The "Winner" Squeezes
In almost all squeezes, you promote a card into a winner that an opponent once guarded but had to release when squeezed.
In what I will call the Winner squeezes, you have a card that can be promoted to a winner without any discards by the opponents. The problem is that if you knock out the stopper (or stoppers) needed to win this trick, the opponents will first cash enough winners that you will not be able to enjoy the winner you have established.
The Winner squeeze forces the opponent to discard enough winners that you can enjoy the trick you set up.
The Winner Squeeze
Consider this situation, which is not a winner squeeze, to appreciate the structure.
xxx
KQx
xxx
xxxx
KQJ1098 xx
Axx xxxx
AKQ xxxx
x xxx
Ax
xxx
xxx
AKQJ10
Lefty leads a spade against the contract of 1NT. You have six tricks and would like a seventh. However, if you lead a heart, Lefty cashes 9 tricks and you are down two. On the run of the clubs, Lefty can first pitch losers, then eventually has to pitch winners. So you are squeezing out winners.
However, Lefty can keep all winners. So when you are done with clubs and lead a heart, Lefty wins the rest of the tricks. There is no gain from your so-called squeeze.
To create a winner squeeze, there has to also be a threat against Lefty in a suit you have first-round control in. Consider this situation, which is a winner squeeze.
xxx
KQx
xxx
xxxx
KQJ10987 xx
Ax xxxx
J1098 xx
-- QJ109x
A
J109x
AKQx
AKxx
Again Lefty leads a spade. Again Lefty has more than enough winners to set 1NT once given the lead. In fact, in this example, the second club forces Lefty to discard a winner, because Lefty cannot afford to throw a diamond.
But now you have gained a trick. Lefty cannot reduce his hand to just winners. In essence, Lefty has to save a losing diamond. It would not be a losing diamond if 4 rounds of the suit were played. But no one is going to play four rounds.
This has created a "space". Now Lefty cannot win the rest of the tricks when Lefty is in. Instead, Lefty can only save enough winners to win all of the tricks but one. At the end, you will get a heart trick.
Features of the Winner Squeeze
The defining feature of the Winner squeeze is that there is a suit in which you can set up winners without helpful discards in the suit. The squeeze functions only to stop the opponents from cashing so many tricks that you cannot enjoy the winner you set up.
In other words, in the normal squeeze, the opponent pitches a spade creating a spade trick for you. In the winner squeeze, the opponent pitches a spade creating a heart trick for you. (Or whatever the suits are.)
All four suits are involved, and each suit plays a distinctive role. First, there is the suit in which you have the squeeze card (clubs in the above example). Second, there is the suit in which Lefty (or whoever the squeeze is against) has winners. That was spades in the above example. Third, there is a suit in which you have a threat and Lefty has to guard the threat, forcing Lefty to save a loser instead of a winner (diamonds in the above example). Finally, there is a suit which you can set up tricks by knocking out controls (hearts in the above example).
The winner squeeze always gains one trick.
The Extremes in Loser Count
A distinctive feature of this squeeze is that there is no loser count. To be more precise, there is a squeeze which I call the "extended menace" squeeze. This is sometimes called the "squeeze without the count." However, in my analysis of it, I have no trouble finding the loser count. For the simplest extended menace squeeze, the loser count is two. The loser count changes, depending on the winners in each suit, but it is still predictable, and it must be present for the squeeze to work.
For the winner squeeze, I can find nothing resembling any requirement for loser count. Just for the fun of it...
x
KQxxx
Kxx
xxxx
KQ J10xxxxxxx
Axxxx xx
J1098x x
x x
A
x
AQxx
AKQJ10xx
Lefty leads a spade. You have 11 tricks off the top and would like a 12th, but if you try to set up a heart, Lefty wins the spade to hold you to 11. Running all of the clubs forces Lefty to discard the spade winner. The loser count, which is irrelevant for the winner squeeze, was 2.
x
KQxxxxx
xx
xxx
KQJ10987654 x
A xxx
KQ xxxxxxx
- xxx
A
xxx
AJ
Axxxxxx
You are in 1NT and would like to go down as few tricks as possible. After the opening lead, the club winner forces a spade winner from Lefty, and you can now set up a heart trick to go down only 4. Now the loser count is 10. (The loser count can be pushed to 11 if defense executes this squeeze against declarer at trick 1.)
The "Potential Winner" Squeeze
This time the squeeze is against cards that will be winners; in other words, potential winners.
xxx
QJ10
xxx
xxxx
QJ1098 xx
AKx xxxx
J1098 xx
x J1098x
AKx
xxx
AKQx
AKQ
The contract is 3NT. Lefty leads a spade. The hope for the ninth trick is in hearts, but a direct attack on the hearts will not succeed. Essentially, Lefty is winning the race to set up tricks. But the third club winner squeezes a spade out of Lefty, and now the heart can be set up.
Alternatively, instead of first rattling off the club winners, you can lead a heart at trick 2. Lefty then returns a spade, to set up the spades, and now you execute the simple winner squeeze.
Squeezing a Critical Loser
Now let me rearrange the heart honors from the previous hand.
xx
QJ10x
xxx
xxxx
QJ1098 xxx
Ax Kxxx
J1098 xx
xx J1098
AKx
xxx
AKQx
AKQ
You win the opening spade lead. On the third club winner, Lefty is squeezed. Lefty has a small heart, but Lefty cannot afford to pitch it. It is critical to the defense that Righty win the first round of hearts and clear the spade suit. To accomplish this, Lefty has to save a small heart. So Lefty has to throw a spade, allowing one heart trick to be set up.
So, for squeeze purposes, the small heart is equivalent to the king of hearts.
This squeeze is described in the book by Ottlik. It also appears in "Masterpieces of Declarer Play" by Julian Pottage. I have no idea how often it might occur at the table, but the situation itself is fairly commonplace. It seems to be the paradigmatic example of a "nonmaterial" squeeze. It is very neat that the squeeze works against a small card that was never hoping to win a trick. However, structurally, it is identical to the potential winner squeeze.
Neither of the above authors notes that a heart can be led at trick two. Righty wins and clears the spades, but now the club winners execute a simple winner squeeze against Lefty.
Extended Menace in the Threat Suit
Julian Pottage, in his book "Masterpieces of Declarer Play", presents this hand:
A743
QJ10
Q5
AKQ9
Q1092 865
A74 K52
KJ763 1042
4 8652
KJ
9863
A98
J1073
Lefty passed originally, then made a takeout double showing spades and diamonds. Against 3NT, Lefty leads a small diamond. You win with your queen and Righty plays a small diamond, suggesting an odd number. Now the hand can pretty much be played double dummy.
This is a potential winner squeeze. Lefty is about to set up a suit. You have 8 tricks and would like a ninth. You have a ninth trick in hearts, but you will lose the race to establish it.
The only difference is that it is an extended menace against Lefty. On this hand, that is critical. If you cash four rounds of clubs, Lefty can pitch a heart and two spades. Now Righty controls the third round of spades. You can set up your fourth spade, but you do not have an entry to it.
Fortunately, the extended menace squeeze functions one round earlier. In other words, you only have to cash three club winners to execute the squeeze against Lefty. If Lefty throws a spade on the third club winner, you can set up your fourth spade and still have an entry in clubs.
And of course if Lefty throws a diamond or another small heart, you can safely set up your heart trick. (As noted, this squeeze works fine if you lead a heart at trick two.)
A Typology of Squeezes
Again, in almost all squeezes, you create a trick out of a card that was not high enough by itself to be a winner. In endplays, you create a trick out of a card that was not high enough to be a winner by itself, and for which a finesse would have lost.
The winner squeeze falls into a very small third category. To be sure, a normal squeeze can squeeze a lot of winners out of an opponent's hand, as can the squeeze and endplay. Despite the name I chose, the "winner" squeeze, squeezing out winners is not the distinctive feature. The distinctive feature is setting up a trick in a suit where you lack only time/space to establish a winner.
The only other member of this third type of squeeze which I can think of is the stepping-stone squeeze, in which you have the winners and are using the squeeze to create the communication needed to cash the winners.
Variation: Squeezing out an Entry to Partner's Winners
As noted above, with a loser count of 2 you can squeeze every winner out of Lefty's hand. That means that with a loser count of 2 you can also squeeze the entry to Righty's spades out of Lefty's hand.
x
KQxxx
Kxx
xxxx
KJxxx Q10xxxx
Ax xxxxx
J1098x x
x x
A
x
AQxx
AKQJ10xx
On the run of the clubs, Lefty can first throw a heart, then a diamond, then three spades, keeping a small spade as an entry to Righty's good spades. Unfortunately for Lefty, there is still one discard to be made:
--
KQx
Kxx
--
x Q10xxx
A x
J1098 --
-- --
--
x
AQxx
x
The last club forces out the exit card, just as it would have forced out a spade winner. Note also that if Lefty had started out with AK of hearts, or even AKQ, Lefty would be forced to pitch those winners, coming down to a blank A of hearts. Without the count, Lefty could have just saved heart winners.
Extended Menace Squeezes that Resemble the Winner Squeeze
Usually, you can increase the complexity of a squeeze by adding another suit. The winner squeeze does not allow this, because all of the suits are already relevant. If you try to make a suit do two things, then the squeeze becomes an extended menace squeeze.
First, it is possible that the person being squeezed has winners in two suits, but either suit can be set up as a trick, depending on which suit the defender pitches a winner from.
987x
xxx
Kxxx
xxx
KQJ10 xx
AKQ xxxxx
J1098 xx
xx J1098
Axx
J109
AQx
AKQx
Lefty leads a spade. Now Lefty has 6 winners. The contract is 2NT, you have 7 winners and would like a eighth. Unlike the winner squeeze, there is no suit to set up. However, the third club winner not only forces out a winner, it also forces Lefty to unguard a suit. You then win the race on that suit.
This requires, of course, that you have potential threats in both of the suits with winners.
This has become an extended-menace squeeze. If Lefty had cashed the three hearts at the beginning, then led a spade, cashing the three clubs would have been a simple extended-menace squeeze.
Two Menaces in the Extended Menace Squeeze
Suppose Lefty (or whoever) has to guard two suits. This means that Lefty is squeezed out of winners in the third suit. The third suit must also function as the suit that you set up your winners in, making this an extended menace squeeze. So the situation would be this:
987
xx
AKQx
xxxx
KQJ10 xxx
J1098 xxxx
J1098 xx
x J1098x
Axx
AKQx
xxx
AKQ
The opening lead is a spade, won in hand. The second club winner squeezes one spade winner out of Lefty. The third club winner not only squeezes another spade out of Lefty, it also allows a spade trick to be established.
Because the presence of two menaces to guard creates two spaces in Lefty's hand, there is the possibility of gaining two tricks. Consider this hand.
9876
Kxx
Kxx
xxx
KQJ10 xxx
J1098 xx
J1098 xx
x J1098xx
Ax
AQxx
AQxx
AKQ
The second club forces Lefty to discard a spade. On the third club, Lefty is in serious trouble. If Lefty discards another spade, two tricks can be established in spade! If Lefty unguards either hearts or diamonds, the tricks are cashed in this suit to run a simple extended menace squeeze.
So this extended menace squeeze can gain two tricks. One requirement is that the hand with the extended menace has to have a winner in each of the threat suits.
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