Use Entries Well: Reach the Right Hand at the Right Time

One fundamental of bridge, in both declarer play and defence, is to use entries productively

Rule: Use entries productively. If you can only play a suit from one hand, strongly think about playing that suit when you are in that hand. If you follow that rule, very strong play will start becoming easier to spot.

Its easiest to explore this rule with examples

Example 1.

The opponents lead a trump. You have several tasks, you want to play twice up to the spade, hoping to make two spade tricks if the Ace is on side. You also want to finesse the diamond. At trick one you are in Dummy (the south hand). You have limited entries to that hand, three in total, and you have three tasks to do. You have to treat every entry as a precious resource and use it. Don't carelessly cash another trump, as now you are too short on entries. In other words when you are in dummy, think of the plays that can only be done from dummy, generally it will be a good idea to make those plays as priority (before drawing trumps etc).

Example 2. You win the Spade lead in hand, what next?

You're going to need some club tricks. The most logical way is to play small towards the honors, you might need to do that a few times, so seize the entry and play a club. What will happen next will depend on what hand you are in, if the opponents return a diamond and you find yourself in dummy the North hand, it looks logical to play a heart low towards the honors. In other words, the play will flow logically depending on which hand you are in.

Example 3. This concept can continue to grow in difficulty, but provided you are looking out for the idea of using entries productively, good plays will continue to reveal themselves. This example is given earlier in the declarer play section, used to illustrate a different point. 

The opponents lead a non descriptive heart, you win the Ace. What next?

As is common with good declarer play, our focus should shift to our long suit. Correct play is to play the suit immediately, Ace and ruff a club, then return to dummy with the Ace of trumps. Some declarers got most of the way to the correct answer, but falted by first cashing the Ace of trumps. It looks natural, but you should first be using your entries productively, by setting up the long club suit, then returning to the hand with the Ace of trumps as an entry (don't just casually cash the Ace of trumps, use it as an entry as well)!

In summary - entries are generally very scarce. The hands where you have unlimited entries are very rare. More often than not, you need to use your entries in a very considered way. When you are in any given hand, you should be asking yourself the question "what do I need to do from this hand, that I can't do from the other hand". Generally you should strongly consider doing whatever that is. 

Cashing top tricks, like Aces and Kings, should usually be done if you want to move to the hand with the Ace. In other words, as shown in example three, sometimes you can first use your entry productively by doing something from that hand, then return to it with an Ace. Or put differently, think carefully before cashing Aces, they aren't just Aces, they are also entries. 

Where to next

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