Sheffield Bridge Club	Established 1936

THE  30  POINT  SQUEEZE

(From Sheffield Bridge Club Newsletter No 62, December 1990)

The Pig Trader recently had the honour of partnering the Busy Bee himself! This was the first board of the evening:

The Busy Bee, sitting North, opened 1¨ and East overcalled 1©. The Pig Trader, sitting South considered his intermediates, or rather his lack of them, and underbid with a jump to 3NT, which became the final contract.

As West led a heart, the Busy Bee busily placed his hand commenting that he had wondered about a slam. “Oh dear” thought the Pig Trader, but then he realised that although he had eleven tricks on top, a twelfth trick looked distinctly against the odds.

Either he could play on spades hoping that East held both ªK and ªQ, nominally 25% but improved by the overcall, or play for a 3-3 club break, this being about 36%.

The Pig Trader took the first heart trick, ducked a club and took the heart return, discarding a spade from dummy. He cashed ªA followed by six diamonds, discarding ©8 and ªJ2 from his hand. Poor West was squeezed in the black suits, having to discard in this position:

West had to keep ªK lest ª10 in dummy became a winner, so he threw §9 allowing the Pig Trader to take the last three tricks with §K, §A and §7.

The Pig Trader had actually increased his odds to about 50%. Although 6¨ has more chances than 6NT and is not too bad a contract, it can be defeated by a spade lead from East. Otherwise, any slam, on the lie of the cards, can only be made via the squeeze, a Vienna Coup.

As it was a Tuesday evening at Sheffield BC, the Pig Trader’s efforts gained him just 30 points on the aggregate scoring!

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