Goren Bridge: Unusual ‘double’ squeeze

Goren Bridge by Bob Jones

Today’s deal features a rare situation where the defenders first squeeze declarer out of a needed trick, and the declarer later turns the tables on the defense, squeezing them to get his trick back.

West led his fourth best club and followed with four more club tricks. South could safely discard a low spade on the fourth club, but what should he discard on the fifth club? A low heart, leaving himself with a singleton king, was a possible choice.

It would leave him with seven winners if the defenders did not shift to hearts, but it was also dangerous. South decided to discard the eight of diamonds. West shifted to the 10 of diamonds, and South cashed diamonds, leaving this position (far right) with one diamond remaining.

West had to discard a spade on the jack of diamonds or South could lead a low heart to West’s singleton ace and set up his king. Dummy shed a heart, but what could East do? East could not discard a spade also, so he parted with the jack of hearts. Declarer led a low spade to dummy’s ace and a heart back to the queen, king, and ace. The nine of hearts was now his seventh trick. A nice deal.