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Basic Extended Menace

Two Extended Menaces

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Two Extended Menaces (Advanced)

The situation gets more interesting when you have two extended menaces. First, I will present the boring instances. 
        A876
        K5
        --
        32
 
QJ109        --
QJ109        --
--           AKQ
--           QJ1098
 
        K5
        A876
        --
        A4
The second extended menace creates yet another busy card in LHO’s hand, which means that the squeeze works even a trick earlier than when there is one extended menace. Here, the loser count is 3, yet the squeeze works on the last free winner. Declarer cashes the ace of clubs, then sets up whatever suit lefty abandons. A trick is lost at the end. 
        A876
        K5
        --
        K2
 
QJ109        --
QJ109        --
--                AKQ
--              QJ1098
 
        K5
        A876
        --
        A4
I have added a club winner, so that there the loser count is only two. Now the squeeze works on the next to last free winner.

In the first case, there is still a loser to fight over. However, I cannot think of very many interesting ramifications. Lefty can’t be squeezed for the last trick, and by definition there are no winners in the other suits, so righty can’t be squeezed either. Once a trick is ducked to set up the extended menace and the menace is cashed, the loser count is one, so a throw-in would be useless. So the opps usually get the last trick. The only exception I can think of is when the throw in can occur when the trick is lost to set up the extended menace. For example: 

        A1076
        K5
        --
        32
 
QJ98           --
Q1098          --
--             AKQ
--             QJ1098
 
        K54
        AJ76
        --
        A
On the last club, no matter which suit LHO abandons, LHO is thrown in to establish the extended menace in that suit and to endplay LHO in the other suit.

The more interesting situation is when there is a free winner. This free winner can be used to compensate for potential problems with the extended menace squeeze. For example: 

        A876
        A432
        --
        --
 
QJ43           1098
J1075          Q98
--             KQ
--             --
 
        K5
        K6
        A
        A
I have set this up so that no simple squeeze is possible -- both lefty and righty stop both suits. However, only lefty guards the two extended menaces, so lefty is squeezed on the next-to-last minor suit minor. If declarer cashes the ace of diamonds, lefty is squeezed. But when declarer tried to lose a trick, righty can win the trick and cash a good diamond.

However, if declarer cashes the ace of clubs, then righty has no good card to set up. In this setup, so matter which suit lefty unguards, declaer will have a winner in the other suit.

Here is another one. In this case, diamonds are trump: 

        A87
        A32
        --
        --
 
J104           Q2
J107           Q5
--             --
--             KQJ10
 
        6
        6
        9
        A32
More typically, the extra winner is used for communication. In this situation: 
        A1092
        2
        --
        K2
 
J1043          Q
J107           Q
--             A
--             QJ109
 
        K6
        A109
        --
        A3
If LHO unguards spades, there is no entry to the long spade except for the king of clubs.
Return to Part 1: The Simple Extended-Menace Squeeze (Tutorial)
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