This month's hand comes from the Saturday afternoon Flight A Open Pairs at the recent 2000 Blue Hen Sectional in Wilmington, Delaware.

MPs
Dealer: East
Vulnerable: Both

AUCTION
NORTH	EAST	SOUTH	WEST
--	Pass	1	Pass
2N	Pass	3	Pass
4	Pass	Pass	Pass

The opening lead is the A. West continues with the T which holds when you play low--East following with the 7 and 6. West next shifts to the Q.

Plan the play.

Solution

You have ten easy tricks and would like to take eleven, since this is matchpoints. It appears West has led from AT doubleton of hearts, and he most likely holds the J as well. An easier double squeeze could hardly be constructed. Assuming that West must protect diamonds, and East must protect hearts, it will be impossible for either to retain a stopper in the club suit. The threats will be the T, the 8, and the 2. Simply win the diamond, draw trumps, cash your remaining high diamond, and finish the trumps. Before leading the final trump, this will be the position:

When you lead your last trump, West has to pitch a club in order to keep his diamond guard; you then throw the T. Similarly, East must throw a club to keep his heart guard, and you take the last three tricks with your AK2.

At the table, West informed his partner that he should have overtaken the T with the jack and cashed the K, in order to prevent the squeeze. While this is certainly true, West is far from blameless. After East failed to overtake the second heart, West could still recover by switching to a CLUB. He should realize that if South had 6-3-2-2 shape, nothing could be done. But if South's shape were 6-3-3-1, the club switch would destroy the communication needed to carry out the squeeze.

The full deal:

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