Fratricide squeeze
That advice applied to Board 1 at Monday’s club duplicate.
I won East’s opening lead of the ♥Q with the ♥K and played the ♦A, both opponents following small. On a small diamond from North at Trick 3, East discarded ♠3. Winning the ♦Q in dummy, I reassessed by trick status. For winners, I have one heart and only three diamond tricks, plus three clubs and the ♠A, only eight in total. Should I attack spades and find the ♠K favorably placed, I will lose one spade and some number of hearts. If hearts are 4-4, I can take the spade finesse later. More likely, the ♥Q lead is from QJx or AQJxx, in which case I have four heart losers and cannot afford to try the spade finesse.
Backing my judgment about the lie of the heart suit, I opted to go for a squeeze play, but needed the opponents to cooperate in rectifying the count. At Trick 4, I played the ♥T from dummy. East won the trick and proceeded to cash two more heart winners, the suit having split 5-3 and my discarding a diamond, leaving this position:
When East chose to play his last heart winner, the fourth winner of the opponents, I can discard small spades from each hand. East exited with a spade, my winning the ♠A (and executing a Vienna coup). I next cashed three clubs ending in South. On the third club, West had no good discard from ♦JT and the ♠K. Making contract.
The whole hand:
Had East exited with, say, a spade, upon winning the second round of hearts, my contract would be defeated. That’s why the title is fratricide squeeze, and not suicide squeeze.
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Bridge-related
A friend of mine points out an alternative line of play that does not depend upon a defensive error. If East is Kxxx, AQJxx, x, xxx, declarer can cash all of his minor suit winners and then exit with the HT. Having been stripped of minor suit exit cards, East will have to lead from the SK, with declarer having pitched two diamonds from hand and three spades from dummy and the heart winners.
Perhaps East might have entered the auction with Kxxx and AQJxx in the majors. I think the choice between the line taken and the line mentioned by my friend, might depend upon your assessment of the sophistication of the opponents: some opponents, given the opportunity would not give a second thought to cashing their heart winners; other opponents would be much more suspicious of the “gift” of gaining the lead.