Squeeze play (or simply squeeze) is a play in contract bridge that often occurs late in the game and involves the play of a card (often, but not necessarily, a winner) which forces an opponent to discard a vital card from his hand, thus giving up a trick (or two in some cases). The discarded card can be either a winner or any card that solidifies defender's defensive position.
Although the squeeze was already discovered and described in whist, its use was best described and perfected in contract bridge.
The squeeze operates on the principle that, in a n-card ending with n-1 combined winners, the two hands can have one potential trick (threat card) each, but there's no room in single defender's hand to cover both of those. In order for a squeeze to work, the victim might not hold any "idle" cards, but all his cards must be "busy", covering some sort of menace.
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