Contract Bridge

Endplays take all kinds of forms, but the general idea is always the same. Declarer arranges to put one of the defenders on lead at a time when that defender must hand declarer a trick he might not have gotten otherwise.

Such situations are usually brought about by design. A declarer is fortunate indeed if the setting occurs naturally; in most cases, the sequence of plays must be carefully planned and executed in order to arrive at the winning position.

Consider this deal where West led the K-A and another club against three spades. Declarer ruffed, drew trump and continued with the K-A of hearts and a heart ruff. With the clubs and hearts having been eliminated from both hands, South was now in position to cut his three natural diamond losers to two.

So, he crossed to his hand with a trump and led a diamond, rendering the defense helpless. West did as well as he could by playing the 9, but declarer, sizing up the situation perfectly, ducked in dummy.

It did not matter what East played on this trick. If he allowed the nine to hold, West could do no better than continue with a diamond, whereupon East would take the ace and be forced to yield a ruffand-discard. Similarly, if East overtook the nine with the ace and returned a diamond, dummy’s queen would become a trick, and South would again emerge victorious.

It is true that the contract could have been defeated had West led a diamond at either trick two or trick three. This would have allowed the defense to score two club tricks and three diamond tricks. But once West had failed to do this, South could not be stopped from getting home safely with proper play.