A squeeze is a card-play technique where declarer runs winners until one defender, who guards two suits, has to discard a guard. Whatever that defender throws, declarer's card in that suit becomes a winner. The squeeze turns a contract that is one trick short into a make, with no finesse and no lucky split.
Squeezes are card play, so they work the same in every bidding system. They sound advanced, but the simple squeeze follows a short checklist that any club player can learn.
How a Squeeze Works in Bridge
Every defender holds thirteen cards and must follow suit or discard on each trick. A defender who must keep cards in two suits to stop your threats can do it only while there are spare cards to throw. When the spare cards are gone, the next winner you play forces a discard from one of the guarded suits.
Three terms you need:
- Threat (or menace): a card of yours that would win a trick if the defender guarding it let go of the guard. The 13th spade, or a queen behind a king.
- Guard: the defender's card or cards that stop the threat.
- Squeeze card: the winner you lead that forces the fatal discard. Usually the last card of your long suit.
The Conditions: BLUE
Clyde Love, whose book is the classic work on squeezes, gave the checklist the name BLUE:
| Letter | Condition | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| B | Busy | One defender alone guards both threat suits. |
| L | Loser | You have exactly one loser left: all the remaining tricks but one. |
| U | Upper | At least one threat sits in the hand that plays after the squeezed defender. |
| E | Entry | You can reach the threat that becomes good after the discard. |
If one condition is missing, the squeeze fails. The most common failure is L: declarer has two losers, so the defender has a spare card to throw.
Rectifying the Count
"Rectifying the count" means losing the tricks you must lose early, so that you reach the stage where you have all the remaining tricks but one. Say you are in 6NT with eleven top tricks. You need twelve, so you have two losers. Duck a trick early, ideally in a suit where it costs nothing. Now you have eleven winners and one loser left, and every winner you cash tightens the squeeze.
Without the duck, the defender can throw the spare card while you cash your winners, and keep both guards to the end.
TipCount losers, not winners. If you are one trick short with two losers left, give up a trick first. If you are one trick short with one loser left, run your winners.
Positional and Automatic Squeezes
A positional squeeze works against one defender only: the threats must sit in the hand that plays after that defender. If the wrong defender holds the guards, the squeeze fails, because you have to discard from the threat hand before the defender does.
An automatic squeeze works against either defender. The usual shape: the squeeze card and a one-card threat in one hand, and opposite them the other threat with its entry plus a spare card. On the squeeze trick that hand throws the spare card, so it never has to give up a threat too early, whichever defender is busy.
When you can choose, set up the automatic version. It does not care which defender is busy.
The Vienna Coup
Sometimes a high card of yours blocks the squeeze: while it stays in place, you cannot reach your threat at the right moment. Suppose dummy has the ♥A and you have the ♥Q, and West holds the ♥K. Cash the ♥A early, before the squeeze. Now West's ♥K is the top heart, your ♥Q is a threat against it, and West has to keep the king.
Cashing a winner early to turn a lower card into a threat is called the Vienna coup. It looks like a strange play, because it sets up a winner for the opponent, but the squeeze takes it back.
A Full Squeeze Deal
You are South in 7NT. West leads the ♥Q. You have twelve top tricks. Where is the thirteenth?
Count the top tricks: three spades, two hearts, two diamonds and five clubs, twelve in all. The thirteenth could come from a fourth spade or a third heart.
West leads the ♥Q, which suggests West holds the hearts. If West also holds four spades, West is busy. You have exactly one loser left, so the L is there. Your spade threat (dummy's ♠2) is in North, the hand that plays after West. Entries are fine. BLUE is complete.
Win the heart in dummy with the ace, keeping your ♥K as the entry to your heart threat. Run the five clubs, throwing the ♦5 from dummy, then cash the ♦A and ♦K. West must keep four spades to stop dummy's ♠2 and two hearts to stop your last small heart. On the last diamond West, with only six cards left, has no safe discard: a spade sets up dummy's 2, a heart sets up your ♥3. A double dummy solver confirms thirteen tricks on any lead.
Now look at East: two spades and two hearts. East cannot help. That is why the squeeze works.
Common Mistakes
- Not rectifying the count. With two losers, the defender always has a spare card. Duck a trick first.
- Cashing the wrong winners first. Keep the entries to your threats. Play off the suit you do not need for entries.
- Discarding a threat by accident. Before each discard, ask which cards are still threats.
- Taking a finesse first. A losing finesse can destroy the squeeze timing. If the squeeze and the finesse are both possible, play the squeeze first; the finesse may still be there at the end.
- Giving up on the count. Watch the defenders' discards. If West's last spade appears, dummy's spade is good.
Practice: The Squeeze
You are in 6NT with eleven top tricks. You think West guards both spades and hearts. What do you do first?
Your hand:
The fastest way to learn squeezes is to play them out card by card. Enter any deal in BridgeDummy's free double dummy analyzer and it shows how many tricks each contract makes; then play it through and watch the defender run out of cards. For the counting skills behind it, read counting declarer's tricks and double dummy analysis. The close cousin of the squeeze is the endplay.