[Tramticket]

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Club night. Pairs.
Lead = King of hearts (King for count)

A lively auction on a hand with extreme distribution. The opposing 5♥ looks to be making.

How should this have been played? What ending should declarer aim for?

[Cyberyeti]

Unless N is capable of a massive bluff, he has A♣/K♠ (and S just has a load of heart honours given N's X of the final contract.)

So, ruff the heart and use 3 trump entries to ruff 2 more hearts and play a club to the K before rumbling the trumps.

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Now lead the final trump pitching a club and N is strip squeezed

[rmnka447]

If North would have passed, the hand would be a bit more difficult. But with the double, it seems reasonable to assume North holds the ♣ A especially because South might have led it had in been in his/her hand. But then if South holds the ♠ K the hand probably can't be made. So assume as cyberyeti indicated and follow his line of play.

Strip squeezes work with 2 losers provided all the other conditions for BLUE are met.

[Winstonm]

The key issue is which way to play the clubs. It must be low toward the honor situated behind the ace - a defender rising with the ace beats air and allows a spade discard. The next hurdle is to figure out the discards. A topnotch defender will see the strip squeeze coming early on and will discard down to singleton K of spades and 2 clubs. It's not always easy to read the situation because a topnotch player against a topnotch player may fake this sequence and not bare the king.

[Tramticket]

Cyberyeti has described the hand and given a good reason why declarer might have got it right:

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Declarer wasn't put to the test since I (North) pulled a wrong card!

All eight tables played diamond contracts (four at the five level, three at the six level and one went to seven). Only one other table made 12 tricks and since I doubt there was a revoke at their table, maybe she got it right.

Thanks for the helpful comments.