In today’s deal, South was playing rubber bridge against an opponent to his left who had managed to get his back up on more than one occasion. So when the chance came up to needle him in return, he could not resist the opportunity.

South had opened a strong no-trump and jumped to three hearts over North’s transfer. This showed a reasonable hand with four hearts, and North naturally raised to game.

West’s lead of the club queen went to declarer’s ace. Declarer cashed the trump ace, played a trump to the king, and played a spade. East took his ace and returned a third trump (a diamond would have been no better).

Declarer won, cashed the spade queen, then played a club to hand and ruffed a spade. With trumps drawn and the black suits eliminated, declarer put his hand on the table and asked his opponent if he wanted him to state a line. When West aggressively asked him how he planned to cope with a bad diamond break, South had his answer ready.

“I’m sure you can see I have 10 tricks against any 3-2 diamond break, but a 4-1 break will also prove no problem. I will play a low diamond and follow small from my hand. If the suit is 4-1, then either the player with the singleton will win and give me a ruff-sluff. Or, alternatively, if the player with the four-card suit wins, the best he can do is return the suit, and I will run that lead around to an honor and play back the suit, holding my diamond losers to two.”

This deal from the German Bridge Trophy features some fine card-reading. When West led the spade queen against four hearts, declarer ducked. If a red suit did not behave, he wanted to prevent a club shift through his king.

South won the next spade and drew trumps, West shedding a spade, before testing the diamonds with the ace and queen. When East showed out, it looked as though the contract would hinge on the location of the club ace.

However, declarer wondered why West had not switched to a club at trick two, the natural thing to do with three small in the dummy. He must surely have the club ace. Declarer called for another trump, throwing a diamond from hand. West could not part with a diamond, while a club discard would have enabled declarer to duck two clubs and drop the ace. So West chose to release another spade, giving South a chance to read the ending.

Had West begun with a 5=2=4=2 shape, in which case declarer needed to duck a club, or did he have 4=2=4=3 distribution? West’s failure to act over one no-trump suggested that his hand was balanced, so declarer endplayed West in diamonds to concede a trick to the club king.

Curiously, if East had overtaken the spade queen with the king at trick one, West would not have come under pressure. East could then have gained the lead with the spade 10 to play the club jack through. Maybe East should have worked this out, since he knew he wanted to find a way to obtain the lead.

When West opened one diamond, it was passed around to South, who upgraded his spotcards and stretched to balance with two no-trump to show a balanced 19-20. North also took an aggressive position by raising. Still, despite North-South having just a combined 23-count, game had decent play.

Declarer won the spade king lead and went after hearts while his communications were still open. West took the heart king and cashed the spade jack, East following upward. Placing a spade stopper with South, West could count eight tricks for declarer once the spade queen was knocked out. As South was also likely to have diamonds stopped, he ninth trick could easily come from an endplay. Had West defended passively, by exiting with a heart, declarer could set up his spade winner, then strip all of West’s cards except diamonds, and next lead that suit from dummy. Because of his diamond nine, declarer could duck the lead to West for a diamond return into his tenace.

So, West attacked dummy’s entry before South could cash the spades. He shifted to the club 10, taken by the king. Declarer unblocked his heart honors and advanced the spade eight. However, West took the queen and played another club to dummy’s ace. Declarer could throw a diamond on the heart jack, but then had to tackle diamonds. He played to his nine, but West won the diamond jack and exited safely with a spade. The diamond king scored the setting trick.

West was asleep at the wheel on today’s deal, in which South landed in four spades after his partner’s pre-emptive raise. It is unusual to make such a bid with three kings, but North felt he had to drive to game and had no other way to do so without overstating his high cards.

The lead of the diamond queen went to the ace, and East, unwilling to open up the hearts, returned a diamond. Declarer could see that he would need to resort to a swindle. He won and, since a heart would give the defenders too many chances to play that suit, immediately led a deceptive club jack to the king and East’s ace. Back came another club to South’s queen, and now declarer advanced the heart 10.

After West played small, not wanting to save South a guess if he had the jack-10, declarer went up with the king. He then drew trumps in two rounds, cashed the club nine and put West in with the heart ace to generate the critical ruff-and-discard.

Declarer had done well to play a heart to put West to the test at a moment when he did not yet know much about the hand, but West should not have fallen for it. He needed his partner to have the heart queen, but when there is a decision between making a legitimate play and one that requires an incorrect guess on an opponent’s part, one should opt for the legitimate line. Had West acknowledged this, he would have gone up with the heart ace, escaping the endplay and ensuring a second heart trick for the defense.

Knowing his partner had a bust, West eschewed a club lead against four spades in favor of what he hoped would be a passive trump. South won in hand, cashed the spade 10 (West throwing the diamond queen) and led a heart toward dummy.

West could now place all the missing minor-suit honors with South, and the impending danger was clear. If he played small on the heart, he would eventually be thrown in, whether it be on the next heart (should South be 5=2=2=4) or on the third round of clubs (if South had temporized with three clubs on a 5=3=2=3 shape).

So West inserted the heart queen, hoping to create an entry to his partner’s hand with the jack. Declarer won dummy’s king and returned the suit, but East alertly hopped up with the jack to shift to the diamond two. Unwilling to present East with another entry, South played small. After winning cheaply, West cashed the diamond ace and played a third diamond, giving South a useless ruff-and-discard. West had seen his partner show an even number of hearts, so there was little danger in letting declarer pitch a club from either hand. When the club ace-king failed to drop the queen, declarer conceded defeat.

If West had played small on the first heart and been thrown in with the second heart, declarer could have afforded to guess incorrectly on a low club shift. Then, eventually, he could have put West back in with the club queen to open up the diamonds or give him a helpful ruff-andsluff.

Even playing a sound style, many would open today’s North hand. But after North’s disciplined pass, South made a simple overcall of one spade. West stretched to two diamonds, and North bid two no-trump, conventionally showing a constructive four-card spade raise. South then took a shot at game; a threeheart bid might have helped his partner (but also the opponents) to judge the hand.

Declarer won the club lead and ruffed a club with a middle trump, crossed to dummy with a heart to ruff the last club, then cashed the spade ace-king. He next got off lead with a heart, taken by West’s king, who was now forced to open up the diamonds.

Declarer still had a guess as to which diamond honor West held, but decided that it was unlikely that East would have rebid three clubs with just a 10-count. He played small from dummy and landed the game.

Well played by South, but West had a slim chance to defeat him. Had he imagined the position, West could have freed himself of the heart king on the first round of the suit. Then East could win the second heart, cash the heart queen and exit with a fourth round. South’s heart nine would be set up, but for no useful discard, and declarer would have been left to open up the diamonds for himself.

While that would have been the winning defense today, it would have looked silly if declarer had two small diamonds and the heart jack, so we can hardly blame West for his actions.

This week’s deals are all about breaking up endplays. Defenders often have the chance to avert the embarrassment of a forced ruff-and-discard or leading into a tenace, but all too often the escape is only found in the postmortem.

Here, when South played three no-trump after a two-suited opening by East, West had been put off his natural (and fatal) heart lead. West led a third-and-fifth spade two, East’s jack holding the trick. East continued with the spade queen, West following with the five. Now East had a lot of choices, but he eventually cleared spades, leading the eight (his middle card) to advertise a diamond entry.

Declarer next ran off all his clubs. West could easily part with two hearts and a diamond, but the fourth discard was crucial. A heart would make it easy for declarer, so West shed a second low diamond.

That proved to be costly when declarer’s next play was a diamond. Had West played low, declarer would have little choice but to go up with the ace and throw West in with the diamond king for a heart lead. So West played second hand high with the diamond king. Declarer countered by ducking the king, then won the next diamond and ran the heart eight to West, forcing a lead back into the heart tenace.

Since West could tell that declarer had nine tricks if he had both the diamond queen and the heart ace, he should have discarded the diamond king on the last club to escape the endplay.

Omar Sharif played in the 1998 Macallan tournament with Paul Chemla, and in the spirit of true repentance, he revealed a painful mistake he had made in a column. I am passing it on so that you can learn from it. Save your trump on defense to ruff winners, they say; well, up to a point.

Against four spades, Paul Chemla led the club jack. Declarer Tony Forrester won with the ace and crossed to dummy in spades to lead the singleton diamond. What he intended to do if Sharif (East) had ducked smoothly, we will never know. In practice, Sharif must have given the show away, for when he ducked, Forrester put up the king. Next, he played the heart eight, ducking Chemla’s 10.

At this point, Sharif could see a cross-ruff looming. He carefully overtook the heart 10 with the queen to lead a trump, won in dummy. Forrester correctly led a club, and, following the general rule of not ruffing partner’s trick away, Sharif discarded. However, Forrester won his club king, ruffed a diamond, then played the heart ace and ruffed a heart. Another diamond ruff left him with the trump ace for his 10th trick.

If Sharif had trumped the second club and played his last spade, Forrester would have had only nine tricks. He would have had no extra club winners, and the defense would have simply eliminated a trump from both hands, saving a trick.

In the end, I suppose all we can say is that there is an exception to every rule in Bridge — except this one.