Some of the most interesting positions in bridge arise when declarer is trying to create an endplay. The following deal shows the defenders needing to determine the problem and then finding the best way to escape from declarer’s toils.

South has a straightforward jump to game when North supports his hearts. If he had the same values but more quick tricks in the side suits, he might consider angling for three no-trump. With three slow side-suit tricks, the heart game should be superior in theory, but as the cards lie, the no-trump game would be easier to play.

West’s natural lead is the spade queen. Declarer wins in hand and cashes the heart aceking, East discarding a spade. South next tests spades by leading a small one to the ace and ruffing the third round. West correctly discards a club on this trick, so South now exits with a trump to West, as East throws a small club.

What is West to do now? A club is immediately fatal, of course, and any diamond up to the nine also fails to do the job. South simply covers the card in dummy, and East’s goose is cooked. No matter what East does, South can now play the diamond suit for no losers.

But what if West exits with the diamond jack? (This is the right card whether or not West has the nine, since South cannot have four diamonds or he would have maneuvered to ruff one in dummy.) Now declarer cannot avoid losing three tricks in the minors.

North-South did not reach the best spot here, but careful play saw them home. Some Souths (including me) would raise one spade to two, but the featured declarer preferred to rebid his good six-bagger. North could have marked time with a three-club advance, but he judged the singleton queen to be ample support and raised straight to game.

When West found the best lead of a diamond, declarer won dummy’s ace and ran the heart queen. He then had to decide how to return to his hand. A diamond ruff might cede trump control, while a club might put the defenders a step ahead in the race to establish the setting trick from that suit.

South decided that even if the defense could take a spade ruff, it would probably be from trump length not shortness, leaving declarer with just one subsequent trump loser. So South called for a low spade from dummy. When his queen held, he cashed the heart ace and reverted back to spades, to try to establish his pitch for the club loser.

East took the spade ace and switched to a club, but declarer rose with the ace, keeping a late entry to dummy for the spades. East trumped the third round of spades and tried to cash the diamond king. Declarer ruffed, gave up a heart trick, and claimed the rest.

Had South played a club to the ace at trick three, the defense would have been a tempo ahead. East would win the second spade to set up a club trick, then ruff the third spade to cash the club.

Safety plays are all well and good, but it pays to know when to use them.

North-South did well to brush aside the strong no-trump opening to reach a perfect-fitting game on this hand from the White House Juniors. South’s two spades promised a minor suit, and North — expecting his trump support, side ace and fitting honor in either minor to be useful — inquired with two no-trump. South had extra shape and all of his honors in his long suits, so he correctly showed a maximum with clubs. That was all North needed to hear.

The heart lead was won in dummy, and declarer saw that, apart from the three top losers in the minors, there was nothing to worry about but the trumps. Needing to avoid a loser with this spade combination, one would usually play them from the top, but when the hand on your right is known to be balanced and strong, the odds are clearly in favor of a finesse. Still, declarer would like to cash one top spade before finessing, in case West has a singleton queen.

Declarer looked deeper into the situation, though, and saw that he could not afford this safety play, for he might not be able to get back to dummy conveniently. East could have the doubleton club ace; if so, he would duck the club queen, take the second round, then tap the South hand and later over-ruff the dummy on the third club.

Judging this club layout to be more likely than a singleton spade queen on his left, declarer ran the spade jack at trick two and scored up his game without a fuss.

When South responds one heart to one club, North jumps to three diamonds. Since two diamonds would be natural and forcing, it is reasonable to agree to play this as extra values with heart support and diamond shortness.

With excellent trumps and an ideal diamond holding, South can imagine a slam. He cue-bids four diamonds, then five diamonds when North signs off. This all but demands that North bid six with decent black-suit controls.

Against the slam, West leads a trump, both to protect his diamond honors and to cut down dummy’s ruffing potential. South’s best plan seems to be to trump diamonds in dummy, since taking spade ruffs in hand would promote winners for the defense.

He should aim to win two spades, his own four trumps, one top diamond, and two diamond ruffs in dummy. The problem is to make sure of three club tricks. How can South arrange to ruff a second diamond and guard against losing a club at a moment when the opponents could cash a diamond trick?

The solution is to give up a club early on while dummy can still ruff a diamond return. This solves the timing problem, even if it runs a small risk of losing to a club ruff.

He wins the trump lead, cashes the diamond ace, ruffs a diamond and leads the club jack from dummy. East can win and play another trump, but declarer wins and ruffs a second diamond. He can then use the club 10 as a re-entry to hand to draw trumps and run dummy’s clubs.

In today’s deal, North sensibly passes over West’s one-heart opening. A two- diamond overcall would be too aggressive, even at these colors. Since a protective one no-trump shows 11 to 14, South starts with a double, then tries the no-trump game when North jumps to three diamonds.

After the heart lead, South has three spade and two heart tricks. He needs four tricks from the clubs and diamonds. Which suit should he attack first?

It would be fatal to go after clubs, because they can generate only three tricks. Even if you sneakily lead the jack from your hand, West should take his ace and knock out the heart ace. Declarer would be able to run only eight tricks before leading diamonds, whereupon West could take his ace and cash out the hearts.

Declarer’s best shot is to lead a low diamond rather than the queen at trick two. West is marked with the ace, but he cannot profitably play it as the cards lie. To do so would give declarer four diamond tricks even if the suit breaks four-two. Nonetheless, West should probably take the ace and clear hearts, hoping his partner retains the guarded diamond queen. But declarer has his nine tricks without needing the clubs at all.

If West plays low at trick two, South has succeeded in stealing a diamond trick. He can then switch to clubs and will emerge with two hearts, one diamond and three tricks in each black suit, for nine winners in all.

North made a Michaels cuebid to show the majors over West’s light opener in third seat, and South judged his spade king and ruffing value in hearts to be worth a mild invite of three spades. This was sensible: Even though one of the minor-suit kings would probably be wasted, the other might be working overtime, as here. North had an easy raise to game.

West’s singleton heart lead went to dummy’s ace. Now declarer, seeking to ruff a heart in hand, correctly crossed to hand with the spade king to lead a second heart through the void. West intelligently pitched a diamond, unwilling to ruff thin air, and after scoring the heart king, South made another careful play when he called for the spade ace.

Only then did declarer ruff a heart in hand. The play of the spade ace had the effect of extracting West’s safe exit card, so he could no longer over-ruff and exit passively in the trump suit. Nevertheless, West chose to over-ruff immediately and found the best continuation of a small club.

With the clubs blocked, declarer could not immediately benefit from this, but he found a counter. He rose with dummy’s club ace, then led a club to his 10. That left West on lead without resource. He had to establish an extra trick for declarer in one minor or the other, along with an entry.

It would not have helped West not to over-ruff the third heart. South would have crossed to the club ace and thrown West on lead with a spade to produce the same ending.

The successful declarer always looks for a way to augment his chances. In today’s deal, South found himself at the helm in four hearts after North set up a game force at his first turn. South showed his major-suit pattern without promising extras, then each player looked to extract support from their partner for their long suit. South won the day when North fessed up to a doubleton heart honor.

Having to choose between the pointed suits on lead, West opted for the unbid one and put a low diamond on the table. Declarer could see a spade and two trump losers on the likely 3-2 split; but if he could ruff one spade in dummy, that would give him two spade tricks, three minor-suit winners, one ruff and four trump tricks, for 10 in all.

However, South was not prepared to settle for that: He sought to find a way home even if hearts split 4-1. Aiming to set up dummy’s clubs, declarer won the diamond in hand and ruffed a spade at trick three, then followed with a low club, which he ruffed small. He returned to the heart ace and ruffed another low club in hand, then gave up a trump, East showing out. West could draw two more rounds of trumps, but dummy discarded the losing diamond; when clubs broke, South had the rest. The extra chance of an even club split had paid dividends.

Note declarer’s good technique in keeping the club ace in dummy. This way, he did not risk conceding an over-ruff or trump promotion if clubs were 4-2 and trumps 3-2.

North-South bid to a pushy four-spade contract here when South up-valued his heart honors in his partner’s suit and, expecting the missing club honors to be on his left, bid one more for the road.

After cashing the top clubs and receiving an odd count-signal from his partner, West found the excellent defense of the diamond ace and another diamond, attacking the late entry to dummy. West’s defense was based on the fact that East had followed with his lowest club at his second turn, suggesting more interest in the lower of the red suits.

Upon winning with the diamond king, declarer saw he needed to dispose of his remaining diamond on a heart. One line was to unblock the heart ace-king, finesse the spade 10 and cash the spade ace before playing the heart queen. That would succeed when West had the spade queen and either hearts were 3-3 or West had doubletons in each major. For this to work, assuming the clubs were 6-3 as the carding had suggested, West would need to have only two spades.

If that were the case, East would have the long spades, which made it more likely that the spade queen was on declarer’s right. Looking at each player’s cards outside the club suit supported that reasoning, East having 10 unknown cards to West’s seven.

So declarer called for the spade 10 from dummy at trick five and let it run. He then unblocked the top hearts and returned to the spade ace to throw his remaining diamond on the heart queen. When West was unable to ruff, the game was home.

Nothing would tempt me to open the North hand, but at the table, the player with those cards did not see it that way, and a poor game was reached.

West kicked off passively against four spades with the trump jack. Declarer had no immediately obvious way of disposing of his losing heart, as the club king was more likely on his left. South decided his best chance was to arrange an endplay against West. He therefore sought to eliminate the hearts without letting East on lead for a club switch.

Declarer won the trump lead in dummy and led a low heart. East played small, and so did South. Upon winning with the heart 10, West exited with a heart to the ace. Declarer crossed to the table with the trump eight, ruffed a heart, played another trump to the queen and ran the diamond 10 to West’s jack.

After cashing the diamond ace, West was caught between a rock and a hard place.

A club continuation would float around to the queen, and declarer would then need only to ruff a diamond in dummy. West could place both red-suit queens with his partner, so South had to have the club queen. Therefore, West’s only chance was to concede a ruff-and-discard by leading a heart, hoping his partner had the diamond eight.

No such luck. Declarer ruffed in dummy, throwing his club loser, and finessed in diamonds to make his game.

Do you think West could have figured out to play the diamond ace and another diamond at trick three, to escape the endplay?