Endplays: Force Opponents to Help You
Ever faced a guess you’d rather not take? A spade finesse that’s 50-50, or a club suit where you have no idea which way to break?
Here’s the beautiful part: sometimes you don’t have to guess. You can make your opponent guess instead. Better yet, you can make them lead a suit where every option costs them a trick.
That’s an endplay. You manipulate the position so the opponent has to help you, whether they like it or not. They’re on lead with nothing but bad choices. Whatever they do next hands you the contract.
What Is an Endplay?
An endplay is a technique where you force an opponent to lead a suit that benefits you. Instead of guessing which way to finesse or how to play a suit, you throw the lead to an opponent at just the right moment. Every card they can lead gives you something you couldn’t get yourself.
Classic scenario: You have ♠AQ in dummy and ♠J53 in hand. Normally you’d guess whether to finesse. But if you can force your left-hand opponent to lead spades, they’re leading away from the king (if they have it). You make two tricks without guessing.
The trick is getting the opponent on lead at exactly the right time, with no safe exit. That’s where elimination comes in.
The Three-Step Dance
Every successful endplay follows the same pattern:
1. Eliminate safe exits
Strip your hand and dummy of side suits. Ruff out hearts, cash all the diamonds, get rid of any suit the opponent could lead safely.
2. Lose the right trick
Give up a trick to the specific opponent you want on lead. Timing matters here—throw in too early and they have safe exits. Too late and you’ve already gone down.
3. Collect your reward
Now they’re on lead with nothing but bad options. They lead into your tenace, or give you a ruff-sluff, or hand you a trick they’d rather keep.
Types of Endplays
The Ruff-Sluff Endplay
This is the most common type. You eliminate a suit entirely—both you and dummy are void. The opponent has to lead it anyway, and you get to ruff in one hand while pitching a loser from the other.
Example hand:
♠ A K 4
♥ 7 6
♦ A 8 5 3
♣ K Q J 10
♠ Q 10 8 5 ♠ J 9 7 2
♥ J 10 9 2 ♥ Q 8 5 4
♦ K 7 ♦ Q 10 6
♣ 8 6 3 ♣ 5 4
♠ 6 3
♥ A K 3
♦ J 9 4 2
♣ A 7 2Contract: 3NT by South
Lead: ♥J
You have eight top tricks—two spades, two hearts, four clubs. You need one more. The diamond finesse is a pure guess.
But watch this: Win the ♥K, cash your club winners (4 tricks), cash ♠AK, cash your remaining hearts. Now exit with a diamond.
Whoever wins the ♦K is stuck. If they return a diamond, you have your ninth trick. If they lead a heart or spade, you pitch a diamond from one hand and ruff in the other. Contract made, no guess required.
The Tenace Endplay
You have a tenace—cards like AQ or KJ with a missing honor between them. You force the specific opponent to lead that suit, and they have to lead right into your tenace.
Example hand:
♠ A Q 5
♥ K 8 6
♦ A 7 3
♣ K Q J 10
♠ K 8 3 ♠ 10 7 4
♥ Q J 10 9 ♥ 7 5 3 2
♦ K 9 2 ♦ Q 10 8 5
♣ 8 6 4 ♣ 9 5
♠ J 9 6 2
♥ A 4
♦ J 6 4
♣ A 7 3 2Contract: 6♣ by South
Lead: ♥Q
You can count eleven tricks—four clubs, two hearts, one diamond, and if the spade finesse works, four spades. But that’s a 50-50 guess.
Forget the guess. Win ♥A, draw trumps (three rounds), cash ♥K, ruff your last heart in hand. Now play ♦A and a diamond.
West wins the ♦K and is endplayed. If West returns a heart or diamond, you ruff in dummy and pitch a spade from hand. If West leads a spade, they’re leading right into your AQ. Either way, you make twelve tricks.
The Strip-and-Endplay
This is the full package. You eliminate the side suits, draw trumps (or leave exactly the right number), and throw in the opponent to lead into your tenace.
Example hand:
♠ A K 6
♥ K 5 4
♦ A 7 3
♣ Q 10 5 4
♠ Q 8 5 ♠ 10 7 4 2
♥ Q J 10 9 ♥ 8 7 3
♦ K 9 8 ♦ Q 6 2
♣ K 8 2 ♣ J 9 3
♠ J 9 3
♥ A 6 2
♦ J 10 5 4
♣ A 7 6Contract: 4♠ by South
Lead: ♥Q
You have a potential loser in each suit outside trumps. The club finesse is a guess. But you can avoid it.
Win ♥K, cash ♠AK (trumps split 3-2, you have one left in hand), ruff a heart in dummy, cash ♦A, ruff your last heart in dummy. Now lead a diamond from dummy.
West wins the ♦K. Now what? If West leads a heart or diamond, you ruff in hand and pitch a club from dummy. If West leads a club, your club guess is solved—if West leads low, play low from dummy and your ace wins. If West leads the king, win the ace and finesse East for the jack later.
The Loser-on-Loser Endplay
Sometimes you have to lose a trick no matter what. So lose it to the right opponent—the one you want on lead.
Example hand:
♠ A 7 4
♥ Q 6 3
♦ K Q J 10
♣ K 8 5
♠ K 10 8 ♠ Q J 9 6 2
♥ J 10 9 8 2 ♥ 7 5
♦ 8 5 ♦ 9 7 3
♣ Q 9 4 ♣ J 10 6
♠ 5 3
♥ A K 4
♦ A 6 4 2
♣ A 7 3 2Contract: 3NT by South
Lead: ♥J
You have eight tricks off the top—two hearts, four diamonds, two aces. The ninth could come from clubs (if the finesse works) or spades (if you’re lucky). But if East gets in, a spade through dummy could be deadly.
Play it safe: Cash your diamonds. On the fourth diamond, pitch a spade from hand. Now exit with a spade.
West wins and is stuck. A heart or spade gives you time to develop your ninth trick. A club lead solves your problem—you just cover whatever West leads.
You deliberately lost a spade trick you had to lose anyway, but you lost it to West, who can’t hurt you.
Recognizing Endplay Opportunities
When should you be thinking endplay?
You’re facing a guess
Two-way finesses, “which honor do I lead?” decisions, or “does the suit split?” questions. If you hate guessing, look for an endplay.
You can eliminate a suit
Can you ruff a suit out, or cash all the winners? If yes, that’s half your endplay right there. Opponents can’t exit in a suit where they have no cards.
You have trump control
In suit contracts, you need enough trumps to control the hand. If they can draw all your trumps before you’re ready, the endplay won’t work.
An opponent will have no safe exit
Look ahead to the ending. Will they be on lead with only bad options? If so, start planning the elimination.
You can lose a trick to the right opponent
You need a card to throw them in with—something that loses to the specific opponent you want on lead, not their partner.
Setting Up the Endplay
The elimination phase is where endplays succeed or fail.
Strip your hand
If dummy has a singleton or void, ruff your low cards in that suit. Now you’re void and that suit is eliminated from your hand.
Strip dummy
If you have a singleton or void, ruff dummy’s low cards. Now that suit is eliminated from dummy.
Cash winners
If you can establish a suit (it’s 3-3, or you can ruff it good), cash all the cards. Nobody has that suit anymore—safe exit gone.
Leave the throw-in card
Don’t eliminate everything. You need one suit where you can lose the lead to the right opponent. That’s your throw-in suit.
Count your tricks
Before executing, count up. Make sure the endplay delivers exactly what you need. If you’re still a trick short after the throw-in, you’ve planned wrong.
Watch the timing
Draw trumps at the right moment. Too early and opponents have safe exits. Too late and they ruff your winners or cash theirs.
Common Mistakes
Stripping the wrong suit
You eliminate hearts and diamonds, then realize you needed hearts as your throw-in suit. Oops. Plan the whole thing before you start eliminating.
Drawing trumps too early
You need to ruff hearts in dummy to eliminate that suit, but you drew all dummy’s trumps already. Now you can’t ruff. Strip first, draw trumps later (or leave one trump in dummy).
Throwing in the wrong opponent
You have ♠AQ in dummy and you throw in East. East leads spades right through your tenace and you still have to guess. Make sure you throw in the opponent who has to lead into your tenace, not through it.
Forgetting to count
You execute the perfect elimination, throw in West, and… you’re still a trick short. Count first. Make sure the math works.
Leaving an escape
You think you’ve stripped everything, but they can exit safely in a suit where you both still have cards. Check every suit. Make sure they’re truly stuck.
Ignoring simpler lines
Sometimes the straightforward finesse is 75% and the endplay requires perfect timing plus a 3-3 break. Don’t get fancy when simple works better.
When Endplays Don’t Work
Endplays aren’t magic. They fail when:
Opponents have a safe exit
If they can lead a suit where you both follow harmlessly, you don’t gain anything. You have to eliminate all safe exits.
You can’t throw in the right opponent
The opponent you need on lead is on your right, but you can only lose to your left-hand opponent. Wrong opponent, wrong result.
The timing is off
You have to draw trumps first, but drawing trumps lets them cash winners. Or you can’t eliminate suits fast enough. The position never materializes.
The cards don’t cooperate
They have all the right cards to exit safely. It happens. You can’t endplay your way out of a truly bad layout.
You lack entries
You can’t get back and forth between hands to eliminate suits and execute the throw-in. Entries matter.
The Beauty of the Endplay
Endplays turn guessing games into sure things. Instead of closing your eyes and hoping the finesse works, you engineer a position where the opponent solves your problem for you—and every solution costs them a trick.
The technique isn’t about luck. It’s about preparation. You strip the hand, remove safe exits, and throw in at the perfect moment.
Start looking for these positions. When you’re facing a finesse, ask yourself: could I endplay instead? When you see you can eliminate a suit, think ahead to the ending. Could this be an endplay?
Try it in practice hands. You’ll be amazed how often the position is sitting there, waiting for you to exploit it.
And when you pull one off at the table? Your opponents will know they’ve been outplayed. Not because you got lucky with a finesse. Because you forced them to do your dirty work.
That’s bridge at its best. That’s the endplay.