Give Unto Caesar… Bridge 221

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In my article "Timing the Play", which appeared in the previous edition of ESRAMagazine (#220), I introduced an important, but rarely taught technique of declarer play: When faced with the decision of which of two suits to play, both having the same chance of success, choose the suit with the lesser number of controls or stoppers. This allows you the time to explore the full layout of the hand, conceding tricks to the opponents that they anyway stand to win while still retaining control of the other suits and keeping all your options open. The example hand I gave was one in which South, playing in 2NT with 7 tricks on top, had the choice of establishing the eighth trick, required for the contract, in either of the black suits:

Declarer ducked the opening ♥10 lead, won the continuation with the ♥K in dummy and, at trick 3, led a spade, giving unto Caesar, the opponents, a trick that was anyway theirs to win. West won with the ♠Q and played a heart. Dummy and East followed suit and the trick was won with the ♥A in the closed hand. At trick 5 declarer led a second spade. West won with ♠K, cashed the remaining heart for the opponents fourth trick and exited with his third and last spade which East won with the ♠A. Dummy's fourth spade was now good. Whatever East played, declarer could cash 2 top diamonds and 3 top clubs, ending in dummy to play the master spade, claiming the eighth trick and the contract.

As it turns out the principle of "Giving unto Caesar that which is Caesar's" extends to hands like the above but where neither black suit breaks 3-3. Suppose West has one less spade, the ♠9, which is now with East, while East has one less diamond, the ♦Q, which appears now in the West hand:

Clearly, the opponents have an entitlement of 4, rather than 3, tricks in spades, which, together with 2 in hearts, would bring down the 2NT contract, but are they able to benefit from the fourth spade trick? The answer is "NO".

Hands like these, with one less top trick than the contract requires and adequate entries to both declarer's closed hand and dummy, lend themselves to the possibility of declarer squeezing the opponents into making discards which promote the extra trick needed, by running off long-suit winners. In the above layout, one doesn't have long-suit winners, but forcing the opponents to win one's long-suit spade losers, may achieve the same result.

Suppose the first 4 tricks go as before. On the 5th trick, declarers small spade lead is covered by West's ♠K. Dummy plays low and with only East to follow suit, the position is as follows:

East is in a quandary. If he lets West hold the ♠K, West will be able to cash his winning heart but will then be forced to underlead one of his minor honors giving declarer a free finesse for an eight trick. If East overtakes West's ♠K with the ♠A and now tries to cash a high spade, West is placed in a difficult position. He cannot discard a minor suit card without setting up an additional minor suit winner for declarer, so he reluctantly jettisons his heart winner. A further spade from East would now effectively squeeze West in the minors. The process by which a player squeezes his own partner is aptly known as a "Suicide Squeeze". If East decides not to cash the fourth winning spade and plays a minor, declarer can win and, after cashing in top cards in one of the minors, can throw West in to force a free finesse in the other minor.

An expert sitting in the East seat, wary of Greeks bearing gifts, may well decide to win the 5th trick with the ♠A but switch to, say, a diamond, relieving partner of having to find an immediate suitable discard. Unperplexed, declarer wins in hand and plays his third and last spade. West is again pressured into the same position, having to dump his heart winner in favor of guarding the minors. East wins and again eschews cashing his fourth spade, avoiding the ignominy of inflicting a suicide squeeze on his partner, and plays another diamond. Declarer wins this too and next throws West in with the ♦Q, forcing the free finesse in clubs, to bring home the contract.

Giving unto Caesar that which is his, may be doing him no favors.