Members only article series — Part 8
When we start to think about entries - so many things fall into place.
Questions are answered, including
- When should I draw trumps?
- How many trumps should I draw?
- What suit should I play now?
Rule #1: Always think of cards as entries, not just cards - don't just cash them randomly.
Let me illustrate this with an example. I have used this hand elsewhere on the site, it was a powerful example of this to me many years ago, when many experts went wrong on this.
You are in 4♠.
♥K lead. What do you do?
First key idea to the hand - setting up long suits. (covered in previous articles)
We employ our fundamental principles - set up the long suit. Lets assume the clubs are 4-2. We need to ruff one, so our plan is to play 2 and then ruff one - setting the full suit up.
Second key idea (Entries).
What about the Ace of spades - should we cash that - drawing a trump?
No - that Ace of spades is not just a card used to draw trumps - it is an entry back to hand.
So, we win the heart lead, play our 2 rounds of clubs, ruff a club. ONLY after doing all that, do we go back to dummy with the Ace of trumps - using it for TWO purposes
- Drawing trumps - great, it extracts two of the enemy trumps!
- As a critical entry back to the north hand
It is interesting on a hand like this, when dummy comes down it doesn't look like North has a lack of entries to the hand, but they can disappear quickly, the heart disappears on the lead, the clubs are being setup and no longer are entries - in actual fact the North hand is critically low on entries.
It is very rare that entries are not a problem at all, 90% of the time we have to be careful and use our entries very productively.
Lets move on to basically the same rule, just remoulded slightly.
Rule: Always look for something productive to do from the hand you are in - something you can ONLY do effectively from the hand you are in currently.
And on the flip side: Don't do something you can do from either hand, if there is something productive you can do.
Example
You are in 4♠. The opponents lead the King of diamonds, you win the Ace. Now what?
- Ask yourself - what good can you do from the north hand, that you can't do if you were in the other hand.
Play a heart - You would like to take a finesse and you can only take it from the North hand (Dummy).
This answers every question - what to do, which suit to play, whether to draw trumps. Everything is answered by the instinct of using your entry productively. You can't draw a single round of trumps because that would be to squander this entry. You want to use your trump entry to finesse again!
You can play this hand here, and several others on this theme.
In summary
Using entries productively is one of the most powerful instincts for improving your bridge. We start off with the ideas of
- Setting up long suits
- Ruffs in dummy (if dummy is weak type without and/or without a long suit)
- Taking finesses and setting up trick sources.
Once we know those are our goals, we look at entries and say
Rule: How can I use my entries to their maximum to achieve those purposes.
If you are looking for ways to maximise your entries and use every single entry productively, to achieve those goals (numbered 1-3), you will instantly play better bridge and have a better idea which suit to play, and when.
Read next: Dummy Play Secrets - Part 7 - Active and Passive · Dummy Play Secrets - Part 6 - Trick sources · Use Entries Well: Reach the Right Hand at the Right Time