Interesting Stuff

Jim and I played bridge today for what I fear is the last time in the foreseeable future, since I’m moving in a week. We got last place out of 12 partnerships with a 40% game, but I’m marking this one as a win. I finally understand what an uppercut is, and although I didn’t perform one, I found one in the postmortem. But the thing that truly sets tonight apart is that on the first hand of the night, I got a double squeeze!! These are quite rare; I don’t expect to get more than one per year. Seeing it, executing it correctly, and having it work was absolutely thrilling, and it rattled our opponents to the core.

(hands rotated)

Jim’s 2C showed a very strong hand (21+ HCP). My 2S showed one ace and one king (we use the control-showing step response). The rest of the bidding was natural.

I forget LHO’s lead, but it was something like the two of clubs. When RHO played the Queen, I took my King and crossed to the Ace of diamonds. I then lead a low diamond to my Jack, which was taken by LHO’s Queen. She then returned a diamond to my King. I cashed the Ace-Jack of clubs (noting RHO’s discard) and the King-Ace of spades (noting LHO’s drop of the Queen). Finally, I ran the rest of the diamonds. Here’s what remained just before I cashed my last diamond:

        Dummy:
        S: -
        H: AK106
        D: -
        C: -
LHO:                RHO:
S: -                S: J
H: Q75              H: J98
D: -                D: -
C: 10               C: -
        Me:
        S: 6
        H: 3
        D: 7
        C: 9

When I lead my last diamond, both LHO and RHO needed to discard (since they had no diamonds left), and they were each squeezed. If LHO discarded her club, I would have the 4 remaining tricks: the diamond, my now-high club, and the two high hearts. To avoid this, LHO therefore discarded a heart. I played the 6 of hearts from Dummy. Now RHO had the same scenario—if she discarded her spade, I would have the last 4 tricks (the diamond, my now-high spade, and the top two hearts). She therefore discarded a heart as well. I then ran the hearts from the top. Since each opponent only had two hearts left, both the Queen and the Jack dropped under the King of hearts (this was incredible to watch), and Dummy’s 10 was good!

Clyde E. Love would categorize this as a Type “R” Double Squeeze: it’s a double squeeze because I squeezed two opponents into giving me a single trick, and it’s type “R” because the hand with the Squeeze Card (the 7 of diamonds) also held the Right-Hand Threat (the 6 of spades).

Our opponents went nuts, telling each other that they should have kept the hearts. I went nuts, telling Jim that it was a double squeeze. He was quite impressed, and congratulated me. I then settled our opponents’ argument by explaining that the contract was cold (though in hindsight, a heart lead or heart return would have set it), and that if either of them had kept their hearts, I would have gotten an extra trick in either spades or clubs. Needless to say, they were quite unsettled.

This was a top board for us; some people made 12 tricks in notrump but only bid 3NT, some people bid the slam and went down, but we were the only pair to bid and make 6NT. It was a wonderful way to end the bridge summer.