The Spokesman-Review – 7 Oct 1936 by Sam Gordon
PRESS Rule Hints at Five Necessary Points in Play.
What”s that you say? You did not learn the squeeze play in my first lesson? What did you expect? A diploma? Even a supreme court judge could not learn how to make mock turtle soup so soon if he did not know whether a mock was female, mud, or hard shell.
The P-R-E-S-S rule for squeeze plays is just a guide for discovering the five ingredients needed in a squeeze. It is not enough that you discover them. You must learn what to do with them. But learn first how to discover them.
The Five Ingredients.
The guide is for reminding you that the five ingredients must be: P, promotion cards; R, reduction winners; E, enemy holdings; S sure entries; S squeeze card. Practice this on the drill hand you see above.
The contract is four hearts. South is declarer. West took the first two online casino tricks with the ace and king of diamonds. South ruffed the third diamond round. Declarer leans on the Press guide for discovering the ingredients for a simple squeeze. P, promotion cards: Dummy five of diamonds and eight spot of clubs. Both are seeming losers. But one of them will be promoted into a winner if West holds the winners in both those suits and is forced to throw away the winners in one of those suits.
R, reduction winners: The South ruff of the third diamond, three, spades, five more trumps, ace of clubs; ten total winners. In a squeeze, you can take one trick more than the number of reduction winners. So you have one more reduction winner than you need.
E, enemy holdings: West holds the winners in diamonds and clubs, which threaten the North promotion cards in those suits. As the squeeze begins with the 11th trick West will play before North. So West will be compelled to throw away one of his winner threats; and North will save the suit which West abandons.
S, sure entries: South will have a sure entry at the end of the 10th trick by retaining the lead with a trump. North will have a sure entry after the squeeze begins by retaining the ace of clubs until that period.
S, squeeze card: South will have a squeeze card at the beginning of the 11th trick. It will be a trump. His trump lead squeeze card will squeeze West for promoting a card in the North hand. Practice this with cards on a table. Your memory is not good enough yet.