Ok, since it was suggested I would reply, here goes. To answer your specific questions.
1/. was q clubs the right card and should i have known that I was in a squeeze situation.
Yes, the club Q was 100% the right card (I will explain why it was better than the jack), And yes, you should have known this was a squeeze situation (which is why the club queen is much better than the ten... odds are very long the club Ten would have won 10 tricks, but club Queen always will.
Now for the explainatins.
East opened the bidding 1
♣, and has shown up with three diamonds and 1 heart so far. But you can infer something about the heart suit. West lead the heart 7 (you should ask, but they play 4th best). 11-7 = 4... East had heart king, and you have the heart AJ9 between your two hands. When the heart king won (good duck btw), east switches rather than continue hearts, and on the thrid and fourht round of dismonds, WEst throws away two hearts lower than the seven.
You can be fairly sure now that EAST had only one heart. This is from the fall of the cards, the bidding and the defensive line EAST took. With more hearts, he would have returned his partners lead.
Ok so East opened 1C, and has shown up with exactly 3D, and in all likelyhood 1H. In addition WEST has followed twice in clubs, so the most clubs EAST can have is five. So what is the distritbution? In all likelyhood East has 4-1-3-5 and West has 3-6-2-2. In this case, the club TEN will hold (this is why you COULD play club ten). The odds of this being the exact distribution is very high indeed. However, there are some people who will treat an ugly five card spade suit as a four card suit. So it is not impossible East holds
♠Jxxxx
♥K
♦Axx
♣Kxxx. IF so, and you play the club Ten you will lose an unecessary trick. It is also possible, but not likely, that your inferred count is wrong and EAST actually does have a second heart.. maybe even the doubleton Queen in a hand like
♠Jxx
♥K?
♦Axx
♣Axxx where ? is Queen or small.
In the most probable hand, the club Ten would win and you would take hte remaining tricks, but in the other two cases, the club ten would lose to a hypothetical (but highly unliklely) tripleton club Jack.
This is where the squeeze comes into play. It will work with all three endings. You go up with the club queen. If West has tripleton club Jack it falls (he can't have three small, because East has already thrown a club, so at the time you could play the Ten, the only club out is the jack).
So when the club Queen holds and no club jack falls. East is either 4-1-3-5 or an unlikely 3-2-3-5. If east is 4-1-3-5, the heart ACE will squeeze him (as you saw). If East is 3-2-3-5, he heart ACE will drop his doubleton heart queen (if he held that), and if not, the club Queen has squeezed his partner. This is because West can't keep four spades and the heart Queen any more than EAST can keep four spades and the club Jack.
Should you see the squeeze? Yes, from trick two, the squeeze should be obvious. East opened and west seems to have the heart queen, so you know where the club K is hidding. Thus you have nine winners (2C-1H-3D-3S). If West has four spades, you can get him in the heart-spade squeeze, and if East has four spades, you can get him in the club-spade squeeze.
Good defense when you play a club will be for EAST to duck the second club, this avoids correcting the count for the easiest squeeze. But you still would have what is known as a delay duck squeeze. The ending would be...(you win club queen when he ducks)...
Here the squeeze still works. Cash the heart ACE. What is EAST to do? If he throws a spade, your spades run. And if he throws a club? You duck a club to the stiff jack, and use your spade king as a re-entry to your hand to win your good club Ten.
The need for the SPADE reentry is a key element on this hand. So while better defense is to duck the club, best defense is when in with the Diamond ACE, is to attack that spade entry by exiting a spade instead of a diamond. This East can duck the second club or win the second club and exit a club. Ducking the second club breaks up the delayed duck squeeze as you have no reentry to the club the squeeze will establish. Winning the second club and exiting a spade breaks up the entry to the dummy for the simple squeeze (assuming
♠ lead earlier)
So as a beginner hand, this is an easy squeeze hand when East jumps up with the club King. As an intermediate hand, it is an interesting squeeze position when East refuses to correct the count by winning the club King, requiring the delayed duck for the extra trick. And as an advanced hand, it is a defender problem hand where East has to see the impending black suit squeeze and return a spade. This is because it is clear his partner seems to ahve the heat Queen (can;t have the ace on bidding), and given the 1NT overcall, South has everything else. Thus the club-spade squeeze threat should be obvious at trick one. And he should just exit with a spade then, and again when in with the diamond ace. That always holds you to just your 9 tricks.
Ben
Help
