Criss-cross squeeze

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article concerns contract bridge and uses terminology associated with the game. See Contract bridge glossary for an explanation of unfamiliar words or phrases.

In contract bridge, the criss-cross squeeze is a variant of the simple squeeze where both menaces are blocked. However, the blocking card in one suit provides the necessary entry to the other menace. Unblocking in the right order will establish the additional winner, but unless one has an exact count of the hand it might be a guessing game.

[edit] Example

		♠	Q5
		♥	A
		♦	-
		♣	2
♠	K3	N   W S
♥	K3
♦	-
♣	-
		♠	A
		♥	Q5
		♦	-
		♣	A

The menaces are major-suit queens, blocked by corresponding aces, which serve as entry to the established menace. When South cashes the ♣A, West must blank one of his kings. The declarer just cashes the ace of the suit in which West has bared his king and then "cross" to the other ace, serving as an entry to the established queen.

This squeeze is, technically, an automatic squeeze, i.e. it works against either opponent, but a guess as to which defender (if any) is squeezed can be requested in the end position. If the complete hand was e.g:

		♠	Q5
		♥	A
		♦	-
		♣	2
♠	42	N W         E S		♠	K3
♥	42			♥	K3
♦	-			♦	-
♣	-			♣	-
		♠	A
		♥	Q5
		♦	-
		♣	A

then East would be squeezed, but if the declarer does not have a clue about it from the previous play and bidding, he has to guess which suit to play first if the defenders discard in different suits. With kings split, there is no squeeze, as both defenders will have idle cards to discard in the honorless suit.