From                 5th July, 2006, Board 23

                                          Theme              Entry Management

                                          Difficulty           * * *

                                          Dlr South          Both Vul              Hands Rotated

                                                                                                for Convenience

West leads a trump, which was the last lead you wanted to see!  Without that lead, you could have lost a Spade, hopefully won a Diamond finesse, and cross-ruffed your way to 10 tricks.  But now, coming to 10 tricks will be quite a challenge!  Not many obvious losers, but a definite shortage of winners.  One line is to win the trump lead, lose a Spade, win the trump continuation, and embark on that same cross-ruff.  But, this will provide you with 6 trump tricks, the A♣, and, with the aid of a successful finesse, two Diamond tricks.  That's only 9 tricks.  Bearing in mind the shortage of entries to the closed hand, what is the best line of play for 10 tricks? 

SOLUTION

Surely you need to score at least two Spade ruffs in the closed hand ... this will give you a total of six trump tricks, and will provide some entries to your hand for us to develop some minor suit winners.  And, if you win the opening trump lead in our hand you can arrange an eventual total of three entries total to your hand for the purpose of building minor suit tricks.  This is how to go about the hand:  win the opening trump lead in the closed hand, take the winning Q♦ finesse, lose a Spade, and win the trump return in hand ... now lead A♣, then Q♣, and see what happens!

If the ruffing finesse in Clubs wins, you are home free, you'll score 6 trump tricks and 4 minor suit winners.  And, if it loses?  You are still in with two chances! 

First chance ... East wins the K♣, but cannot return a trump (as in the actual hand).  If this is the case, Declarer can still manage 6 trump tricks and 4 minor suit winners.

Second chance ... East wins the K♣, and does return a trump.  Now, Declarer is down to 5 trump tricks and needs 5 minor suit tricks to compensate for the shortfall.  All is not lost, Declarer can win the trump return on the board, ruff a Spade, cash the Club winners (pitching Spades), and play A♦ and a small Diamond, hoping that the suit is 3-3 or that someone has Jx or Kx of the suit.  With any luck, it will be possible to score 5 trump tricks, 3 Diamond tricks, and two Club tricks.

Keys to Success

   - Winning the opening trump lead in hand (thus ensuring that there will be 3 entries to hand)

   - Postponing the drawing of trumps

   - Using all three entries to develop minor suit tricks