Tales from the Tables: I'm Squeezed!

Board 18 from the Saturday morning Bracketed Pairs in Warwick featured a battle between the spade and diamond bidders, with the diamonds bidders coming out with a top when 5D was reached from the South after a double by North. With West on lead, the defense could not attack the spades and the heart suit provided the needed discard.

When this board was played in a class at the Madison Senior Center in Madison, CT, things took a rather different turn, providing a great opportunity for a lesson on the meaning of notrump overcalls. But North at Table 3 was unfazed by landing in the seemingly doomed 3NT. Midway through the play, West was heard squealing "I'm being squeezed!" and indeed that was the case.  Try it yourself. Even on the seemingly fatal lead of a spade, West is helpless on the run of the diamonds. To stop the round suits, West must eventually part with a spade and declarer can then establish the 9th trick. It was the first time any of them had seen a squeeze, let alone a triple squeeze (a squeeze on which a single defender protects three suits and must ultimately surrender one or more tricks). For those who would like to improve their squeeze play, we're planning a series on squeezes in The Kibitzer down the road.