Simple squeeze in 2 suits

Commented deal

Unlike bridge, tarot does not allow the declarer to deliberately execute a squeeze, for the simple reason that he controls only one hand, whereas in bridge the declarer plays both his own hand and dummy. A squeeze requires, at a minimum, communication between two hands in order to work. In tarot, for the declarer to benefit from a squeeze, he must obtain the involuntary cooperation of one of the defenders. It is, however, possible for two defenders to knowingly squeeze the declarer — but honestly, in many years of play, I have never yet witnessed such a coup.

The following deal illustrates an involuntary squeeze by one defender against his partner. This variant, which might be called a suicide squeeze, is the one most likely to occur at a tarot table. By way of anecdote, I should add that this deal is authentic, that I was the unfortunate WEST, and that I was so excited to witness my very first squeeze at tarot that I forced everyone to lay their cards on the table with three cards to go, just to make sure the declarer would discard correctly and actually bring the squeeze home !

Tarot at 3 players
South is dealer and declarer (garde)

DOG: : 5-3, : 6-2, : K-4

Distribution

WEST	EAST
18​-17-13-12-8 K-Q-C-9-4 K-Q-3 Q-C-10-7-5-1 9-7-5-4-2	16​-15-14-11-7-6-4-2 7 C-10-9-8-5-4-1 8-3 K-C-J-8-6-3

SOUTH
Ex-21-20-19-10-9-5-3-1 J-10-8-6-5-3-2-1 - K-J-9-6-4-2 10

DISCARDS: : J-7-6-2, : Q-1

The play of the hand:

Trick 1 to 3

TRICK	WEST	SOUTH	EAST
1	17	Ex	.2
2	.8	10	12
3	18	19	.4

The opening trump lead by EAST is not a hunt for the Petit but an anticipation of a strong holding in declarer's suits. This anticipation is inspired by the configuration of the 4 suits in EAST's hand. Since bad breaks generally imply a strong holding in the declarer's suits, the trump lead is logical.

Trick 4 to 7

TRICK	WEST	SOUTH	EAST
4	2	.10	C
5	12	21	.6
6	R	.10	7
7	.13	20	7

The declarer is bluffing at trick 4 with the 10 (he should have kept the ace to do it because his 10 forces an honor), losing a tempo which could prevent him to set up the . At trick 7, West follows East’s defensive plan, all the more so since the declarer has just switched to , a suit in which he has a good holding.

Trick 8 to 11

TRICK	WEST	SOUTH	EAST
8	4	.2	14
9	5	3	.15
10	R	5	.16
11	D	9	.8

East forgets to cash the 16 before the 15, thereby losing a valuable discard from WEST (since declarer was able to conceal the 16 at trick 7, West can no longer be certain of that card location). Trick 11 : WEST for his part could have spared his Q because the declarer is bound to ruff that suit and now has only two trumps left.

Trick 12 to 15

TRICK	WEST	SOUTH	EAST
12	9	.1	6
13	.3	1	4
14	C	.3	5
15	.4	9	8

Trick 12 : EAST must find some discards and may dream of trapping the king of if declarer has bluffed in (and everything point in that direction). He must therefore discard the and not the . Trick 14: WEST plays the C before the queen to signal to his partner that he still controls the suit.

Trick 16 to 19

TRICK	WEST	SOUTH	EAST
16	1	4	.C
17	7	6	.10
18	5	5	.9
19	10	6	.1

East could partially repair his earlier discard errors by giving the lead to his partner’s 9, allowing WEST to cashes his D, on which he could get rid one of its cursed . Unfortunately, he choose instead to cash the top …

Trick 20 to 24

TRICK	WEST	SOUTH	EAST
20	7	8	.R
21	9	9	.V
22	D	V	.3
23	D	R	.8
24	C	.V	3

At trick 22, WEST is defenseless. He must discard before declarer and no matter which suit he plays, declarer will discard the other suit to make the last 2 tricks. Check by yourself…

If WEST discards the Q, the declarer will discard the J to take the last 2 tricks with K-J. Note that the simple play of a by EAST at trick 22 prevents this disastrous ending (let me repeat: this deal is authentic and reported exactly as it was played. I do not claim it to be exemplary in terms of defensive quality).

The threat cards are the 3 cards held by the declarer that can win tricks and are garded by the squeezed player. These threat cards must necesarily lie behind the squeezed player.

The squeeze only operates after count reduction - that is, at the moment when there are no more superfluous cards in WEST and declarer's hand. One may formulate the following simple rule: the squeeze can only take effect X tricks from the end, where X equals the number of threat cards (here, 3).

Now, just for fun, let us add the Q to declarer's hand, the K to WEST, the 2 to EAST and replay this famous 3 by EAST, but this time with 4 cards left. WEST discards the Q and declarer tosses the J. Now EAST plays the 2… you are no longer victim of a single squeeze but of 2 successive squeezes, which bears the lovely name of a cascading squeeze ! WEST has just achieved the feat of taking no tricks at all with the combination K-Q-QC against Q-J-KJ !

The squeeze in tarot is very rare, first because in a large proportion of deals the trumps remain in play until the end, and second because it requires several conditions to function. Most of the time, it will result from a defensive error, as in the example we have just seen. In reality, the correct term for this type of squeeze should be suicide-squeeze, since one of the defenders unwittingly execute his own partner.

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