Solution to quiz 1.4. The "Show Up Squeeze"

P1.1 MP VUL= N/S	♠ K 3 ♥ T 7 ♦ A K T 9 2 ♣ Q J 8 6		WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH 1 ♣ Pass 1 ♠ Pass 4 ♠ Pass 4 NT Pass 5 ♣ Pass 5 ♦ Pass 5 ♥ Pass 6 ♠ Pass Pass Pass
Lead ♣K	♠ Q ♥AKQ9862 ♦ J 8 5 ♣ 9 2

Opening Lead ♣K, East plays the ♣7. Opponents playing standard count and attitude Five hearts looks hopeless. West can cash 2♣’s, and they will win the ♠A, plus you have a possible ♦ loser. Even though the contract looks hopeless, you have one small chance. What if West has a long ♣ suit and the ♣7 was a singleton? In this case, West with ♣A-K-T sixth will have to decide which of you have a singleton and which a doubleton ♣. West might be afraid to try and cash a second ♣, since the ♣ Q-J in dummy might provide you with two pitches for potential two ♠ losers. But, be careful. If you play the ♣3 at trick one, and EW are playing normal signals, West will know you still have the ♣9. So you have to false-card at trick one with the ♣ 9.

West thinks awhile but ends up leading the ♠9 to ♠3-A-Q. You hold you breath, but to you delight, East returns ♠J as you discard ♣ 9. One loser has evaporated, examine BLUE and figure out which threats and entries you have.

This is a nice feature of squeezes.... You have 10 tricks (7♥+1♠+2♦) so loser count is right. One threat card is the ♣ Q, the other is the ♦J or ♦T. If West has the diamond queen, he will be squeezed in two suits, with the primary entry being the diamond ACE (or king). So Both is right, and entry is right.

But why worry about squeeze when you can finesse? The answer is this. If west has three small diamond and EAST has doubleton queen... look what happens...

Q1.4.1	♠ ♥ ♦ A K T ♣ Q
♠ ♥ ♦ 9 7 6 ♣ A		♠ J T ♥ ♦ Q 5 ♣
	♠ ♥ A ♦ J 8 5 ♣

you cash the last heart, WEST has to keep the club ACE, so dummy can throw away the club queen after WEST's diamond discard. Now you lead a diamond and you don't hook, becasue if WEST has the diamond Queen it is going to fall down. So this is a bonus squeeze. If the finesse is working so is the squeeze, but if the finesse is losing, the bonus is you might drop the doubleton queen off-side. This squeeze is often called a "show-up squeeze".