The Expert Game is Terence Reese's classic book on card play, first published in 1958 and widely considered to be one of the best bridge books of all time. In the last chapter Reese describes three types of 'secondary' squeeze - so called because a trick must be lost in the end-game - and gives them descriptive names; the vice, the winkle and the stepping stone.
You might think that these obscure squeezes are only of academic interest, but one came up on this hand from last Friday's Allendale pairs.
West led the two of clubs against Ann's 3NT. There only appear to be eleven tricks, but watch what happens...Can you believe that declarer might make two diamond tricks in the end game?
Declarer wins the first trick with the ace (an essential move to avoid blocking the suit) and runs eight winners in the major suits. West is forced to release a diamond, leaving this position.
Now declarer plays a club to the ten and exits with a diamond, leaving the opponents to choose their poison. The defence can win the diamond in either hand, but must then concede the last two tricks.
It's a shame to spoil a good story, but honesty compels me to record that it wasn't quite like that in real life. Ann slipped at the final hurdle by cashing the king of clubs at trick eleven, although East returned the favour by playing the ace on the diamond lead from dummy.
When I dug out The Expert Game from an obscure corner of my bookshelf, I discovered that the play on this hand is a winkle, 'a rare squeeze in which a trick is offered to the defenders but whichever wins the trick is then endplayed'. Declarer winkles an extra trick from the diamond suit where both opponents hold top cards.
