Contract Bridge

The endplay is a valuable weapon used by declarer to avoid losing a trick the opponents might otherwise win. Endplays come in many different forms, and which one a declarer uses depends on the circumstances he encounters.

Consider this case where West led a club against South’s six- heart contract. Declarer saw at once that he would make the slam unless he was unlucky and lost two diamond tricks. So, to minimize the danger, he embarked on a campaign to eliminate the black suits from both the dummy and his own hand before tackling diamonds.

After taking the club lead with the ace, South played the K- Q of trump, both opponents following suit. This favorable development assured the contract 100%.

South cashed the club king, discarding a diamond from dummy, then ruffed a club in dummy. The A- K of spades were cashed, and a spade was ruffed in the closed hand. When South now led the ten of diamonds and played low from dummy, East won with the queen but had to yield the slam whether he returned a diamond or a club.

Now let’s alter the circumstances and imagine that West had led his singleton diamond initially instead of a club. In that case, South would have endplayed West instead of East!

Declarer wins the diamond ace, plays the K- Q of trump, cashes the A- K of clubs, discarding a diamond from dummy, and ruffs a club in dummy. When declarer next cashes the A- K of spades, discarding a diamond, he learns that West started with eight spades. This, plus the two hearts, two clubs and a diamond he has already played, completes the picture of his hand.

So South leads dummy’s last spade and on it discards the eight of diamonds, forcing West to win and return a spade. This allows South to ruff in dummy and discard his ten of diamonds to make the slam.