Quick! Where will you want Entries?
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|  10 5 3 |
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 K 5 |
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 A K Q 10 9 5 2 |
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 4 |
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| 9 4 2 |
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7 |
| Q 9 6 |
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J 10 8 4 2 |
| 7 |
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J 8 6 4 3 |
| K J 9 8 3 2 |
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A 6 |
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A K Q J 8 6 |
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A 7 3 |
| Vul: E-W |
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| Contract: 6 spades |
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Q 10 7 5 |
| Opening lead: various |
Quick! How many entries are you going to be needing to dummy? No, no, no, that's the wrong question (and if it were the right one, you don't need to be all that quick about it). The right question is, which hand are you going to be needing entries to? And though you don't need to be quick about it, exactly, the answer should be so obvious that you don't need to take time to decide. You're going to want to preserve entries to dummy.
How many do you have? Well, technically, you could claim three entries (the 10 of hearts, the K of hearts and a heart ruff) but if trump don't split 2-2, that would mean your last entry to dummy is taken before all trump are out, meaning you can't run diamonds. So in a practical sense, you have just two entries to dummy. Will that be enough?
It'll be enough if diamonds split 3-3 or 4-2. It'll be enough if the long diamonds on an uneven break lie with East (since you can take a ruffing finesse against the J). It'll be enough regardless of who holds the long diamonds on an uneven break if the defense doesn't get off to a club lead (you would cash three diamonds, sluffing three clubs, then on the 10 of diamonds, sluff the last club, later using the 9 to sluff a heart). If the defense does get off to a club lead, then two entries wouldn't be enough on the 5-1 split when West holds the long diamonds. Still you've got a lot of ways where you'll have sufficient entries -- if you'll just guard them carefully and be respectful of the value those two entries offer. Here's what a few declarers did with that cold contract:
One got a spade lead, offering a chance for an overtrick, as the cards lie. Declarer should figure on a 3-1 spade split, both because it's most favored by the odds and because it offers you safety over figuring on a 2-2 split and finding it isn't there. Declarer should take a second round in the closed hand, a third with the 10, cash three diamonds, sluffing three clubs, ruff out the jack of diamonds on a marked ruffing finesse, get back with the K of hearts to cash the 9 of diamonds on round five and the five to sluff a heart. Unfortunately, this declarer went to the 10 of spades at trick two. On a 2-2 spade break, it would have been a poor play that didn't cost anything. But there wasn't any 2-2 spade break, and now the hand cannot be made. Well, okay, it can be made on the totally improbable ruffing finesse against the J of diamonds on the first round of the suit! But for all practical purposes, that incautious using up of the 10 of spades on the second round has queered the contract. Declarer now ruffed the deuce of diamonds, which in some circumstances is a wise play, but here didn't help on the 5-1 split. After drawing trump and going to the K of hearts, declarer could sluff three clubs on the top diamonds and even ruff out the jack. But there was no entry back to the 10 of diamonds, and declarer wound up losing a club and a heart.
A second declarer got a club opening lead, and consequently had no chance for an overtrick, but the contract still should have been made. Instead, after East had taken the trick with the ace, he shot back a heart and . . . and . . . declarer let it ride to the king! That shouldn't have been. Preserving that entry should have been topmost in declarer's mind, that valuable no-nonsense entry to those lovely diamonds. Declarer now came to the closed hand for two spade leads, cashed the A of hearts and ruffed a heart with the 10. Only a 3-3 diamond split, or the J falling short could have saved declarer at that time. But it wasn't to be (and if there had been a 3-3 split, that potential could obviously have been exploited later). The second round of diamonds was ruffed by West for the setting trick.
You might note that East missed a chance for a more troublesome return at trick two, which of course would have been a club back to his partner. Well, it wouldn't necessarily be troubling. Declarer still has an out: Ruff a diamond, cash a trump and back with the 10, ruff a diamond high and draw the last trump. With East cut down to 3 diamonds, the suit will now run, the K of hearts being an entry. Still, it would have put declarer to the test more than the heart return, even though this declarer muffed that benign return.