[diana_eva]

Had this pretty auction the other day on BBO, and according to GIB slam makes on a non-club lead. I could not see it, even with all cards in view. Is there a squeeze, or it's just a DD thing?

Lead was H5. Is there any play to this at all? I went down, and was frustrated to see other tables made slam, but looking into their hand records it was misdefense, not brilliancy.

---

[Cthulhu D]

It's clever.

Start by wining 3 rounds of hearts.
Cash two rounds of diamonds. East now has only black cards
Play a small spade. Either east ducks, or goes up with J/T/8. If estducks the trick to the 7, you just cash out. Assuming he goes up.
Win and cross back to hand in diamonds, then cash the last diamond.
Then play a small spade to the queen (play the 7 if he plays small again), then cash the queen of hearts.

East now has to discard from Tx in spades and Kx in clubs. If he discards a spade, you now have two cashing spade tricks and then lose the last club. If he instead discards a club, you end play east with a club lead, or west is endplayed if he goes up with the ace. If at any point he discards the king, you just lose a club trick to west who then gives you your 12th trick.

Can you make this at the table? I doubt it - you go off if you you don't play for west to be void in spades, or if you cash 3 rounds of diamonds. Can you tell he is likely void in spades from watching east discard after the 2 rounds? Probably not.

[whereagles]

yeah it's a bit double dummy, but I think there's a winkle squeeze on East, as Cthu mentions.

[nige1]

diana_eva, on 2014-November-24, 02:50, said:

Had this pretty auction the other day on BBO, and according to GIB slam makes on a non-club lead. I could not see it, even with all cards in view. Is there a squeeze, or it's just a DD thing?

Lead was H5. Is there any play to this at all? I went down, and was frustrated to see other tables made slam, but looking into their hand records it was misdefense, not brilliancy.

---

Agree with Cthulhu.

Win ♥A. Lead ♠5 to ♠8 and ♠Q. Cross to dummy's ♥J. Lead ♠6 to ♠T and ♠K. Cash ♦QAKJ, ♥Q, to reach the 4-card ending on the left.

Now, cash ♥K, chucking a ♣, to execute a winkle on RHO.

Or you can cash your red winners, ending in dummy, for the same effect.

If North had ♠A7xx and South had ♠KQ8 then you would need to your cash ♥s first, so that you could end up in dummy, to discard your blocking ♠8 on dummy's 4th ♦

---

[whereagles]

Cthulhu D, on 2014-November-24, 03:18, said:

Can you make this at the table? I doubt it - you go off if you you don't play for west to be void in spades, or if you cash 3 rounds of diamonds. Can you tell he is likely void in spades from watching east discard after the 2 rounds? Probably not.

Maybe the right play is a spade to the hand at trick 2. East might very well put the 8, after which it's simple (if you know the technique).