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Entry Management Here we look at hands where the object of the exercise is to be in the right place at the right time. Typically, we have a source of tricks in one hand or the other and must organize a sequence of plays where not only do we manage to set up that suit, but we also must have an entry which will allow us to enjoy it. See also Establishing Side-Suits.
Related Play Problems Play Problem 32
Related Extracts from Past Wednesday Games
Nothing sophicated about the auction, how about the play? The most obvious line is: Diamond to North’s Ace Diamond ruff Spade to the Ace Spade finesse Cash ♠K Heart to the King and Ace Diamond ruff Heart to the Queen ♣Q covered by the King and Ace Now Declarer gets back to Dummy one more time and is able to lead towards his ♥T. Making 10 tricks thanks to the careful use of Dummy entries.
South will lead a Diamond. And you will make 11 tricks. You will, won’t you? The best line is to play on Clubs at Trick 2 before touching trumps. That way Declarer can use Dummy’s trumps as entries later, and his 11 tricks will be made up of two Spades, six trumps in his hand, a Diamond and two Clubs. There’s no need to waste time going after a Diamond ruff, and if the defense forces Dummy to ruff, then the ♠K must be carefully preserved as an entry to the long Club (so, when North gets in with her ♣K and shifts to s Spade, Declarer will hop up with the Ace, declining the “free” finesse).
The best defense is for North to cash two Spades and shift to a Diamond. Dummy must ruff and now Declarer can bungle the contract with this line of play: North cashes ♠A and ♠K Diamond shift is ruffed in Dummy ♥K is cashed Heart to Declarer’s Jack Now Declarer will silently say “Oops!” as he realizes that he is going down if Clubs are not 2-2 with the King onside. He would also have been in the same situation if Hearts had obligingly been 3-2. What’s the solution? Declarer can afford to cash one high Heart in Dummy but should now exit with a low Club. Now Dummy can ruff another Diamond if necessary, and still have the communications to draw trumps and run the Clubs whenever the suit is 2-2 (regardless of who has the King). This line also works when either defender has the singleton ♣K.
We suppose that North will lead the ♣J or the ♦Q. If it’s the Club Jack then Declarer’s line of play is: win the opening lead with the ♣Q, draw trumps, and ruff out the Diamonds. That’s 13 tricks if Diamonds are 3-3, but only 12 on the actual layout. Note the importance of winning the opening lead on the board with the ♣Q, Declarer ♣AK are both needed to set up the Diamonds.
The final contract is likely to be 3♥ by North and 9 tricks are made with careful use of entries. East leads the ♠Q, won in Dummy. Now the ♥Q is finessed, then a Club to the King, Heart to the Ace and another Club, this time won by East. Now, with Dummy’s Clubs established, Declarer has an abundance of tricks, and the defense must grab their two Diamond winners while they still can. Making 9 tricks.
6♠ is a decent slam. It needs 3-2 trumps and a little luck in Clubs, or 4-1 in trumps and a lot of luck in Clubs. East’s best lead is a Heart, and Declarer must decide whether to set up the Diamonds or the Clubs. The Clubs look more promising, partly because of the better spots and partly because of the entry situation. Having decided that, Declarer does best to play on Clubs early, while the trump suit is still available for transportation between the hands: The play might go: Heart lead won by Declarer’s Ace Cash ♣A Run the ♣Q, losing to West’s King Club ruffed by East’s Ten, overruffed in Dummy Back to the ♠A Heart ruff Cash the ♠K, etc.
West’s 2♥ showed the majors (DONT), North’s 3♣ showed some values, and East took advantage of the vulnerability with a leap to 4♠. It’s not surprising that this would be doubled when N-S have such a preponderance of the HCP, and against 4♠ doubled, South should probably lead a trump, the standard lead when a contract has been doubled on power. That gives Declarer no trouble at all, and it’s 10 tricks in a hurry.
Now consider what might happen if South decides to start with Diamonds instead. Check out this unsuccessful line of play and see if you can figure out what went wrong: ♦A and ♦K are both cashed ♣A is cashed Club is ruffed on the board Trumps are drawn in two rounds ♥A is cashed Heart ruff Diamond ruff Heart ruff Diamond ruff Heart ruff After all those ruffs, Declarer and Dummy are now out of trumps. Declarer has scored 9 tricks already and has finally established Dummy's 5th Heart for the 10th trick. Well, not exactly! The lead is now in Declarer's hand and there is no way back to Dummy to enjoy that winning Heart. So, what went wrong? Yes, Declarer needed to use his trump entries to better effect. After winning at Trick 4 with the Club ruff, he should cash ♥A, ruff a Heart and cross back to hand with a Spade. Ruffing a Heart early, before touching trumps, gives Dummy an extra entry and allows the long Heart to be enjoyed later in the play.
Some optimistic bidding by both North and South, we can see a number of N-S pairs playing this one in 3♣ (which is 11 easy tricks when the Diamond finesse works). But our pair gets to 3NT and West starts out with a low Diamond. Declarer wins the first Diamond, cashes the ♣A and loses a Club. The Diamond continuation is ducked, Declarer takes the third Diamond, and plays on Hearts next (she will need the Clubs later for transportation purposes). West might craftily duck, but Declarer has ♣T85 and Dummy has ♣976 … these holding provide two entries to Declarer’s hand (one to knock out the ♥A and one to get back for the second Heart winner) … and provide one entry to Dummy (to reach those Spade winners at the end of the play). Nicely done for 10 tricks!
N-S did well to reach 4♠ and, after the opening lead of the ♥K, it’s possible to make no fewer than 12 tricks: ♥K opening lead is won by Dummy’s Ace Finesse the ♣J Heart ruff Cross to the ♣A Heart ruff Cash the ♣K (necessary, even though it risks a defensive ruff) Cross to the Spade Ace Heart ruff Concede a Diamond Now Declarer ruffs the Diamond return, draws trumps and enjoys the 13th Club. Nicely played!
South’s hand is just too good for a 2♥ raise and her jump to 3♥ gets N-S to their good game. East will probably lead a Spade and here is the wrong way to play the hand: Win the ♠A Ruff a Spade low Club to the King Ruff a Spade low ♥K losing to West’s Ace Heart return won in Dummy Now Declarer is stuck in Dummy and cannot draw the last trump. He loses a Diamond the West’s King, and can count herself fortunate that the defense are now unable to arrange a Club ruff (as they could if East had one of the high Diamonds). So, North’s inferior play goes unpunished.
A better line is to play on Diamonds at Trick 2, planning to set up a Diamond trick and rely on just one Spade ruff. And, if the defense forces Dummy to ruff Spades twice then Declarer can get back to hand with the ♣K.
Against 4♥, West might try the aggressive opening lead of a Club. This does not work out well for the defense and now Declarer has 11 or 12 tricks: ♣Q wins the first trick Cross to the ♥A Diamond to the Jack and West’s Ace Spade to Dummy’s Ace (Declarer pitches a Club) Club to the Ace Cash ♦K Diamond ruff Now, Declarer might reason that East started with only three Diamonds and that he might have three Hearts. If Declarer follows this tenuous logic and finesses the Heart, he’ll score a whopping 12 tricks.
Suppose next that West makes the dangerous lead of the singleton trump. Declarer should win this on the board! She’ll assume that the ♥Q is with East, and winning the opening lead in Dummy will improve the entry situation. At Trick 2, Declarer finesses in Diamonds, wins the Spade return in Dummy, loses the Club finesse, ruffs the Spade return, cashes ♦K, and ruffs a Diamond. Now, if Declarer can guess to take the trump finesse (she should), it will be 11 tricks, and that will be enough for a good N-S score.
A routine auction to the normal spot. West leads the Club Four, and the spots tell us that, as this is his lowest Club, he is probably leading from a 4-card suit … a 3-card suit is possible, but surely not a 5-card suit unless West is renowned for his trickery. It seems reasonable to win the first Club on the board and knock out the A♦. A Club comes back. Should Declarer duck this? No, there are two reasons not to: (a) We have to finesse the Spade into the East hand, and that is the hand which might have 5 Clubs; (b) If we duck a Club they might shift to Hearts … then, after a losing Spade finesse, a Heart back will put us to an awkward guess.
So, Declarer wins the second Club immediately, rattles off her Diamonds, loses the Spade finesse, and has 9 tricks. But not so fast! After the Spade finesse loses and they cash their two Club winners, a Heart shift will knock out Declarer’s entry before the Spade suit is unblocked. No, if Diamonds are to be rattled we must take care to rattle only four of them, winning the 4th in our hand, and also keeping the high Diamond in our hand as a later entry. Now, when the Spade finesse fails, we can handle the Spade blockage.
South showed super-human restraint in not doubling 4♥, which was just as well because the contract turns out to be cold! Here is a possible line of play: Q♠ opening lead, won by Declarer Heart to the Ace Heart Eight overtaken by the Nine (necessary play!) Q♥ won by South’s King Club, ruffed by Declarer Cash J♥ Diamond to North’s Ace A♣, ruffed by Declarer’s last trump Now, South has the last outstanding trump, but Declarer has Diamond winners with both black suits under control. Note the importance of overtaking the Heart Eight. If Declarer neglects to do this, he’ll be short of entries back to his hand … he’ll have to use up the K♠, and will eventually lose control of the hand.
North’s 2♣ was DONT.
Against 2♠ East leads the K♦, so, if Declarer reasonably assumes that this is backed up by the Queen, she can be sure that West (for his 15-17 1NT) has the remainder of the HCP’s with the possible exception of a minor suit Jack. Therefore there is no possibility of misguessing the Q♠ on this board! But there is a trap for the unwary, as illustrated in this rather careless line of play: Defense cashes two Diamonds Declarer ruffs the third round of Diamonds Cross to the A♠ Spade to the Queen and King Cross to the A♥ Club finesse Cash A♣ Club ruff Oops! Declarer is stuck on the board and needs to get back to her hand in order to draw that last trump. She has to concede a Heart to West, who now cashes a Club, and gives Partner a trump promotion by leading the third round of Hearts. Making just 8 tricks when 9 were there for the taking. Declarer messed up her communications … the correct line is to take care of the Club ruff first, and use the trump suit for getting back to her hand. Let’s try again: Defense cashes two Diamonds Declarer ruffs the third round of Diamonds Cross to the A♠ Club finesse Cash A♣ Club ruff Spade back to Declarer’s hand Yes, that’s the ticket, 9 easy tricks.
It’s great fun, especially when non-vulnerable, to push around the opponents with bold preempts, but sometimes it rebounds and the opponents are pushed into a game they might otherwise not reach. Here is a case in point, East’s jump to 4♣ put South on the spot and she guessed to bid 4♥, going to game with slender values in the absence of a good alternative.
4♥ should be made, but not if Declarer adopts this careless line of play: Club won by Dummy’s Ace Spade to Declarer’s King Heart finesse losing to East’s Queen Spade won by Dummy’s Ace Heart won by West’s Ace Spade, ruffed on the board Diamond to Declarer’s King and West’s Ace Heart return Oops! Dummy is out of entries, with the Diamond suit still blocked. As a result, Declarer will be stuck in his hand with two black suit losers, and that will be down two.
The problem with the previous line of play was that Declarer did not play on Diamonds early enough. Let’s try again: Club won by Dummy’s Ace Diamond lost to West’s Ace Diamond return Heart misguessed, losing to East’s Queen Diamond return ruffed high by Declarer Now, thanks to better entry management by Declarer, it’s an easy 10 tricks.
On opening lead, East (a notorious dreamer), leads a Spade, hoping that Partner has Axx, and that the enemy Spades are 2-2, and that Partner also has another Ace up his sleeve. This turns out not to be the case, and Declarer can make 11 tricks if she can pick up the Diamonds and also untangle the Spades. Here are three lines: - Declarer wins the A♠, cashes the K♠, crosses to the K♦, cashes the Q♠, and runs the T♦. This works fine, 11 tricks result. But it’s a bizarre line of play, very much against the odds and risking defeat. Although this one works like a charm, let us scratch it off our list, it’s straight out of the Twilight Zone. - Take Two. Declarer wins the A♠, plays the Diamonds from the top, has to lose a Diamond, and ends up with 9 tricks. A variation would be to guess the Diamond correctly and make 10 tricks. - Take Three. An enlightened Declarer wins the A♠, cashes the K♠, and takes an immediate finesse of the T♦. Nice play! If the finesse works, Declarer can cash the Q♠, and wind up with 11 tricks the safe way. If the finesse loses (as it does), then it’s just 10 tricks.
Against 4♠, after this auction, we cannot imagine East leading a Club. That’s a shame for the defense because it’s the only lead to set the contract, allowing the defense’s two Club winners to be established before one of them goes away on a Diamond. Let’s say that the defense leads a Heart. Where do you win this trick? Yes, win it in Dummy! Now the J♦ is played and East cunningly ducks. East wins the second Diamond and belatedly shifts to a Club. Dummy’s Ace wins that, at which point Declarer is delighted to have that Q♥ entry, so that a Club can be pitched on a Diamond before trumps are tackled. Nice play by Declarer, it would be oh so easy to carelessly win that first trick with the Q♥, blowing a cold contract. Of course, if East and North are both having a bad day, then, after North mistakenly wins the opening lead with the Q♥, East might let her off the hook by forgetting to duck the first round of Diamonds.
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