Suicide hotline, open for business

A suicide squeeze, also called a cannibal squeeze, is a bridge play in which when one defender cashes winners, he squeezes his partner.

I played in the Memphis sectional tournament this past weekend. Here is a deal from the Swiss Team event on Sunday (hands rotated and low cards approximate where unimportant):

                  ♠ A J 6 5
                  ♥ J 9 2
                  ♦ K 5
                  ♣ K 5 4 2
--
                  ♠ K 4 3
                  ♥ A K 8
                  ♦ 10 8 3
                  ♣ A 10 8 6

East-West were vulnerable, North-South were not. West passed, North opened 1♣. It continued Pass and South bid 2♣, showing 10+ points and a club fit. Playing inverted minor-suit raises, there was no hurry to bid notrump -- his side might have a club slam. West overcalled 2♥ which was passed around to South. He bid 3NT which ended the auction.

The opening lead was the ♦7, a sneak attack! Declarer played the ♦K which won the trick. North-South had a combined 26 high-card points, but only seven tricks. When Goren said that was enough for game, he had told a big fat lie in this case.

Declarer could tell that West had a distributional red two-suited hand, so the spade finesse rated to fail. The club suit couldn't be established without letting the opponents gain the lead, so that plan wouldn't work either.

Declarer, an expert, decided his best shot was to exit with a diamond. West would likely cash four more diamonds and perhaps East would feel the pressure -- a suicide squeeze!

Putting thought to action, South led a diamond, but guess what? West won and took five diamond tricks -- he had started with six of them! Here are all four hands:

                  ♠ A J 6 5
                  ♥ J 9 2
                  ♦ K 5
                  ♣ K 5 4 2
♠ ---                          ♠ Q 10 9 8 7 2
♥ Q 10 7 6 5 3                 ♥ 4
♦ A J 9 7 4 2 5                ♦ Q 6
♣ Q                            ♣ J 9 7 3
                  ♠ K 4 3
                  ♥ A K 8
                  ♦ 10 8 3
                  ♣ A 10 8 6

Do you notice anything? Yes, declarer could have made the hand on power!

South could have cashed the ♣K noting the fall of the queen. Then he could lead another club to the 8, return to dummy with the ♠A and lead the ♣4 to the 10.

That's nine tricks via two spades, two hearts, one diamond and four clubs. But wait! As he runs his tricks, West is squeezed and has to save ♥Q 10 7, so must discard all but one of his diamonds. If he's careless and saves the ♦A, South can then exit a diamond to endplay West for the overtrick!

Declarer wanted to slit his wrists. What's the number for nine-one-one?

The board was a push. Declarer mishandled the club suit at the other table to go set one also.