South’s invisible dummy entry does not exist

Today’s deal brings to mind the story of an absentminded physics professor who invented an invisibility cloak — but couldn’t remember where he put it.

After today’s South quite properly bid what he thought was the most likely game, West led the 10 of spades. East covered dummy’s queen, and South’s ace won. South next unblocked his queen of clubs, led a heart to dummy’s ace and tried the A-K of clubs, discarding diamonds.

Unfortunately, West threw a heart on the third club. South then led a second heart to his queen, but West took the king, continued spades to force out South’s jack, and got back in with the jack of hearts to cash three spades. South won the last two tricks with the ace of diamonds and his last heart, but he was down one.

South could have continued with a fourth round of clubs to set up dummy’s long clubs, but it would have done him no good. If dummy had an entry at that point, it was invisible to the naked eye. (Actually, the entry just didn’t exist.)

South has a better chance if he overtakes the queen of clubs with the king and cashes the ace. If East-West followed with low clubs, South would lead a third club and hope for a 3-3 break.

But when West plays the nine on the second club, South can continue with the 10 to force out East’s jack. He can win the spade return and go to dummy with the ace of hearts to run the clubs, winning five clubs, a heart, two spades and a diamond.

This line of play may cost overtricks but is the best play for nine tricks.