First, let’s recall the ingredients for a squeeze play in bridge…
The ingredients – P.O.T.
- Potential winners – we need at least two cards which may become winners.
- One loser – we have enough winners that only trick 13 may lose.
- Transportation – a way to get to our winner once our opponent has been forced to make a discard making it a winner.
So, what are the pitfalls we may fall into?
- If we have two losers left rather than one, our opponent will be able to hold onto all their winners and so the squeeze won’t work.
- Solution: duck a trick so that we only have one loser left.
- If the potential winners are split between both opponents, they may each be able to hold onto a winner. Then neither opponent is squeezed but there was nothing we could do about that.
- We need one opponent to have the winners in at least two of the suits we have potential winners in.
After watching the video above, try playing all four hands for one of the boards below: