CONTRACT BRIDGE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 124, 27 May 1932, Page 6

CONTRACT BRIDGE.

WINNING BY FORCE. (By ELY CULBERTSON.) .Squeeze plays, or rather the opportunity for squeeze plays, occur frequently at the bridge table. There is scarcely a session of bridge of three or four hours' duration in which through the use of a squeeze a contract otherwise unobtainable could not have been made. The squeeze play, as the term is used in bridge, defines the forcing of the discard of a winning card by one or both opponents. Sometimes the situation arises in which winning cards can be forced out of both adverse hands. At other times it is only necessary to apply the pressure against one adversary. Such plays as these occur, of course, through the running of a long suit, generally the trump suit, if there is a trump, or an established suit at no trump. It is conservative to say that half of the time, even among the stronger Contract players, the opportunity to use this play occurs more than twice as frequently as does the recognition of the fact by players. The squeeze situation generally must be recognised long in advance of the actual play itself and the groundwork properly laid for its application.

To-day's hand aptly illustrates, a simple pressure whereby, through discarding, the opponents were rendered helpless and forced to concede to the declarer a contract that on its face might appear unmakable.

East and West vulnerable. North and South not vulnerable. South Dealer. A-A J 4 3 V—9 7 6 2 ♦-3 *—A 85 2 A—K QB7 5 2 n *—9 6 $-5 3 WE V—K QJIO 8 ❖—A 6 S ♦—« 7 |_K 7 6 - *-J 10 4 3 A-10 V—A 4 ♦—K QJIO9 54 2 *— Q 9 The Bidding. (The figures after bids in table refer to numbered explanatory paragraphs.) South West North East 5 4 (1) Pass Pass Pass

I.—With Diamonds as trump South's hand contains eight playing tricks. Against an adverse declaration it might not produce more than one. The hand, therefore, is an ideal preemptive hid. As North and South are not vulnerable, the set cannot be more than three tricks, even although North's hand was an absolute blank. The weakness in Spades and Hearts both suggest the probability of an adverse game if South is to suffer this maximum penalty. The bid is therefore both ■sound and accurate.

West gazed regretfully at his six-card Spade suit and outside honour strength, but the dangers of over-bidding were too real to be ignored. North, of course, was not tempted by his two aces to raise tie bid to an unmakable slam, and East's hand was far from warranting any bidding whatever.

In the play West opened with the Spade King. This was won by the Aco in dummy, and the Diamond led. West was in the lead and in considerable difficulty as to the selection of a continuation. Another lead of Spades was dangerous and might prove fatal. To lead the Clubs would provide South with a ready-made finesse. The Diamond return seemed pointless, and so West selected what was probably his best lead, .namely, a Heart. This South won with the Ace, and then proceeded to play seven rounds of Diamonds. Both East and West followed once, but then each was forced to seek discards. West parted with four Spades, his remaining Heart and one Club. East gave up one Spade, three Hearts and two Clubs, The dummy had discarded three Hearts, two Spades and two Clubs. West, with the menace of the Spade Knave, with the Club Ace as an entry, had been compelled to retain the Spade Queen. On the eleventh round of play the four hands were as follow: A—J y—None 4. —None *—A 8 A-Q I N A-None y_None w E V—Q A—None e ♦—None J_K 7 I A-J 10 rffc—None ¥-4 4 —None A—Q 9 South played the Heart 4. West was squeezed. North discarded after him, so he was compelled to unguard the Club King. North now discarded the Spade Knave and East won with the Heart Queen, and was compelled to lead a Club. South played the 10 and West's now unguarded King fell" to dummy's Ace, and the game-making trick was made with the Club Queen. Thus, through the application of the squeeze, a game was made that less accurate play would have sacrificed on the altar of -what might have been.