Two Suited Guard Squeeze

The Two-Suited Guard Squeeze

Club game, October 29, 2008. Declarer played 4 spades with a diamond lead. Matchpoints, so you would like to make as many tricks as possible. Or you can imagine that the contract is 6 spades.

       Jxxx 
       Axxx 
       x 
       Axxx 

x               Kxx 
Q10             Kxxx 
QJ10xxx         xxx 
9xxx            QJ10 

       AQ10xx 
       Jxx 
       AKx 
       Kx

Declarer won the diamond in hand, ruffed a diamond, took the spade finesse, and drew trump. He then attempted desultorily to get an extra trick, without success, for making 5. Nothing more would have come of it except declarer asked if there was a way to make six.

There is a club threat against LHO. And both defenders can stop the threat in hearts. So it seems that there are not enough threats to have a squeeze.

But when declarer runs all of the spades, Lefty has to throw diamonds, leading to this position when declarer cashes his last diamond winner:

       --- 
       Ax 
       --- 
       Axxx 

---             ---
Q10             Kxx 
---             ---
9xxx            QJ10 

       --- 
       Jxx 
       A 
       Kx

If Lefty throws a club, the long club can be established. If Lefty pitches a heart, the jack of hearts can be established by leading to the ace and then back towards the jack.

The most distinctive feature of this squeeze is that there doesn't seem to be enough threats to even have a squeeze.

Terminology

Despite the many differences from a traditional guard squeeze, this is a guard squeeze. Lefty was forced to pitch the heart that was protecting Lefty from a heart finesse. This is called the "delayed duck guard squeeze" in my article to appear in Bridge World, but I will call it the two-suited guard squeeze. This is because, unlike the traditional guard squeeze, there are threats in only two suits.

Loser Count

In the traditional guard squeeze, the loser count is 1; when the squeeze succeeds, no more tricks are lost. In the two-suited guard squeeze, the loser count is two and when the squeeze succeeds, one more trick is lost.

Next: Structure of the two-suited guard squeeze