The "Winner" Squeezes: Introduction
I have not seen any book which discusses or analyzes the winner squeeze. Perhaps that is because it often naturally runs itself. Nonetheless, it seems to be the most common type of squeeze occurring at the bridge table.
Definition
In almost all squeezes, when they work, the opponent pitches a card in a suit promoting a card you hold in that suit. Your card was not high enough to win a trick by brute force.
In what I will call the winner squeezes, you have a card that can be promoted to a winner without any discards by the opponents. The problem is that if you knock out the stopper (or stoppers) needed to win this trick, the opponents will first cash enough winners that you will not be able to enjoy the winner you have established.
The Winner Squeeze forces the opponent to discard enough winners that you can enjoy the trick you set up. (Or, instead of winners, the opponent discards potential winners or a loser corresponding to the other opponent's winners.)
The Winner Squeeze
Consider this situation, which is not a winner squeeze, to appreciate the structure.
xxx
KQx
xxx
xxxx
KQJ1098 xx
Axx xxxx
AKQ xxxx
x xxx
Ax
xxx
xxx
AKQJ10
Lefty leads a spade against the contract of 1NT. You have six tricks and would like a seventh. However, if you lead a heart, Lefty cashes 9 tricks and you are down two. On the run of the clubs, Lefty can first pitch losers, then eventually has to pitch winners. So you are squeezing out winners.
However, Lefty can keep all winners. So when you are done with clubs and lead a heart, Lefty wins the rest of the tricks. There is no gain from your so-called squeeze.
To gain a trick by creating winners, there has to also be a threat against Lefty in a suit you have first-round control in. Consider this situation, which is a winner squeeze.
xxx
KQx
xxx
xxxx
KQJ10987 xx
Ax xxxx
J1098 xx
-- QJ109x
A
J109x
AKQx
AKxx
Again Lefty leads a spade. Again Lefty has more than enough winners to set 1NT once given the lead. But the second club forces Lefty to discard a winner, because Lefty cannot afford to throw a diamond. Now you have gained a trick. You can lead a heart. Lefty will cash a lot of winners, but eventually you will get your diamond tricks and a heart trick.
In this example, Lefty cannot reduce his hand to just winners. In essence, Lefty has to save a losing diamond. It would not be a losing diamond if 4 rounds of the suit were played. But no one is going to play four rounds. (You are going to throw your losing diamond on one of Lefty's winning spades.) This has created a "space" for your heart winner.
The squeeze works even if Lefty is sitting behind both threats.
xxx
xxx
xxx
xxxx
KQJ10987 xx
Ax J109x
J1098 xx
-- QJ109x
A
KQxx
AKQx
AKxx
Features of the Winner Squeeze
The defining feature of the Winner squeeze is that there is a suit in which you can set up winners except the opponents will make their tricks first. The squeeze functions only to stop the opponents from cashing so many tricks that you cannot enjoy the winner you set up.
In other words, in the normal squeeze, the opponent pitches a spade creating a spade trick for you. In the winner squeeze, the opponent pitches a spade creating a heart trick for you. (Or whatever the suits are.)
All four suits are involved, and each suit plays a distinctive role. First, there is the suit in which you have the squeeze card (clubs in the above example). Second, there is the suit in which Lefty (or whoever the squeeze is against) has winners. That was spades in the above example. Third, there is a suit in which you have a threat and Lefty has to guard the threat, forcing Lefty to save a loser instead of a winner (diamonds in the above example). Finally, there is a suit which you can set up tricks by knocking out controls (hearts in the above example).
The winner squeeze always gains one trick.
A Typology of Squeezes
Again, in almost all squeezes, you create a trick out of a card that was not high enough by itself to be a winner. In endplays, you create a trick out of a card that was not high enough to be a winner by itself, and for which a finesse would have lost.
The winner squeeze falls into a very small third category. To be sure, a normal squeeze can squeeze a lot of winners out of an opponent's hand, as can the squeeze and endplay. Despite the name I chose, the "winner" squeeze, squeezing out winners is not the distinctive feature. The distinctive feature is setting up a trick in a suit where you lack only time/space to establish a winner.
The only other member of this third type of squeeze which I can think of is the stepping-stone squeeze (see comments), in which you have the winners and are using the squeeze to create the communication needed to cash the winners.
Next: Loser Count
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