Show Up Squeeze

Sometimes as squeeze can be used to determine whether to take a finesse or not.  In this hand South plays in 6NT after West has overcalled 2  :

                    AQ

                    AJ543

                    KJ83

                    J4

K8                                97643

T8                                9762

???                              ??

KQT97?                      65?

                   JT52

                   KQ

                   A742

                   A83

South wins the King lead, cashes 2 high hearts, hooks the Queen, cashes the Ace and gets the good news.  With 12 tricks in he goes for 13.  On the last 3 hearts South discards 2 clubs and a diamond.  Now a diamond to the Ace and 2 spades forces West to come down to the Queen  and 1 diamond.  Now if West started with the Queen, it will "show up" or "pop up" as this squeeze is sometimes called.  When it doesn't, he goes up with the King and is rewarded making 7 when East started with  Qx.

To learn more about squeezes refer to Clyde Love's classic Bridge Squeezes Complete , now available in a fully interactive computer program.

Compiled by Lorne Russell 2005