Suicide Triple Squeeze

A Suicide Triple Squeeze on Dummy (Real Hand)

Triple squeezes are rare (even if they don't repeat). Suicide squeezes are rare. A suicide triple squeeze on dummy seems worth recording.

 		 Kx
                 KQxxx
                 xx
                 Qxxx
Jxxxxx                         Qxxxx
xx                             AJx
xx                             xx
10xxx                          AKx
                 A
                 xxx
                 AKQJxxx
                 Jx

Playing rubber bridge, South opened 1D and partner responded 1H. Righty overcalled 1S, and declarer finished the auction with a bid of 3NT. The opening lead, naturally enough, was a small spade.

You will no doubt note that if declarer immediately leads a heart, establishing a heart trick and an entry to dummy's king of spades, the hand is cold for 10 tricks. But then there would be no story. Declarer started running diamonds, which is usually a good thing to do. I don't know when he noticed his problem or changed his mind, but after two rounds of diamonds he was committing to running most of them.

With one diamond still to be played, the dummy had

Even at this point, declarer can lead a heart and be assured of making 9 tricks. In other words, the hand is cold if declarer has only a six-card diamond suit. But declarer of course played the last diamond, triple-squeezing the dummy. Dummy could pitch the good king of spades, making the defenses spades good, a heart so that there was no protection in hearts, or a club, so that there was no protection in clubs.

I was Lefty in this story. To actually set the contract, my partner and I had to get this triple squeeze to repeat. It is hard enough to make the triple squeeze repeat when you are the one running the squeeze. No one told my partner we were in the midst of a triple squeeze. I mean, if you were defending this hand, at what point would you realize that declarer was running a triple squeeze on himself? Declarer, meanwhile, is trying to prevent his own triple squeeze from repeating.

In practice, declarer (predictably) pitched a club and then led a heart. Righty came down to two spades, the Ace of Hearts and the AK of clubs. So declarer made 4. Righty could have beat the hand by saving AKx of clubs. In his defense, he cannot imagine that declarer has no entry to the king of spades, hence no hope of setting the hand. However, saving AKx of clubs was really his only hope of beating the hand (when played that way).