FRANK STEWART BRIDGE

ENTRIES AND TIMING

“If you don’t know where you’re going, you may wind up somewhere else.” — graffiti

Entries are declarer’s means of placing the lead where he wants it. Proper entry management may be crucial. Today’s declarer gave his game a straightforward play. He took the top spades, ruffed his last spade in dummy, cashed the king of trumps and finessed with the jack. West won and exited with a trump. South next led a diamond to dummy’s ace and back to his queen. He lost two diamonds and a club. Down one. Club Ruff South does best to set up dummy’s clubs but must time the use of his entries. He wins the first spade with the king and leads the king of clubs Say East wins and leads the jack of diamonds: three, six, ace. South then takes the queen of clubs and A-K of

trumps and ruffs a club. He goes to the ace of spades and ruffs a club. (To overruff won’t help West.)

South can then ruff his last spade in dummy and pitch a diamond on the good club. He loses only three tricks in all. Daily Question

You hold: ♠ A 3 ♥ K 6 4 ♦ A85 ♣ 8 6

4 3 2. Your partner opens one spade, you respond two clubs, he rebids two spades and you try 2NT. Partner next bids three hearts. What do you say?

Answer: Partner suggests six spades, four hearts and minimum values. If he had a hand such as K 8 7 6 4 2, A Q 10 7, 2, A K, his second bid would have been two hearts. You would usually pass or bid three spades now, but since you have three useful honors, to jump to four spades is correct.

South dealer N-S vulnerable