A vice squeeze operates against a defender's doubleton of touching rank, e.g.
Q-J or
J-T, when it protects the other defender's top winner in the suit. It was first described by British expert Terence Reese in his book, "Master Play in Contract Bridge."
| | Dummy | | |
|  KT2 | |
|  — | |
| West |  — | East |
| QJ |  — | A95 |
| 8 | | — |
| — | South | — |
| — | 4 | — |
| 5 | |
| 9 | |
| — | |
South is playing no-trumps and only has one winner left, the
9. But when South leads that card, West is "caught in the vice." Forced to keep his heart lest South's
5 become a winner, West elects to discard a spade. Now South can continue with a spade to the queen, king and ace. East must return a spade to dummy's
T.
Compare this to a 3-card ending in which East is missing the
A:
| | Dummy | | |
| KT2 | |
| — | |
| West | — | East |
| QJ | — | 653 |
| 8 | | — |
| — | South | — |
| — | 4 | — |
| 5 | |
| 9 | |
| — | |
When South leads the
9 and West pitches a spade, South simply proceeds with a spade to the king and ten. As such, this is a positional
simple squeeze, not a vice squeeze.
The vice squeeze is also related to the guard squeeze, which is a squeeze that creates a finessing opportunity against one defender:
| | Dummy | | |
| K2 | |
| 5 | |
| West | — | East |
| QJ | 5 | T73 |
| 8 | | — |
| — | South | 2 |
| 8 | A94 | — |
| — | |
| 9 | |
| — | |
South has a natural loser in spades. But when she leads the
9, West is squeezed in three suits. When West discards a spade, East is exposed to a finesse. At the next trick, South crosses to dummy's
K (picking up West's
Q) and takes a
simple finesse against East's
T. Compared to the vice squeeze, though, a guard squeeze operates against a finessable card rather than a top winner.
Example
| | Dummy | | |
| 5 | |
| KT8 | |
| West | KQ95 | East |
| KQJT82 | AQ987 | 76 |
| QJ9 | | A653 |
| 32 | South | 876 |
| 54 | A943 | K632 |
| 742 | |
| AJT4 | |
| JT | |
West
2
Pass
|
|
North
Dbl
3NT
|
|
East
Pass
All Pass
|
|
South
2NT
|
South ducks the opening spade lead and wins the second round, pitching a diamond from dummy. The first order of business is establishing dummy's club suit, so South floats the J around to East's K. South is relieved when East returns a diamond, instead of a heart to West's theoretical ace. 9 tricks are now available: 1 spade, 4 clubs and 4 diamonds. A squeeze in the majors offers a potential overtrick as well.
So South proceeds to run dummy's clubs. A spade and two hearts are discarded from the closed hand, while West jettisons two diamonds and a spade. The layout becomes:
| | Dummy | | |
| — | |
| KT8 | |
| West | KQ9 | East |
| JT8 | — | — |
| QJ9 | | A653 |
| — | South | 87 |
| — | 9 | — |
| 7 | |
| AJT4 | |
| — | |
Now South reels off the diamond winners. West discards two spades and a heart before coming under pressure from the last diamond:
| | Dummy | | |
| — | |
| KT8 | |
| West | — | East |
| J | — | — |
| QJ | | A65 |
| — | South | — |
| — | 9 | — |
| 7 | |
| 4 | |
| — | |
When West parts with a heart, South leads a heart to the queen, king and ace. Dummy's
T becomes an overtrick.
