Strip squeeze
Template:Short description A strip squeeze is a declarer technique at contract bridge combining elements of squeeze and endplay.
This squeeze occurs when declarer has two or more losers remaining.<ref>Template:OEB</ref> By cashing winners, declarer forces the squeezed defender to discard cards so that he cannot defeat the contract. Eventually, the defender will be forced to unguard a potential winner, exposing it to capture or be put on lead and forced to lead a suit that will cost his side a trick.
ExamplesEdit
South is in a 6Template:Hearts contract with 11 top tricks on the Template:ClubsK lead. To perform a simple squeeze, South would have to lose a trick at some point to rectify the count. This will not work on this hand because the only menaces South has are in clubs and spades. Ducking a trick in clubs would allow East to guard the suit.
South must rely on a strip squeeze to make the hand. The first club trick is won, and the hearts then the diamonds are cashed.
Template:BridgeHandNWES South remains with Template:SpadesQ 4 Template:ClubsJ and Template:SpadesA3 Template:Clubs4 in dummy. West must choose between baring the Template:SpadesK or Template:ClubsQ. If West keeps Template:SpadesK x, South puts West on lead with a club to lead away from the spade. Otherwise, South plays a spade to the Ace to drop West's King.
An experienced West will try to make things as difficult as possible for South so that the correct route to 12 tricks is not certain. Making the key discard before the final winner is cashed will introduce as much ambiguity as possible. Although in double-dummy it is impossible to go wrong, occasionally South will make the wrong decision in competition.
Squeezes often require declarer to know the location of specific high cards or the number of cards a defender holds in a particular suit, in order to know what cards the squeezee will be forced to play. Examples 2a and 2b illustrates: Template:BridgeHandNWES Template:BridgeHandNWES
Again South needs three of the remaining tricks in a notrump contract. In Example 2a the presence of the diamond loser means that when South cashes the Template:ClubsA, West is not squeezed. He can safely discard his idle Template:Diams7. However, when South next plays the Template:Diams3, West is squeezed again. East wins the Template:DiamsQ, but must lead to dummy's winners.
In Example 2b East's Template:Spades3 2 are replaced by the Template:Clubs3 2 and declarer must know East's club length in order to make the correct play. If South cashes the Template:ClubsA and then leads the Template:Diams3, East wins the Template:DiamsQ and will take the rest of the tricks. In this case, the correct play is for South to lose the Template:DiamsQ immediately, before taking the Template:ClubsA, in order to rectify the count. Now East is forced to lead a club to South's ace, and West is squeezed as before.
But with East's hand as shown in Example 2a, losing the Template:DiamsQ first does not work. East can return a spade, and declarer will score only the Template:SpadesA. Not only does the squeeze position disappear, but there is no entry to cash the Template:ClubsA.