Making the most of your entries

George Ade, who was a columnist and playwright, said, “Anybody can win, unless there happens to be a second entry.” In bridge, though, sometimes you win only if you have two or three entries -- as in today’s deal.

How should South play in six notrump after the first trick has a royal attendance: heart jack, queen, king, ace?

If I had been North, I would have responded two no-trump to show 8 points or more and a balanced hand. That works luckily here, putting the defender with the heart king on lead. However, after North’s more popular two-diamond response (“waiting”), South’s jump to three no-trump promised a balanced 25-27. North thought about bidding five no-trump to suggest a minor-suit contract but went for the higher-scoring strain. (Note that this was a wise decision because six clubs would surely have failed. Yes, six diamonds would have made, but why would they get there?)

South has only nine top tricks: three spades, one heart, four diamonds and one club. He needs to take four club tricks. East must be assumed to have the club king. However, if East has four clubs, declarer will have to take three club finesses, which requires three dummy entries. These must come from diamonds.

The correct approach is to cash the diamond king and continue with the diamond queen (seemingly not wanting to get into the dummy!). When West follows both times, declarer overtakes with dummy’s ace (entry 1) and notes that East discards. South takes a club finesse -- phew! This is followed by a diamond to the nine (entry 2), another club finesse, a diamond to the jack (entry 3) and a third club finesse.