Dutch Squeeze

Hi all

Little to tell. Here’s a +12 imp story from Star yesterday.

North
63
AKJ964
KQ5
A6

South
8
Q753
AT972
J83

René (North) opened a strong . He found out the giant fit in before the heavy interference in obstructed too much. Imagining a stiff in my hand was a bit of a gamble, but paid out very well when he jumped to the cold slam in (only 24 hcp together!).

Here’s a nice Dutch Squeeze from (and by) Martin:

West Dealer
All Vul
North
Q87
A653
K94
T52
West
T9
JT8
T7532
AKQ
East
J53
Q9
AJ86
9864
South
AK642
K742
Q
J73

A normal board from just another night at the bridge club.

The auction was not very exciting: pass – pass – pass – 1 – pass – 2 – a.p.

I was declarer and West started with three rounds of and switched to a . With five obvious losers (three , one and one ) it seems normal to take the with the King, pull trumps and play a diamond. However, not completely awake on this partscore, I took the with the Ace after which I started thinking. As I had removed the safe entry to the King, the best line is probably to play two rounds of trumps, before surrendering a to maximize the changes in case the split 4-1. I, however, played three rounds of before I played the Queen. North took and returned the fourth .

West Dealer
All Vul
North
65
K9
West
T8
T7
East
Q
J86
South
6
K74

On the last West was caught in a Dutch squeeze (patented by Bob Slavenburg). If I would have had a less and the Jack instead, West had to keep the Ten guarded to prevent declarer from overtaking the Jack. In that case East still has a stopper. West had no idea, discarded a and there it was: the overtrick.