Maki (Max Chauvet) is back with a new video series on card play techniques. Maki is also the author of this brief animated introduction to the Game of Bridge.
This is the first of ten animated videos that introduce the intermediate player to the “advanced” play of the squeeze. The video does have some sound but it is mainly intended to be a visual aid. Go ‘full screen’ if you want to see the cards more clearly.
Comments
7 responses to “Video: A Simple Squeeze – 01”
Love it. I wouldn’t mind if the cards displayed a bit bigger.
Click on youtube, then on full screen.
can the cards show bigger as it’s not possible to follow the play which is a shame
waste of time with no sound
UGH NO SOUND AND NOT INSPIRATION !!
This is a well produced video (with sound in places), in theory really helpful & appreciated for many.
What I don’t get though (and this is a common gripe) is the suggestion at 3:34…: “try to visualise East’s shape”.
Why?
As Terence Reese often observed in his book on “Squeeze Play Made Easy”, East’s hand is “immaterial”: the only thing that matters to effect the squeeze is to have the two controlling/relevant cards in the West hand; the rest of the shape doesn’t matter, and addressing “intermediate players to an ‘advanced play’, this comment only introduces confusion – makes an intermediate player think that the task ahead of them involves a lot more thought/brain-processing than it needs to. (Nobody needs to visualise the East hand at all, and it won’t help.)
If the player can visualise TWO CARDS in the West hand, suits controlled only by the West hand (and we know that Hearts are only controlled by West, so declarer only need to consider that only West can control Clubs too (effectively watching out for ONE CARD) – to be pedantic, that would require West to have five clubs, but why even bother counting?, the only play for the hand is a squeeze, so the declarer simply needs to watch which of their “menaces” becomes a winner) once the basic mechanics of a squeeze can be understood by an intermediate/advanced player, the brain-power necessary is far less than could be implied by this video.
It was lessons like this that actually held me back a lot in my advancing in the game – it makes what is actually a very simple process feel so complicated; it makes an improving player think they have to do so much more than they really need to. If they can learn how a squeeze works, counting one hand’s shape, let alone two, is not necessary for a basic one-way squeeze.
(Of course, there are hands that knowing shape is necessary, but as an improving player, when you learn that you can execute a one-way squeeze without a lot of thought, and in its simplest form, simply ensuring that you play one of your cards after the squeezed hand (so you know, or can/must assume (as in this example), what your worthless card, and respectively what your promoted/winning card is), you’re not so mentally-tired when you reach a deal that you have to count a hand out perfectly for.)
Thank you, well done.