Topsy-Turvy


10 6 4
J 8
A Q 9 6 4 2
K 3
J 8 7 3 9 5
Q 10 6 K 9 5 3 2
10 8 J 7 5
Q J 9 4 8 7 6
A K Q 2
A 9 4 Contract: 6 no trump, 7 diamonds
K 3
A 10 5 2 Opening lead: Q of clubs

An interesting hand. Twelve top tricks with an opportunity for 13 on an even spade break. How about a squeeze? I tried to tease one out on the ground that the same hand is the only one able to protect against the 4th round of spades and the 10 of clubs. But it wouldn't work. That's because declarer has to discard before the hand he'd like to squeeze. West need only discard the same suits on the run of the diamonds as declarer does. To be sure, West can't see declarer's hand and can't know the two hands have identical distribution. But he could do worse than decide he's going to match declarer's discards suit for suit.
It's a positional squeeze, or would be, that is, if the defensive hands were reversed, as given here:
A K Q 2
A 9 4
K 3
A 10 5 2
J 8 7 3 9 5
Q 10 6 K 9 5 3 2
10 8 J 7 5
Q J 9 4 8 7 6
10 6 4
J 8
A Q 9 6 4 2
K 3

Declarer runs 9 tricks, three spades, five diamonds and a heart, reaching this 4-card end position:

2
------
------
A 10 5
J ------
------ K 9 5
------ ------
Q J 9 8
------
J
2
K 3

On the lead of the last diamond, West must either pitch his high spade, or give up a club. Declarer saves whatever suit West doesn't and must get the last three tricks. Or, that would have been the case had the defensive hands been reversed. But that's not the way it was, and the defense need not give up a 13th trick.
What was interesting and very expensive to the defense was the play where declarer was in 7 diamonds, the lone declarer in grand slam. And the hand looked like this:

A K Q 2
A 9 4
K 3
A 10 5 2
9 5 J 8 7 3
K 9 5 3 2 Q 10 6
J 7 5 10 8
8 7 6 Q J 9 4
10 6 4
J 8
A Q 9 6 4 2
K 3

Which is to say that now the defender can see the hand where he has the exact same distribution as the hand declarer might want to squeeze with and, discarding after it, can beat the grand slam by merely keeping the same distribution as dummy is showing. Which he didn't do. Bid and made. This has to have been both the most obvious case of being able to keep the same number as dummy in each suit and the most expensive decision not to do so.
I went back to see just where East had failed to follow declarer's discards in dummy and found it was much earlier than I could have expected. In fact, he did it at his very first opportunity to do so. He followed to the first three leads, then on the third round of diamonds, both dummy and East discarded a club. So far, so good. Then at trick 5, declarer sluffed a heart and East another club! He got down to the Q J of clubs in the wink of an eye. Declarer already had his 13 tricks, though he couldn't have known it yet. Why wouldn't anyone with Q J 9 in a suit, sitting after an honor and the 10, not wanna keep three cards in it when he knows he can protect the third round? He may not win a third-round club trick in this trump contract, but if he pushes declarer to a loser in another suit, it's worth a trick.