Jennbridge: Bridge World Letter

The Bridge World has published a letter of mine in the July issue and titled it Temporarily a Trump Squeeze.  It pertains to a hand I wrote up in my blog as http://jennbridge.blogspot.com/2009/09/tres-elegant.html.  They have given me permission to reprint it here.

Temporarily a Trump Squeeze

To The Editor:
As South, playing in three spades, I had lost three tricks, was on lead, and had a complete distributional count here:

	♠ J 8 ♥ — ♦ 7 ♣ K J 3
♠ — ♥ — ♦ J 6 3 ♣ ? ? ?	N W E S	♠ Q ♥ J 7 4 ♦ — ♣ ? ?
	♠ 5 ♥ — ♦ A 10 ♣ A 10 9

After I cashed the club ace-king and the queen failed to drop, I led a trump, and West was squeezed on the next trick.   
Jennifer Jones  Santa Rosa, CA

This apparently-uncommon form of squeeze (sometimes necessary; leading a trump would fail if there were no club tenace) matches the current usual definition of "trump squeeze", which is:  "a squeeze in which the ability to ruff after the squeeze is consummated is essential", for North must be able to ruff after West unguards a minor.  Bridge lexicography is one tough game--almost as tough as bridge itself!  We are inserting "in a menace suit"  after "ruff" in our definition in the Glossary at www.bridgeworld.com.  So today this is a stepping-stone trump squeeze, but tomorrow it will be a fratricidal simple squeeze.

I agree--I'd rather try to execute the play than handle the lexicography!  For a complete description of the hand see my original blog entry:  http://jennbridge.blogspot.com/2009/09/tres-elegant.html

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See you at the table!