ACES ON BRIDGE
“When the Second World War finished, I was 23 and already I had seen enough horror to last me a lifetime. I’d seen dreadful, dreadful things, without saying a word. So seeing horror depicted on film doesn’t affect me much.” — Christopher Lee
Please do not be scared: This week's themed deals are based on squeeze play.
In this first deal, declarer had to be mindful of the end position he wished to reach in order to bring about the desired pressure.
Many would open three hearts with the East cards using the vulnerability, heart intermediates and concentrated 6-4 shape as an excuse. However, North-south were always set to reach the spade game.
After taking the heart ace, West could have beaten the game by shifting to a club, which seems like the natural switch.
Declarer could either capture the club jack, leaving the defensive communications open for a club ruff, or duck and let East shift to diamonds, paving the way for a ruff in that suit.
But West tried a diamond. Declarer won the 10 and ran the spade 10 to West's ace. Now came a diamond ruff, declarer carefully unblocking the king — a necessary move — and East exited safely with a heart. That was won in dummy, a club being pitched, and declarer next ran his trumps. His only chance was to catch East in a rounded-suit squeeze, and he needed to be in dummy when the squeeze card was played, to have access to the heart eight.
Therefore, declarer had to bare dummy's club queen. He needed East to hold not only all the hearts higher than the eight, but also the club king-jack. His enterprise was rewarded when he finessed the diamond jack and cashed the diamond ace, as East had no good discard. Incidentally, eliminating hearts before drawing trump would also have worked today.
ANSWER: Dummy is balanced with heart support and a top diamond but probably no club control. However, your partner surely would have doubled the slam if a club lead were desired. Spade or heart losers can hardly go away, so maybe you should set up a diamond before those losers are dropped on a black suit. Even the diamond jack in partner's hand may suffice, so I'd lead a low diamond.