There are nearly two dozen Rules in bridge to help you in the bidding and play. The Rule of 20, for instance: open the bidding (in any seat) when your points plus the number of cards in your two longest suits come to at least 20. Or the Rule of 15: open in 4th seat if your points plus your number of spades (the suit most likely to win a part-score) equals at least 15. Or the Rule of 7: if a suit is led v NT, and the ace is your only stopper, decide how many times to hold up by subtracting the total number of cards you and dummy hold in the suit from 7.
All the rules are based on maths and probability (far beyond my understanding). Yet while they may provide a useful guide, to obey them blindly would be absurd – you can’t play bridge by following formulas. There is, however, one Rule which stands out. The Rule of 11 is indispensable to moderate and world-class experts alike. If your partner (or opponent) leads 4th best versus No Trumps, by subtracting the card’s number from 11, you’ll know how many higher cards are in the remaining three hands. You can see how many you and dummy hold – the last calculation is easy. I recently came across this hand from 1983, played by the great Martin Hoffman:
Zia Mahmood was East, Omar Sharif was West! South (Irving Rose) led the ♠6 and Zia played low. Most players would win the ♠K and return another. This would allow declarer to knock out the high clubs and make his contract. Hoffman, with no hesitation, played the ♠10: he knew from the Rule of 11 that Zia had only one spade higher than the ♠6. Zia won with the ♠Q and tried a club. Hoffman won and played the ♠K to dummy’s ♠A. When he won the next club, the defence cashed three spades and the ◆A for down two.
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