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English 46 Brian Zietman My wife and I recently played in a 30 hand National tournament in the Wizo Petach Tikva Bridge club amiably hosted by Yehudit Friedlander and Motty Paz. They supply lots of free food and hot drinks in very pleasant surroundings. Hand 23 was traumatic for us as we played against Inon Liran who pulled off a very elegant squeeze against my wife Maggy on Board Number 23. Here is the full hand: ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ J8752 87 9762 Q6 ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ 43 KQ2 KQT5 9852 ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ AQ96 AJT543 A3 7 ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ KT 96 J84 AKJT43 The bidding: Dealer South All vulnerable West North East South 1 ♣ Pass Pass 1 ♥ 2 ♣ 3 ♥ Pass 4 ♥ Pass Pass Pass After Maggy led the King and Ace of clubs, Inon Liron saw my Queen drop so he knew that all the rest of the points were with South including of course the King of Spades. So the fi nesse was hopeless and it looks like 4 hearts plus one. Inon though had other ideas and was out to make plus 2 – critical in top-bottom. He ruffed the second club and drew trumps in 2 rounds and ruffed another club. Instead of fi nessing in spades Inon now ran off all his hearts discarding a spade from dummy followed by Ace of diamonds and diamond to the King and Queen. This was the 3 card ending: ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ J8 9 ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ 4 T 9 ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ AQ9 ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ K10 J On the Ten of Diamonds he discards the 9 of Spades and Maggy was inexorably squeezed in Clubs and Spades. She could not discard the Jack of Clubs because the 9 would then be high so she discarded the Ten of Spades. Reading the situation perfectly, Inon now led the 4 of Spades to the Ace felling the now singleton King. Four hearts plus 2 scored 84%, but the majority fi nessed in spades to make plus one for just 51%. I postedamessageon Inon’swall inFacebookcongratulating him on a well executed squeeze but mentioned that it was not nice to squeeze my wife in front of me. Inon answered that next time he will be more polite  Hey, that’s my wife you’re squeezing Always remember: Bridge is not a matter of life and death – it’s much more important than that!

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