Trump squeeze

I declared an interesting hand yesterday at a local sectional tournament.

West ♠ K953 ♥ A2 ♦ J85 ♣ AQ98

East ♠ AJT72 ♥ T976 ♦ A72 ♣ J

South led the ♣7.  Needing pitches for my diamond losers, I ducked the club in dummy, losing, as expected, to North’s ♣K.  North returned a club.  As planned, I pitched a diamond from my hand.  Somewhat surprisingly, South followed suit with the ♣3 and dummy’s nine won the trick.  I led a spade off of dummy and North pitched a club.  Winning the ♠A, I advanced the ♠J.  South chose to cover the ♠J, and I drew the last trump ending in dummy, cashing the ♦A along the way.

I pitched my last small diamond on the ♣A and when I led the ♣Q from dummy, pitching a heart from my hand, South, last to discard on this trick, was placed in an uncomfortable position:

Dealer: Vul:	North ♠ irrelevant ♥ ♦ ♣
West ♠ — ♥ A2 ♦ J8 ♣ (Q)		East ♠ 7 ♥ T97(6) ♦ — ♣ —
	South ♠ — ♥ KQJ ♦ KQ ♣ —

Seeing that pitching a diamond honor would allow me to ruff a diamond, reach dummy with the ♥A and pitch a heart loser on the established ♦J, South discarded a heart honor.  I next played the ♥A and a heart to my T9.  South won the trick with his last heart.  I ruffed the forced diamond return and cashed a good heart for a welcomed eleven tricks.  +650 was worth a factored 15.91 mps out of 17.

Although the defense might have had opportunities to perform better, the ending is interesting.  I think the position is called a trump squeeze (or a ruffing squeeze?).  The whole hand was:

Dealer: S (#7) Vul: Both	North ♠ — ♥ 843 ♦ T943 ♣ KT6542
West ♠ K953 ♥ A2 ♦ J85 ♣ AQ98		East ♠ AJT72 ♥ T976 ♦ A72 ♣ J
	South ♠ Q864 ♥ KQJ5 ♦ KQ6 ♣ 73