Hi all
There was this 3NT Wednesday that has been bugging me. Itch, back, you know what I mean. Taking nine seemed possible, I just couldn’t get to the solution. Here’s the full layout.
Our opponents had an undisturbed auction to 3NT. I could have interfered by bidding my 
, but my holding was so anemic I threw it away. Declarer didn’t have any trouble on a non lead. At the other table though, they did interfere with 1. And the lead ducked to the Ten to keep communication intact left Sjoerd in a very miserable position. Eventually leading to one trick short.
So what to do?
You should take the lead with the Ace, and play a 
towards the King. It doesn’t matter if East rises or not, so let’s assume he ducks. Now play a small to dummy and finesse the Ten (or duck if your psychic). East will again play a small (communication!), but you take it with your Queen and then exit with your remaining .
East has to take his two because it’s the last time he’s on lead. Now the spotlights go to West, what to discard on the next two ? One small 
is easy, but on the 5th West is squeezed in three suits.
West still has to find a discard. Impossible!
A 
or a is immediately fatal, so West discards a . East plays back a trying to disrupt communication, taken in hand. Now cross over to the Queen and cash the other high as well. You discard your remaining small and West is now caught in a criss-cross squeeze.
That’s nice, first your partner murders you with too many , then declarer shakes a criss-cross squeeze out of his sleeve. I think I would stop playing bridge if I couldn’t see the beauty of it.
I need to practice, then practice some more and then just for the fun of it even a little bit more. Because three days to formulate a winning plan isn’t exactly winning bridge.
Edit: 26-11-2006
Kees-Jan has pointed out there is no three suited suicide squeeze if East doesn’t take his 5th . So you’re still stuck on just eight tricks. There is a way, though, and that is being crystal ball psychic when touching , so small to the King and then ducked to the bare Ace. Now if West refuses to take all his , you have three tricks in , two in and the Ace of . The necessary tricks in can be developed safely.