Endplay in Bridge: Strip, Throw In and Ruff and Sluff

An endplay is a card-play technique where declarer gives the lead to a defender at a moment when every card that defender can lead costs a trick. Usually declarer first removes the safe exit cards (an elimination), then throws a defender in, and the defender must lead into a tenace or give a ruff and sluff.

Endplays are card play, so they are the same in every bidding system. They are the most common "expert" technique at the table, and the simple version, strip and throw in, is within reach of every club player.

Most suits play better when the opponents lead them. With ♣AJ5 opposite small cards, you lose two tricks if you lead the suit yourself and the king and queen are well placed for the defense. If the defender who holds the king and queen has to lead clubs, you lose only one: you play low from dummy and your J or A is in position.

The endplay makes the defender lead the suit. The plan has three steps:

1. Draw trumps, keeping at least one trump in each hand.
2. Eliminate the side suits where the defender could exit safely, by cashing them or ruffing them out of both hands.
3. Throw in a defender with a card they must win, at a point where every return helps you.

The key to most endplays is the ruff and sluff (ruff and discard). If both you and dummy are void in a suit and still hold trumps, a defender who leads that suit lets you ruff in one hand and discard a loser from the other. That is a gift, so the defender will not do it.

So you strip the hand: cash or ruff every side suit you can, until both of your hands are void in it. Once the strip is complete, the defender on lead has three bad choices:

• Lead the suit you wanted led, into your tenace.
• Lead a stripped suit and give you a ruff and sluff.
• Lead a trump, if you left one, which may also help you.

The trumps you keep in both hands are what make the ruff and sluff possible. Do not draw them all from one hand.

Look for an endplay when:

• You have a guess or a finesse that might lose: a two-way finesse, AJx opposite small, KJx opposite small, or Axx opposite Q10x.
• You have a side suit you can lose a trick in on purpose, the throw-in card, such as a suit with one or two inevitable losers.
• You have trumps in both hands after drawing the opponents' trumps.
• You can eliminate the remaining side suits with the entries you have.

If all four are there, the endplay is often better than the finesse. Sometimes it is a 100% line where the finesse is 50%.

Timing is where endplays go wrong:

• Strip first, throw in last. If you throw in too early, the defender exits in a suit you have not stripped.
• Pick the right defender. The throw-in card must be won by the opponent you want on lead. Plan which defender holds the high cards in the throw-in suit.
• Watch for unblocks. A good defender may throw away a high card to avoid winning the throw-in trick. If the other defender can win instead, the endplay may fail.
• Count the exits. A defender with a safe card in the throw-in suit can return it. Make sure the throw-in suit runs out at the right moment.

When the throw-in suit has two losers, you can often exit with both: the defenders take two tricks and then must lead from their last cards.

Count losers: two hearts after the ace, and two clubs if you play the suit yourself, since ♣AJ5 opposite ♣76432 loses to the king and queen when West holds them. That is four. You need to lose only one club.

The plan is a strip and throw-in:

1. Win the ♥A.
2. Lead the ♦2 to dummy's ♦K.
3. Draw trumps in two rounds, the first from dummy, ending in your hand. Dummy keeps two trumps, you keep three.
4. Cash the ♦A, throwing a club from dummy. Diamonds are now gone from both hands.
5. Exit with a heart. West wins and cashes a second heart. Hearts are now gone from both hands too.

West is on lead with clubs, a heart and the ♦Q left. A heart or a diamond gives you a ruff and sluff: ruff in one hand, throw a club from the other. A club lets you win with the J or A and lose just one club trick. Either way you lose two hearts and one club and make ten tricks. A double dummy solver confirms 4♠ makes exactly ten.

Without the strip, West would exit safely with a diamond or a heart, and you would have to play clubs yourself: two club losers and down one.

• Drawing all of dummy's trumps. Without a trump in each hand there is no ruff and sluff, and the defender exits safely.
• Throwing in before the strip is complete. One safe exit card is enough for the defender to escape.
• Using the wrong throw-in card. If the other defender can win it, the endplay goes to the hand that can lead safely.
• Taking the finesse first. A losing finesse gives the defense the lead with safe exits still around. Try the endplay first; the finesse may still be there at the end.
• Missing the entries. Ruffing out a suit needs entries back and forth. Plan them before trick two.

An endplay is hard to see in a book and easy to see when you play it. Enter any deal in BridgeDummy's free double dummy analyzer, play the strip card by card, and watch the defender run out of safe exits. For the single-suit side of the technique, the suit combination puzzles train you to play tenaces like ♣AJ5 against the best defense. Related reading: the squeeze, the finesse, drawing trumps and ruffing in dummy.