A Suicide Triple Squeeze on Dummy (Real Hand)
Triple squeezes are rare; suicide squeezes are rarer. A suicide triple squeeze on dummy seemed worth recording.
Kx
KQxxx
xx
Qxxx
Jxxxx Qxxxx
xx AJx
xx xx
10xxx AKx
A
xxx
AKQJxxx
Jx
Playing rubber bridge, South opened 1D and partner responded 1H. Righty overcalled 1S, and declarer finished the auction with a bid of 3NT. The opening lead, naturally enough, was a small spade.
If declarer had immediately led a heart, that would have established a heart trick and an entry to dummy's king of spades. So, the hand is cold for 10 tricks.
But declarer was made of sterner stuff. He started running diamonds, which is usually a good thing to do. I don't know when he noticed his problem or changed his mind, but after two rounds of diamonds he was committing to running most of them.
With one diamond still to be played, the situation was
K
KQ
---
Qxx
---
xxx
x
Jx
Declarer of course played the last diamond, triple-squeezing the dummy. Dummy could pitch the good king of spades, making the defenses spades good, a heart so that there was no protection in hearts, or a club, so that there was no protection in clubs.
The defenders are also being squeezed out of cards they would like to save. To set this contract, both defenders have to realize that declarer has no spade entry to the spade winner and that declarer is running a suicide triple squeeze on dummy. That's a lot to ask for, though not an impossible conclusion. The defense should come down to:
K
KQ
---
Qxx
Jx x
-- AJ
--- ---
10xxx AKx
---
xxx
x
Jx
There would have been no defense against a heart pitch from dummy. Declarer in fact pitched a club, so Righty had only to save his small club. Unfortunately he did not.
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