Entries, Entries, Entries

K 9 3 2
10
A Q 7 4 3
Q 6 5
7 4 6
Q J 9 8 4 J 10 7
K 8 5 2 J 9 8
3 2 K J 10 9 8 4
A Q J 10 8 5
A K 6 3
10 Contract: 7 spades
A 7 Opening lead: 3 of clubs, 2 of diamonds

Can you make this hand? Without taking the diamond hook? After all, who wants to be down at trick one. So we're not going to take that hook. One made his grand, and one didn't, and the difference was paying attention, I guess you might say. Here's how one made it: Club to the ace, diamond to the ace, ruff a diamond with the 10, jack to the king, ruff a diamond with the queen, 5 of spades to the 9, ruff a diamond with the 8, and whaddya know! There's that pesky king of diamonds. How many trump are there in each hand? It's tough to follow with just words, but dummy has two (there've only been two trump leads) and the closed hand has one (two trump leads, three ruffs of diamonds). The hand would have looked like this:

3 2
10
Q
Q 6
------ ------
Q J 9 8 4 J 10 7
------ ------
2 K J 10
A
A K 6 3
------
7

Declarer can now cash two top hearts, sluffing a club, and ruff a heart in dummy, sluff a club on the Q of diamonds, ruff a club, ruff the last heart in dummy.
The other declarer actually got a diamond lead. Now if he'd just ruffed one diamond, he'd be half way home. Well, 40% of the way there, if you will, since he must take five diamond leads (ruffing 3). But he led a heart to the ace at trick two. Hm-m-m. Well, he's not dead yet, even though he squandered an entry -- worse, he is giving indications that he doesn't have his eye on the ball. His only hope (now that the finesse is no longer possible) is to ruff out diamonds, getting a 4-3 break. So why doesn't he hop to it?
Now he ruffed a heart, ruffed a diamond (with the five), ruffed a heart, ruffed a diamond (with the 8)-- well, it looks as though he's picked up on that possibility after all, except that -- well, you've probably spotted his difficulty. Ten of spades to the king, ruff a diamond with the jack, and sonuvagun, there comes that pesky king of diamonds! The only problem is that he can't use the queen! He can't get to dummy except by, well, ruffing the K of hearts. He has no trump lower than the nine! Which means he has to let that 7 of spades remain, which is to say he can't use that Q of diamonds! The hand would have looked like this:

9
------
Q
Q 6 5
7 ------
Q J ------
------ ------
3 2 K J 10 9 8
A Q
K
------
A 7

Declarer had four trump entries to dummy (after squandering the ace of diamonds entry, i.e., squandering because he didn't use that entry to ruff a diamond). Two high cards and two ruffs. Since you've got to draw trump (and not so incidentally, learn if they're splitting 2-1 or 3-0), that should be first, or rather co-extensive with ruffing out diamonds. After ruffing, you use trump to re-enter dummy. You've always got the heart ruffs coming (when trump split 2-1). You don't want to squander them early. You must draw two rounds of trump (interwoven with a diamond ruff) and count on two entries by way of heart ruffs. If declarer sees that way to conserve his entries, wherein he now has just enough, we might hope that one trump lead would be an honor to the king, or perhaps what would work just as well, make all diamond ruffs high, the 8 and 5 being used for entries.
A sad situation when declarer had all that power and a little ol' 7 of trump on a two-card holding (!) can bring down that mighty ship. You will remember that the first declarer started ruffing diamonds with honors. I mean, you've got every trump down to the 8 and you're ruffing with the five?