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Posted on Fri, Jun 21, 2013 : 5 a.m.

Bridge column, June 21: It is time to enter with your trumps

By Philip Adler

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Taylor Swift said, "I write songs that are like diary entries. I have to do it in order to feel sane."

If success is proportional to sanity, Swift must be the most grounded person on the planet.

A bridge expert often has a careful order in which he must play the tricks to enter a plus score onto his card. In this deal, for example, how must South play in four spades after West leads the club king?

South's three-spade rebid invited game while promising at least a six-card suit. (With only five, he would have rebid two no-trump or made a help-suit game-try.) North, with a potential source of tricks in his heart suit, raised to game.

South first counts his losers by looking at his hand and taking dummy's high cards into account. Here, he should see four: two diamonds and two clubs. Then he counts winners, finding only nine: six spades, two hearts and one club.

Since the loser count is too high and the winner count too low, declarer should realize that he must establish dummy's heart suit.

This is the safest line: Win the first trick with the club ace, cash the spade ace, take dummy's top hearts, and ruff a heart high in hand. (South ruffs high for two reasons: He doesn't want to risk an overruff by West and he needs the two low spades to lead to dummy's nine and 10 for entries.) Now declarer plays the spade three to dummy's nine and ruffs another heart high. Back to dummy with a trump to the 10, South cashes the heart eight, giving him six spades, three hearts and one club.

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