Felo de Se by Foxymoron

When there was a death by suicide in the middle ages, it was classed as a felo de se, and the assumption was that it must have been a mental illness. The Interments (felo de se) Act 1882 allowed any person committing "criminal suicide" to be buried at any hour with the usual rites and removed some of the stigma from the suicide. Previously he or she had to be buried "silently" between 9 pm and midnight.

In bridge, the phrase was used by Victor Mollo in his menagerie series, for a suicide squeeze, in which one of the defenders cashes winners and squeezes his partner. The Hideous Hog always took great pleasure in forcing Papa and his partner to conduct a suicide squeeze. Such was the case on a hand at the Woodberry this week. In a slightly different way:

After the uncontested auction 1NT-2C-2D-3NT, East quite naturally led a fourth-best diamond. Declarer, Mike Bull, tried the jack from dummy, and ducked West's queen, but then won the second round with the ace, East playing the two. There are two possible lines. One is to play for spades 3-3 which will give 9 tricks, but it probably won't cost to cross to dummy with a spade and exit with a third round of diamonds. East wins, and can cash two more rounds of diamonds, on which West can pitch a heart and a spade, but then two more rounds of spades by declarer squeezes West in the rounded suits. Alternatively, East can switch to a spade without cashing the last diamond, but declarer can now make by cashing three rounds of spades, forcing a heart or club discard from West, and then setting up the long heart or club.

What is the best line? I think against most players you cash two rounds of spades, ending in South. Often one or both of the defenders will give count, and you can plan your play accordingly. But it will only be wrong to exit with a diamond if they are 6-2.