BridgeHands

Strip and Endplay - A playing tactic where the declarer eliminates losers in two suits (usually running trumps and a side suit with an even number of cards), then throwing the opponent's in the lead in the third suit allowing them to win one trick. 

Strip and Endplay (Avoidance and Elimination Plays)

More videos:
    Strip and Endplay,  Day 1  Blog  Part 1  Part 2
    Strip and Endplay,  Day 2  Blog  Part 1  Part 2  Part 3
    Strip and Endplay,  Day 3  Blog  Part 1  Part 2  Part 3
    Strip and Endplay,  Dangerous Opponents   Day 4  Blog  Part 1  Part 2  Part 3
    Loser on Loser, Day 5       Blog  Part 1  Part 2  Part 3
    Strip and Endplay, Partial Elimination Play, Day 6    Blog  Part 1  Part 2  Part 3
    Defending Against Endplays, Day 7                         Blog  Part 1  Part 2  Part 3

In the situation below, the winning opponent finds their side either endplayed in the fourth suit or allowing declarer to ruff and sluff if the opponent stubbornly continues another suit.  This maneuver avoids the downfall of mis-guessing a finesse.

	K 7 5 4 2 A 8 K 10 5 9 8 7
A 9 8 Q J 10 9 Q 9 7 6 3 2	Declarer: South  Contact: 4S	K 7 6 3 2 4 3 2 Q J 6 5 4
	Q J 10 6 3 5 4 A J 8 A K 10

West leads the HQ, ducked by South anticipating a possible strip and endplay. Continuing Hearts, dummy wins the HA.  Declarer plays a Spade, ducked twice and won on the third round by West's SA. Next, Declarer plays 3 rounds of Clubs, throwing East in the lead with the CJ.  If East leads a Diamond to West’s Queen, the honor is pinned by North’s King–10 combination. This way Declarer South does not have to guess which opponent holds the Queen, a 50-50 change to mis-guess the finesse. And if East plays a remaining black card, the Declarer South will ruff in hand and pitch the D5 from dummy North's hand, avoiding the Diamond finesse entirely.

Take note of the declarer-dummy suit distribution. While these hands have exactly the same mirrored suit distribution (5=2=3=3), typical endplays will have two side suits with identical suit length.  The recurring theme behind the Strip and Endplay is to:

1. Pull trump

2. Play the doubleton side suit

3. Win two tricks on one side suit, then through the opponents in the lead

4. Now the winning opponent lead will either finesse their side or cause a ruff and sluff (pitching a loser)