Movie #4 : page 3

Did you cash the queen and jack of clubs, planning to run the suit and throw east in with his trump for a diamond endplay?  If so, then you received a rude shock when west discarded on the second club, for it had become too late to fulfill the contract.  When east was thrown in with a trump, he still had a club to lead, avoiding the endplay.

The answer is to strip your right-hand opponent of his exit card in clubs.  How?  After the two trump leads, declarer plays a heart from dummy.  It does not avail east to ruff high, so he discards a second diamond.  Now a club to the queen, and another heart.  This variant of the knockout squeeze forces east to part with his 'idle' fifth club.  Now the clubs are run and a trump is led, forcing a diamond play from east at trick twelve.

Knockout squeezes often go unnoticed at the table; yet so many of them occur 'accidentally'  This squeeze in three suits — one of which is trumps — is a way of forcing a discard when it is inconvenient to run your own long suit.  This layout required two extra heart leads to accomplish the KO.  Had dummy not had four cards in that suit, the contract would have failed.

Of course, had west defended better... But after all, this was a Charity Game.  Admittedly, most east players would have chucked that "worthless" long club at trick two, giving up any chance to defeat the contract.

The late, great Jean Besse once said, "Beware the idle fifth card".