Cannibal squeeze or suicide squeeze is a type of squeeze in bridge or whist, in which a defender is squeezed by a card played by his partner. Normally, this occurs with less-than-perfect defense, but there are also legitimate positions where the defense could not have prevailed.
| ♠ | — | ||||
| ♥ | — | ||||
| ♦ | A Q | ||||
| ♣ | 6 2 | ||||
| ♠ | — | N |
♠ | — | |
| ♥ | 8 | ♥ | — | ||
| ♦ | 7 3 | ♦ | K 4 | ||
| ♣ | 4 | ♣ | J 10 | ||
| West to lead | ♠ | — | |||
| ♥ | — | ||||
| ♦ | 8 5 | ||||
| ♣ | K 3 | ||||
West is on lead. If he cashes the high heart, a club is thrown from the dummy, and East is squeezed. Whichever card East discards, the declarer will take two tricks in that suit. Instead, West must lead a diamond to protect the partner from subsequent endplay (if he returns a club, the declarer will take the King and put East in with another club, forcing him to lead into ♦AQ).
The most common position for a legitimate suicide squeeze occurs when a side suit is "tangled" (neither side can lead it without giving up a trick), and another suit is protected by the partner of the player on lead, as in the following diagram:
| ♠ | — | ||||
| ♥ | — | ||||
| ♦ | Q 6 2 | ||||
| ♣ | — | ||||
| ♠ | — | N |
♠ | — | |
| ♥ | 8 | ♥ | — | ||
| ♦ | J 8 | ♦ | K 4 | ||
| ♣ | — | ♣ | 7 | ||
| West to lead | ♠ | — | |||
| ♥ | — | ||||
| ♦ | A 10 | ||||
| ♣ | 3 | ||||
West is to lead; if he leads a diamond, it will "untangle" the suit for the declarer, who will take two diamond tricks. However, when he leads the high heart, he induces a simple squeeze on his partner, who must either discard the high ♣7 or unguard the diamond king. (Dummy has an idle card, and East is to play before the declarer.) Again declarer will take two tricks.