The double-barreled endplay is a rare bird indeed, but it is certainly effective on the few occasions when it does arise. It consists of giving the opponents a losing choice of which one of them is going to get endplayed.

Here’s an example. South is in three spades, and West cashes the A-K of clubs. Then, to avoid being put on lead later on, West cashes the ace of hearts, on which East plays the eight. West then shifts to the jack of diamonds.

Declarer finesses the queen and draws two rounds of trump, at which point he is faced with the prospect of losing a heart and a diamond to go down one.

Since East signaled when the ace of hearts was led and West ignored the signal by shifting to a diamond, it is easy for declarer to conclude that the ace of hearts was a singleton.

He therefore cashes the ace of diamonds before leading the queen of hearts. East sees that if he takes his king, he will have to return a heart into the J-9 or yield a ruff-and-discard, so he refuses to win the trick to avoid being endplayed.

This strategy avails the defense naught when South now endplays West by leading his remaining diamond. West wins but must then return a diamond or a club, either of which allows South to discard his last heart as he ruffs in dummy.

And so, South ends up making three spades. Taken by itself, making a partscore may not be a big deal, but in this case, it serves to demonstrate just how the double-barreled endplay works.

Tomorrow >> Famous Hand.

— Steve Becker