[masonbarge]

manudude03, on 2015-February-15, 15:20, said:

With diamonds breaking 4-2, the chances of the heart finesse working go down, I accept that. However, is West having Jxxx(+) of hearts and either KQ or 5+spades really more likely than West having 3 small hearts?

The squeeze works anytime either opponent has ♥Jxxx and ♠KQ, or if ♥J does not have three or more small cards with it. And the finesses is still an option, although a dangerous one. And the pseudo-squeeze will work sometimes, believe it or not.

[masonbarge]

AyunuS, on 2015-February-15, 15:36, said:

Seems like a beginner hand to me. Just keep playing the diamonds until you either force the A or you've won your 3 tricks in them. Then get your 8 top tricks in the other suits so you just end with 11 tricks. Only little nuance is potentially trying a little squeeze or finesse for a 12th trick in hearts but I'd only do it if it's absolutely safe.

If the overtrick is a little nuance for you, you may safely ignore the hand.

[ArtK78]

masonbarge, on 2015-February-15, 21:07, said:

The squeeze works ....................or if ♥J does not have three or more small cards with it.

That is not a squeeze. But it is discussed in Clyde Love's book on Squeeze Play. By playing the hand as if there was a squeeze, it forces the player who would be "squeezed" to play his other cards that were concealing the fact that the ♥J would drop. In the examples given in Clyde Love's book, the card that drops is almost always a doubleton Q.

[PhilKing]

ArtK78, on 2015-February-16, 06:44, said:

That is not a squeeze. But it is discussed in Clyde Love's book on Squeeze Play. By playing the hand as if there was a squeeze, it forces the player who would be "squeezed" to play his other cards that were concealing the fact that the ♥J would drop. In the examples given in Clyde Love's book, the card that drops is almost always a doubleton Q.

Yet it is generally referred to as a show-up squeeze.

[billw55]

OK, in fairness, a squeeze is never a beginner question.

Out of curiosity, was there any explanation for the singleton ♦J lead?

[masonbarge]

ArtK78, on 2015-February-16, 06:44, said:

That is not a squeeze. But it is discussed in Clyde Love's book on Squeeze Play. By playing the hand as if there was a squeeze, it forces the player who would be "squeezed" to play his other cards that were concealing the fact that the ♥J would drop. In the examples given in Clyde Love's book, the card that drops is almost always a doubleton Q.

Unless I'm mistaken, there's no show-up squeeze here. Take a look and see what you think. You'd need to cash 2 hearts first, I think, and you can't do it because of the entry situation.

I brought up the possibility of the heart J dropping, in regards to the overall advisability of the line of play vs. the finesse. I.e. the observation "With diamonds breaking 4-2, the chances of the heart finesse working go down, I accept that. However, is West having Jxxx(+) of hearts and either KQ or 5+spades really more likely than West having 3 small hearts?" My point being, the line of play succeeds only a little less than 50% of the time, even if no squeeze is present.

[PhilKing]

masonbarge, on 2015-February-16, 19:25, said:

Unless I'm mistaken, there's no show-up squeeze here. Take a look and see what you think. You'd need to cash 2 hearts first, I think, and you can't do it because of the entry situation.

I brought up the possibility of the heart J dropping, in regards to the overall advisability of the line of play vs. the finesse. I.e. the observation "With diamonds breaking 4-2, the chances of the heart finesse working go down, I accept that. However, is West having Jxxx(+) of hearts and either KQ or 5+spades really more likely than West having 3 small hearts?" My point being, the line of play succeeds only a little less than 50% of the time, even if no squeeze is present.

Once we knock out the diamond, it depends what happens next.

Say East switches to the spade king, then we can't afford to cash any hearts. We basically play it as a classic show up squeeze, hoping East is 3442 or similar with KQx and any four card heart holding. This may seem unlikely, since it gives West six clubs, but the weaker their hand is, the more likely some players are to "fish" for their partner's suit.

Say East switches to the spade ten, we are in the same position. Although its no longer a show up squeeze (it's just a potential squeeze against West) we can no longer safely finesse the heart, so we just have to play winners ending in dummy and hope the hearts are now good.

In neither case are we cashing hearts first, and it's right exactly never when compared to the line stated here.

If East plays a heart, it gets more debatable, but unless a wooden East switches to the ♥2, I am unlikely to do anything other than cash the ♠A and play the squeeze line anyway.