Simple Squeeze Play

A squeeze is one of bridge’s most satisfying plays. You run your winners and watch a defender squirm, forced to discard something that costs a trick. What looked like a losing contract suddenly makes when they can’t guard everything at once.

Squeezes aren’t magic tricks reserved for experts. They follow clear patterns, and once you know what to look for, you’ll spot them regularly. Better yet, you can often create squeeze positions through careful planning.

What Is a Squeeze?

A squeeze forces a defender to make an impossible discard. They’re holding cards in two suits you need tricks from, and when you cash your winners in a third suit, they can’t keep enough guards in both critical suits.

Say you need three of the last four tricks. Your ♥A will take one trick. You have the ♠Q and ♦Q, each behind opponent’s ♠K and ♦K. Normally you’d lose to both kings. But if one opponent holds both kings and you run your heart winners, they’ll have to pitch either a spade or diamond. Whichever they give up, you take the last two tricks.

That’s a squeeze. One opponent, two critical suits, not enough cards to guard both.

The Three Essential Elements

Every squeeze needs these three things. Miss one and it won’t work.

1. The Threat Cards (or Menaces)

These are your potential winners that would cash if the opponent didn’t hold a higher card. In our example above, the ♠Q and ♦Q were the threats.

You need at least two threat cards against the squeezed opponent. One threat must be in the hand opposite your squeeze card (the card you’ll play to execute the squeeze). The other can be anywhere.

2. Entries

After the squeeze forces a discard, you need to get to your newly established winner. If your ♠Q becomes good when they pitch a spade, you’d better be able to reach it.

The entry requirement trips up players more than anything else. You see the squeeze coming, execute it perfectly, then realize you can’t cash your winner. Planning entries is half the battle.

3. Timing (Lose Early)

This is the weird one. For a squeeze to work, you typically need to be exactly one trick short of your contract. If you can afford to lose two more tricks, the opponents can safely pitch from either menace suit because you weren’t going to make it anyway.

The solution? Lose your inevitable losers early. This is called rectifying the count. If you’re in 6NT and can only take eleven tricks without a squeeze, duck a trick somewhere. Give them their winner. Now you’re down to the exact position where the squeeze will work.

Recognizing the Position

Here’s a classic simple squeeze position:

           ♠ A 3
           ♥ —
           ♦ K 2
           ♣ —

♠ K J               ♠ 9 8
♥ —                 ♥ —
♦ Q J               ♦ 10 9
♣ —                 ♣ —

           ♠ Q 2
           ♥ A
           ♦ A
           ♣ —

You’re South in notrump, needing all four tricks. West holds the ♠K and ♦Q. When you cash the ♥A (the squeeze card), West is toast. Pitch a spade? Your ♠Q becomes good. Pitch a diamond? Your ♦2 becomes good.

Notice the elements:

  • Two threats: ♠Q (one-card threat in your hand) and ♦2 (two-card threat with the ♦K)
  • Entry: The ♠A gets you to dummy’s diamond winner
  • Timing: You’re one trick short until the squeeze operates

The Automatic Squeeze

When both threats sit in the same hand (usually dummy) and you have a one-card threat in your hand, it’s called an automatic squeeze. It works against either opponent, so you don’t need to know who holds the critical cards.

           ♠ A 3
           ♥ —
           ♦ A 2
           ♣ —

♠ K J               ♠ 9 8
♥ —                 ♥ —
♦ K Q               ♦ 10 9
♣ —                 ♣ —

           ♠ Q 2
           ♥ A
           ♦ 3
           ♣ —

Same position, but now dummy has both the ♠A-3 and ♦A-2. When you play the ♥A from hand, dummy pitches last. If West dumps a spade, dummy throws a diamond and your ♠Q wins. If West dumps a diamond, dummy throws a spade and the diamonds are good.

This is called automatic because dummy waits to see what gets pitched before deciding what to keep. Very convenient when you don’t know who holds what.

The Vienna Coup

Sometimes you need to do preparatory work before a squeeze will function. The Vienna Coup is the most common preparation: you cash a high card in one of your threat suits to make room for the squeeze.

Here’s the classic position:

           ♠ K 3
           ♥ A 2
           ♦ —
           ♣ —

♠ A J               ♠ 9 8
♥ K Q               ♥ 10 9
♦ —                 ♦ —
♣ —                 ♣ —

           ♠ Q 2
           ♥ —
           ♦ A
           ♣ —

You need three tricks. If you immediately play the ♦A, West discards a heart. Your ♠Q isn’t a threat because the ♠A sits over it.

The solution? Before playing the ♦A, cash dummy’s ♥A first. This unblocks hearts and makes the ♥2 a real threat. Now when you play the ♦A, West is genuinely squeezed. Pitch a heart? The ♥2 is good. Pitch a spade? The ♠Q becomes good after you force out the ace.

That early cash of the ♥A is the Vienna Coup. You’re creating space for your threat cards to work properly.

Executing at the Table

The mechanics of playing a squeeze are straightforward, but the planning takes thought:

Before you start running winners:

  1. Count your tricks. Are you exactly one short?
  2. If not, lose the necessary tricks now to rectify the count
  3. Identify which defender likely holds both critical suits
  4. Check your entries - can you reach all your potential winners?
  5. Look for blockages that need a Vienna Coup

During the play:

Run your squeeze card (usually your long suit winner). Watch what gets pitched. If you’re in the automatic position with both threats in dummy, discard from dummy last after seeing what the defender gave up.

Common mistakes:

Don’t run all your winners too fast. You might need to preserve entries in side suits. Think through the whole endgame before playing the first card.

Don’t assume a squeeze will work just because you’re one trick short. Check all three elements first.

A Full Hand Example

           ♠ A Q 4
           ♥ K 7 5
           ♦ A 8 6 2
           ♣ K 7 4

♠ 10 9 8 3         ♠ J 6 5
♥ 9 4              ♥ Q J 10 8
♦ K J 9 5          ♦ Q 10 3
♣ Q 9 2            ♣ J 10 8

           ♠ K 7 2
           ♥ A 6 3 2
           ♦ 7 4
           ♣ A 6 5 3

You’re in 6NT. West leads the ♠10. You count eleven top tricks: three spades, three hearts, one diamond, four clubs. You need one more.

The diamond finesse loses to West’s king. But West also needs to guard spades (you have the ♠Q-4 over their ♠J-x). That’s your squeeze!

Win the ♠A at trick one (keeping communication). Duck a diamond immediately to rectify the count. Win their return, cash your black suit winners, then run hearts. When you play the last heart, West must keep two spades, so they have to come down to one diamond. Now your ♦8 is good.

The key was losing that diamond early, then running your winners in the right order to keep entries to both threats.

When Squeezes Don’t Work

Not every close contract has a squeeze. The opponents might split the key cards between their hands - no single defender feels the pressure. Or you might lack the entries to reach your established winners.

Don’t try to force a squeeze when the elements aren’t there. But when you spot one developing, it’s worth the effort to set it up properly.

Squeezes reward careful planning and good technique. Master the simple squeeze first - the positional squeeze with one defender holding both suits - and more complex variations will make sense as you advance.

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