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The scope of this article will be the simple two-suit squeeze. Many of our fellow Spades players may be acquainted with squeezes but I am quite sure that many are not. The squeeze play is an old but well respected tool used by advanced and expert level players. It certainly can be quite difficult to pull off some of the more exotic squeezes, but the execution of a simple squeeze in a game of Spades can be accomplished. Both partners must first understand the ingredients involved in a squeeze before any real chance exist for this dazzling technique. Before you can define a squeeze one must first place the cards into two immediate classifications. The first class will be for the totally worthless or unused cards. These are spot cards that can be safely discarded without fear of giving away a trick. The other class will be for the cards that are guarding suits, and have trick taking potential. These cards will be active cards and called our guards. For the sake of this article we will call the inactive or idle cards grunts. Many times during the play a player may be forced to pitch one of these useful guards due to the unavailability of grunts. When this sort of phenomenon occurs that player is squeezed. Most of the squeezes that occur during the play are usually pseudo. This means that no real squeeze has occurred. One player may make a bad discard thinking he has to hold some particular guard when in reality it was not a useful card. In reality certain criteria must exist for the squeeze play to work. One condition that must exist for a squeeze to work is that one opponent must hold guards in at least two suits. Typically we will have threat cards in these suits, and will take tricks if the opponent pitches some guard card. Our threats must lie in both hands. The squeeze will not work if at least one threat is in partner's hand. This two-suit squeeze is one of the commonest and is referred to as a simple squeeze. The card that forces a defender to pitch one of his guards is called the squeeze card. Although many varieties of squeezes exist, the only one that has any real chance for execution in the Spades arena is the simple squeeze. Five conditions must exist prior to the play of the squeeze card. I use the acronym A.L.T.E.R. as a memory aid for these five constraints. If all five of these criteria are satisfied the simple two-suited squeeze will execute. A.-----Active cards must exist in two suits located in only one defenders hand. L.-----Losers left in the remaining cards held by the partnership must be exactly one. T.-----Threat cards must exist in the hand left of the defender getting squeezed. E.-----Entry must exist in the hand that the threat is located in. R.-----Retaining the lead prior to the squeeze execution. Basically these steps imply that we must first have control of the lead. Our loser's left in the combined hands is one. This is commonly referred to as rectifying the count. The squeeze will not work at all unless we are one trick away from taking the rest of the tricks. One defender must be guarding two suits when the squeeze card is played. This defender has complete control over how the defense prevails. His partner's hand is irrelevant. We must have a threat sitting to the left of whichever defender is getting squeezed. The defenders' left-hand opponent will have the threat card. This scenario is important because it allows us to alter our play based on which card the defender plays. The last of the constraints is communication between your hands and partner's. Obviously the threat card would not matter much if you did not have an entry back into the hand to take your winners. Examples:
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South is on lead and you will see that in Example A West has to guard two suits. He does not have any grunts, or idle cards to pitch. When South plays the Jack of Spades it puts poor West in an uncomfortable position. Any discard he makes will give away a trick. This simple squeeze works because all of the constraints of A.L.T.E.R. have been satisfied. The count has been rectified, as we are one trick away from taking the remaining tricks. We are in control of the lead. Active cards exist in two suits with one defender guarding those suits, and the threat of the Ace and Jack of Diamonds is left of West. We have an entry to our partner's hand with the three of diamonds. South is also on lead in Example B, but this time it is East who is getting squeezed when the Queen of clubs is played. He is holding active cards in two suits, and has no grunts that he can pitch. The threat that is to his left is the Jack and two of diamonds, and the threat that is to his right is the King and five of Hearts. When the Queen of clubs is played and a small diamond is thrown from North, East is successfully squeezed. If he throws a heart we will continue in hearts. If he throws a diamond we will take our Jack and two of diamonds before leading the heart. Again we have satisfied all five requirements for the simple squeeze. It may be rare to execute this fine play as a partnership but I hope that the principle is clear and that if you pull a simple squeeze off, even if accidentally, you will recognize it. The squeeze play is not a novel play and many books exist regarding very exotic squeezes. For a reference on squeezes, or detailed analysis you can check out Louis Watson's "The Play of the Hand" or "Winning Endplay Strategy." These are Bridge books and may be obtainable from the libraries, or any reputable Bridge supply house. Regards, |
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5 4
A J
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