Hand of the Fortnight

Number 21

Theme: What is an "end-play"?

This sometimes occurs late in the defence of a hand.

Ex. 1: Suppose you are North in 4H. You’ve cleared trumps & Spades. East opened the bidding with 1D suggesting that nearly all other HCP are in that hand.

You are down to 5 tricks to play:

North

D: A K 3

C: K 7

East

D: Q 9 3

C: A Q

South

C: 8 6 5 2

(All other cards irrelevant).

Trick 9: DA D3 ............

Trick 10: DK D9 ............

Trick 11: D3 DQ ............

Now East must lead a Club to your C: K 7 i.e. East has been "end-played".

I have seen cases of players being end-played even at Trick 5!

Ex. 2: Defending 4S (N) in the deal below. The H6 lead is taken by Declarer and trumps are cleared in 2 rounds. (Cover S7, S3 & H6 in East’s hand).

Trick 4: Looking at singleton DQ in Dummy, what do you do when D6 is played?

North

S: K Q 9 6 4 2

H: A

D: K T 6

C: A 7 2

West East

S: J T S: 7 3

H: K Q T 7 5 2 H: 6

D: J 9 7 5 D: A 8 4 3 2

C: 9 C: Q 8 6 4 3

South

S: A 8 5

H: J 9 8 4 3

D: Q

C: K J T 5

With S7, S3 & H6 gone from East’s hand, East faces difficulties seeing the bare DQ.

1) If they had another Heart, they would have an easy, safe exit card.

2) Here if they duck it to avoid being end-played, Declarer should suspect that East has such difficulties & is extremely likely to have the CQ. But if you duck it, partner may have the DK!?

Note: This can be a disadvantage of bids showing a weak 2 suiter and 5/5 in those suits or even in bidding 2 suits in a competitive bidding situation. If an opponent is Declarer, they can plan their play knowing this.

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