What if we have potential winners in three suits? The double squeeze!
We’ve seen how a squeeze works with two potential winners, so how do things change when we have three potential winners? It’s still the same three basic ingredients.
- Potential winners – we have 3 potential winners here not just the 2.
- One loser – we still need only one trick left that we might lose.
- Transportation – making sure we can get to our potential winner once a defender is forced to make it a winner.
| North S T H K 5 D Q C – | ||
| West S – H Q 4 3 D K C – | East S Q H J 5 4 D – C – | |
| South S – H A T 2 D – C A |
In this example, we have a threat card in 3 suits – ST, DQ and the HT. We also have 3 out of 4 winners (CA, HK, HA). When we cash our CA what does W throw? If they throw the DK then our DQ will win, so they have to throw a heart. We then throw the DQ from N. What can E throw? If E throws the SQ, then our ST is immediately a winner. Therefore, E has to throw a small heart. Now the hearts split 2 – 2 and our HT is winner! There was nothing EW could do about it.
So, what did we need to keep track of during the play? All we needed to know was that W has the DK which is the only diamond higher than the DQ and someone has a spade higher than the ST. Surprisingly, not that much to remember! Then we just play our tricks in a sensible order discarding the cards when we know they can no longer become a winner and our heart became a winner.
After watching the video above, try playing all four hands for one of the boards below: