Squeeze them both
Declarer on this hand at the club today made only 12 tricks in his 6NT contract. I cannot remember exactly what line he followed, but when the hand was over, I remarked to my partner that there must be an overtrick on a double squeeze with hearts as the pivot suit, because only I (North) can protect diamonds and only partner (South) can protect spades.
My remark is accurate, but it took me a while to see the winning line. Can you?
There might be more than one line that comes to thirteen tricks, but the one that I noticed first is this:
Win ♥A.
Win 5 rounds of clubs, pitching one of each red suit from dummy.
Play ♦A and then ♦K.
That’s 8 tricks in, with this the five card ending (my hand – North’s — need not come down to the shown five cards, but two of the five cards must be hearts and one of the five cards must be a high diamond).
Note that my partner, having to hold on to four spades, has been squeezed out of his heart guard.
Play ♠K and ♠A, reaching this three card ending:
The ♠Q finishes me off. Whichever red suit I play, declarer discards the other.
Declarer did not find this line. And I doubt I would have either.
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Jeff, with all due respect, this double squeeze practically plays itself. Of course you would have found it!
The only tricky part is deciding where to win the first trick. But your two menaces are a spade (has entry card) and diamond (doesn’t have entry card). So, clearly, the HK must be retained so that you can get back to the DT if it should become a winner.
The only other minor quibble I have is that you should cash the top diamonds immediately for two reasons: 1) just on the off-chance that QJ are doubleton–in which case you can claim and we all get to go home early–and 2) because that makes counting out the other cards that much easier. By cashing tops early you reduce ambiguity.
Phasmid, I don’t see why it makes any difference when the DAK are cashed. If QJ doubleton was dealt, they will remain crashable!
Does the “double squeeze practically play itself”? Well, only if declarer executes two other steps correctly: (1) cashing clubs before cashing spades; and (2) winning HA at Trick 1 rather than HK.