A Squeeze at Hunt Valley

Played with my mom in the Baltimore Mid-Atlantic regional bridge tournament August 12-18, 2013. Here’s a hand where I as North wanted to make six clubs. East led the spade ace and switched to a club. After the heart finesse worked, I had to hope that East had at least four diamonds (or the QJT) along with the spade king. With four cards left to play, East held the spade king and QJT of diamonds in front of dummy’s spade Q and AK9 of diamonds. When I led my last club, East was squeezed. When in obvious pain she discarded a diamond, I discarded the spade Q from dummy and claimed. Actually we were only at 5 clubs making 6, but that was good enough for an absolute top.

North

AJ
732
KQJT8743

West                      East
98653                    AKJ4
KT64                      9872
85                          QJT6
A9                          5

South
QT72
Q53
AK94
62

Incidentally, a recent opponent recommended “The Cardturner” by Louis Sachar, a fun account of a teenager who ends up in National Pairs.