robin stage caught my fancy. It was played eight times, but only three teams (including Canada) reached the laydown slam. One team stretched to a grand slam (down one) and four teams stopped in game. The bidding shown is a Standard American auction to 6 , though 6 NT would be a better contract.
What interested me about this deal was the play; or more precisely, its application to squeeze-play theory. After a diamond lead, can declarer win all 13 tricks? With the K offside, the obvious answer is no; but a closer look reveals a potential double squeeze: West guards diamonds, East guards spades, and together they guard hearts. Alas, the traditional squeeze fails because dummy is squeezed first.
But wait! The presence of the 6 as an alternate threat (instead of the Q) brings the squeeze back to life. I’ll leave it you as an exercise. Make 7 (or 7 NT) after a diamond lead against any defense. (An original major-suit lead breaks up the squeeze.)
© 2002 Richard Pavlicek
by Richard Pavlicek by Richard Pavlicek