Elimination play has a thrill of its own at bridge. A good declarer is conversant with its basic rule that is when you have or will have trumps remaining in both hands with no obvious way of making them separately, look for a strip.
What makes an elimination sometimes look so fulfilling and rewarding is that many hands embody the salient feature of both squeeze and strip to such an extent being so interwoven that it becomes impossible to separate them. For a trump strip to work, declarer must have at least one trump remaining in each hand after the throw-in has accrued that is the purpose of elimination followed by throw-in where the defender now on lead is perforce either to give a ruff and discard or lead into a marked tenace.
In a no trump strip, there being no ruff and discard position, declarer needs to remove from the defender's hands all cards of exit, leaving him ripe for the throw-in. As for example suppose north south hands are:
Opening lead from west is KC. At trick one east discards 9 of spades; declarer wins with ace of clubs. Both follow to hearts but east discards 3 of spades on the third heart. Both follow to 2 diamonds on trick 5 and 6.
What are south's prospects now after 6 tricks? He has a diamond winner and a spade winner giving him 8 tricks. But as in the actual deal, here declarer claimed his contract. Can you foresee why and how? Yes, declarer knew by now that west had no more than one spade since he followed to 3 hearts with east blanking out, which gave him 4 hearts to the known 6 clubs. When he followed to 2 diamonds, his singleton spade or void is established. If west is holding the third diamond declarer plays his king of diamond to close it, then leads the 10 spade. If west plays low, he lets the 10S ride to east who can at most cash his 2 diamonds but ultimately is forced to lead to the spade tenace. If west comes up with singleton jack, declarer plays the ace and returns a low spade. The QS is bound to be declarer's 9th trick.
Coming back to our trump strip elimination with
In a contract of 4S, opening lead of KC followed by ace of clubs with a trump lead what are your prospects in avoiding 2 diamond losers. A good squeeze technician in south seat can claim the contract at this stage. How? Drawing trumps and the spade tops, if the suit does not break, ruff the 4th spade and now lead a diamond. Your AQ9 are enough to end play west. In case east plays, 10D or JD, put up QD your A9 are the threatening tenace. But if east plays low, play your lowest 9D to endplay west - QED.
================
North South
================
AQ542 10
KQ9 A543
AJ6 KQ7
62 A8743
================
============================
The bidding:
============================
East South West North
============================
P 1C P 1S
P 1NT P 3NT
============================
============================
North South
============================
holding holding
============================
952 Opposite AKQ8
Q10732 Opposite AKJ6
764 Opposite AQ9
108 Opposite QJ
============================