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More on the Rule of Seven

Students always want a definitive sweeping rule that they can apply all the time, unfortunately in Bridge there are none (or at least none that I know of), I can tell them second hand low, then show numerous examples where it is right to play second hand high, or, don’t lead an unsupported honour and show them sheer brilliancies where leading the unsupported honour was the only correct defence.

If the opposition lead your weakest suit against 3nt, hold-up according to the Rule of 7 is as close as I know to being a sweeping rule.

The defence have attacked declarers weakest suit, diamonds, even though declarer has a double stop (AK♦), he/she has a triple stop in spades, a potential triple stop in hearts (if it is switched to) and clubs is the suit he/she is going to develop, diamonds is therefore the weakest suit. South has 6 diamonds between the hands 7-6=1, therefore he holds up the A♦ once, the suit is continued and after winning. Declarer dutifully puts the 7 winners (3 spades, 2 hearts and 2 diamonds) to one side and sets about making his 2 extra tricks in clubs by knocking out the AK♣, he therefore plays a club. East on winning the K♣ has no diamonds left and is not able to knockout declarers remaining stop in diamonds for his partner (making all partners diamonds good), whatever he/she returns declarer can win, knockout West’s A♣ and make the contract. It would make no difference if West won the first club that is his entry for his/her diamonds and would be the end of the defence. I can move the cards round slightly to create a much harder example.

If you win East’s J♦ with the Q♦ at trick 1 you will go down. Upon playing a club (as before you need to develop 2 tricks in clubs), East is able to win the K♣ and return the precious 2♦, with K985 ♦ over your 103♦ West can force out your A♦ whether you duck now or not. The contract is one off when he wins his A♣ and cashes the now established diamonds. The Rule of 7 keeps you right. Hold up once according to the Rule of 7, you still have a double stop in diamonds as you know West has the K♦, (else East would have played it at trick 1, third hand high!), your Q10♦ are equals against the K♦ and you are still bound to make 2 diamond tricks. Obviously you could not make this play without the precious 10♦. You make your contract in the same way as the previous example with East upon winning the K♣ exhausted of diamonds unable to clear the suit for partner. My tip for this article would be;

• After the opening lead is made go through each suit slowly (compartmentalize) and determine whether or not your weakest suit has been lead. If it has hold-up according to the Rule of 7. If you answer this question correctly, you will increase your chances considerably of making your contract, but it isn’t an easy question to answer and my second piece of advice is;
• Take your time at trick 1, make your plan before playing from dummy.

The Rule of Seven

My advice to students in a no-trump contract is as follows ask yourself 3 questions;

1. Have I enough sure winners, if yes cash them, if not put them to one side and forget about them, concentrate on making the required extra tricks (this is not intuitive and is hard to learn)
2. Where am I going to make extra tricks (compartmentalize) which suit am I going to concentrate on and call my work suit.
3. Have they attacked my weakest suit, (careful you could have a double stop in your weakest suit and have to hold up, and a single stop and 2 weak suits and you don’t hold up), if they have use the rule of 7.

So what is the rule of 7, well the rule of 7 is based on the dangerous occasion when one of the defenders has a 5 card suit, and will cut communication between them. Basically you count how many cards you have in the suit lead (your weakest suit) subtract that number from 7 and hold up your Ace that amount of times, it’s easier than it sounds.

The defence have attacked declarer’s weakest suit, diamonds. South has 6 diamonds between the hands 7-6=1, therefore he holds up the A♦ once only. Declarer dutifully puts the 7 winners (4 spades, 2 hearts and a diamond) to one side and sets about making his extra tricks in clubs by knocking out the A♣. East on winning the A♣ has no diamonds left and whatever he/she returns by virtue of the favourable lie in hearts and clubs declarer makes the remainder of the tricks, 11 (4 spades, 3 hearts, 3 clubs and a diamond) in total. Note that if East did have a diamond to return the suit would be breaking 4-3 and declarer would still be making the contract albeit only 9 tricks, while if West had the A♣(unlikely ♠? ♥ ?♦KQJxx ♣A? he/she might have bid) declarer could not make the contract.

Here is a harder example;

A little knowledge can be a bad thing; South receives the 5♥ lead and using the Rule of 7, holds up once, meanly, after scoring the first trick, East switches to the K♦ . South still in Rule of 7 mode decides to hold up twice, but East isn’t finished twisting the knife and after scoring tricks 2 and 3 with the KQ♦ switches back to hearts. South wins and tries the club finesse, disaster, East wins and fires back hearts ensuring a 2 trick set.

So what went wrong, well, basically the Rule of 7 doesn’t work when there are 2 weak suits. Here South can work out, assuming West has lead his 4 th best heart that he has a 4 card suit only (the 5♥ is lead and South has the 4♥, 3♥ and 2♥ between the hands his only possible 5 th best cards, think about it!). Therefore, as he is worried about a switch to diamonds and as he believes the lead to be from a non dangerous 4 card suit, South should win trick 1, take the losing club finesse, and after losing the next 3 tricks in hearts, claim the rest. I shall do a bit more on the Rule of 7, next article. My tip from this article would be ask yourself 3 key questions in no-trump contracts;

• Have I enough winners
• Where will I make extra tricks
• Have they attacked my weakest suit
  

High Cards from the short suit first

Probably the hardest task for a bridge teacher is stopping his students blocking suits. My phraseology normally is as follows “always play the high cards from the short suit first, when a suit, that you have unilaterally decided to play, is unevenly distributed i.e. 5 opposite 3, or 6 opposite 4 etc. That way you will win the all important crossover trick in the long hand, at the right time, and be able to go on and make the long cards if necessary in that suit.” For example assuming a normal break (one defender having ♦J32) with ♦AQ108 opposite ♦K9763, you must play ♦AQ first then overtake the ♦10 with the ♦K, then put the ♦8 under the ♦9, that way you are in the right hand to play the 5th round of the suit the ♦7. Try it any other way and you will be stuck in the wrong hand and unable to make the long diamond.

Here is an old chestnut:

The contract looks easy 5 diamonds, 2 spades a heart and a club, but careful (unblocking) play is needed in the diamond suit. Declarer after winning the A♥ must play the ♦AKQ first dropping the ♦1098 (high cards from the short suit first) underneath them, you can now play the ♦6 under the ♦7 and are now in the long hand at the right time and can play the 5th round of the suit the 4♦. Cash your 2 spades and your ♣A now and you have 9 tricks. Here is a much harder example:

Declarer rises with the A♥ (else East upon winning will switch to J♣ defeating the contract) crosses to the A♠ and even manages the technically correct finesse card of the 9♦ at trick 3, but a simple duck by East puts paid to the contract. When East wins the next trick with the K♦ (it doesn’t matter if declarer continues with the 2♦ or J♦ , he must repeat the finesse) the J♣ switch means South cannot untangle his 9 winners, 3 spades, 4 diamonds a heart and a club. After winning the A♣ (finessing will lead to instant failure) he will probably end up stuck on the dummy at trick 9 having to play either a club or a heart with no way over to his K♠. Play the Q♠ at trick 2 (high cards from the short suit first), cross to the K♠, finesse the 9♦ at trick 3, continue with the J♦ when it is ducked, the K♦ will be taken and a club switched to, you now rise with the A♣, cash the A♠ , then run the diamonds, easy. Ending up stuck in the wrong hand is a far bigger worry than a 4-1 diamond break. My tip for this lesson would be:
 

• High cards from the short suit first

2nt is a difficult contract to make

One of the hardest jobs of a bridge teacher is to persuade a new student to show preference at the 2 level. The reason this is so important is, because 2nt is a difficult contract to make. It doesn’t sound like a very high level contract but, you need on average 23/24 points to make 8 tricks through sheer high cards, the same as is required to make a 3 level contract in a suit. 2nt really belongs to the 3 level then.

Here is an example:

Our newcomer South, decides partner has the red suits while he has the blacks and a balanced hand, no-trumps must be right. But 2nt on a combined 20 count (lucky it wasn’t only 18) has little chance. South will lose 5 spades and 2 clubs before gaining the lead, 2 off. South should have had 11 not 7 points to make the 2nt rebid. Oh, alright then our newcomer says, I can be persuaded that 2nt is wrong but I’ve got more diamonds than hearts I’ll pass, still wrong. Whenever partner bids a suit followed by another suit at the 2 level or above, partner is promising (rare 4-4-4-1 hands excepted) 5 cards in the first suit he bid. Here the 4-3 fit is far better than 2nt but is still favourite to go off on spade leads and continuations, or, a more likely club lead and spade switch and continuation. Basically North will not be able to draw the trumps and run his hearts, as, after being forced to trump in the only 4 cards long, trump suit, he has less trumps than one of the defenders. One other point I want to make is please don’t think North was wrong to bid the diamonds, on another day South will have one heart and 3/4 diamonds and that will be the best spot. On this hand if South makes the correct rebid of 2 hearts his partner is favourite. If he is forced early (made to trump in the long trump hand by the defenders playing spades) he can bash out the AK♦ and ruff the 4 th round if necessary, while if a trump is switched to, he can draw the trumps, again bash out the top diamonds and set up his 8♦ by force. Now for the brighter student, were East to lead the 2♠'s against an eventual contract of 2 diamonds after winning with his J♠ how could West know to switch to a spade, answer next article. Two tips resulting from this lesson would be;

• Prefer to play in a 5-2 fit rather than a 4-3 fit
• Forcing declarer to trump in the long trump hand is normally good defence

For more information Douglas Piper can be contacted on 0131 447 1765 or email him at
Douglas Piper

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