BRIDGE

ETCETERA

MANY players think that before a squeeze can operate, declarer must be one trick short of his contract and that all the "idle" cards have gone. Often, however, a defender may be put under pressure even though he later makes several tricks.

South opened One No-trump (15-17) and West overcalled riskily with Two Hearts. North could have taken a safe penalty but, deciding to go for the vulnerable game, raised to Three No-trumps.

West led the jack of hearts and, from the overcall, it seemed clear that he held most of the missing high cards. The danger for South, of course, lay in East gaining the lead and pushing a club through. After winning the lead on the table, declarer led the six of diamonds and let it run when East did not cover.

West won with his nine and continued hearts. The simplistic approach for declarer would have been to force out the ace of spades and hope that the ten fell in three rounds. Instead, sensibly, he cashed his diamond winners first. West had to find two discards and threw two of his hearts.

Now declarer played off his winning heart and finally tackled spades. The jack lost to the ace and West returned the suit. Now South did not mind whether a finesse of dummy's nine would win or not - he simply played spades from the top. West was thrown in with his ten and had to concede the last trick to South's king of clubs.