I have read a few books on card play in bridge and one topic always covered is the squeeze play. This is a common offensive play where you force a defender to pitch protection for their high cards and/or throw away winners to protect other cards. I have never intentionally run a squeeze on players until just recently. It was a great experience and even though it wasn't to make a slam, just preserve a game in a major, it was none-the-less very satisfying!

Here's the deal:

Run the card play to see my commentary. The deciding moment came after the opponents played the third club trick. My RHO ruffed it, but I was able to over ruff and draw the last trump from RHO. At that point, I still had a diamond to lose ... but I had the ten of clubs and ace of diamonds in the dummy, covering my LHO. Assuming LHO had both the JC and KD, could I force LHO to throw away the JC or her protection for the diamond K?

The first step is to strip away all the cards west might use as an exit, so I played out the hearts and trump, making sure I ended up in my own hand to play the last trump. And the squeeze was on! My LHO pitched his low diamond on my last spade, so I got rid of the loser ten clubs in dummy. Then played a low diamond from my hand, watching with satisfaction as the diamond king came down from west.

It was only to make a game, but it just fueled my desire to make one of these kinds of plays to bring a slam home. This was just a simple squeeze. There are many other kinds of squeezes and end plays that I need to learn in order to become an expert bridge player. But this was a momentous first step.