Blum on Bridge By the Numbers
	My close friend of almost 30 years, Ralph Turner from Gaithersburg Maryland, paid his annual seven-day visit last week. Instead of traveling to Naples to play competitive bridge, on Saturday Ginny Lifton invited my neighbor Kent McWherter and us to play at her house. Of the 28 hands played, I held a 15-pointer, opening 1NT that partner passed, plus a 13 and 12 pointer. The other 25 hands I held 9 points or less including two yarboroughs. Once again I was reminded why I continue to focus my attention on duplicate bridge. My only salvation was that we were playing for nothing so I wasn't forced to add accessories to Ginny's exquisite home. Ron Klinger in his paperback, "100 Winning Bridge Tips," correlates many with numbered rules. For example his 11th tip explains the "Rule of 11." A number of these rules are most important and must be followed by both declarer and defender to properly execute the majority of hands. Should you find after reading today's column you were not aware of even one of these rules, I will consider this effort a success. The "Rule of 11" occurs most frequently in no-trump contracts after the opening leader has lead his 4th best card. Both the opening leader's partner and declarer subtract the "pip" of the card played from 11. The remainder is the total number of cards higher than the "pip" in the three hands other than declarer's. For example you are declarer and opener leads the spade 7, his 4th best. 11-7=4. There are four cards outstanding in the other three hands higher than the 7. Dummy shows A93 and you have QJ5. You see two cards higher than the 7 in dummy plus the QJ in your hand. Play the 9, a winner. Later play the Queen to finesse against opener's king for a total of three winners in the suit. My favorite is the "Rule of 7." Playing no-trump with only one stopper in the enemy's suit, add the number of cards you and dummy total in the suit. Subtract that number from 7. That's how many times you should hold-up before using your stopper. Opener leads the spade 5. Dummy shows with 74. You hold A63, a total of five spades between you and dummy. 7-5=2. Hold-up twice. Attempt to insure the contract by making rho win your loser. If opener began with five spades, rho will have no more of the suit to return. Suppose dummy has 1074 and you hold A63. 7-6=1. Having six cards in defender's suit, hold-up once and take the ace on the second play. Again if opener has five of his suit and rho wins a trick, he will be unable to return his partner's suit. There is one exception that should be obvious. If the defender's have a suit other than the one led that is stronger, it would be wise to grab the ace and take as many tricks as you can in your best suits. Also should you and dummy hold more cards in opener's suit than the enemy, do not hold-up. Then there is the "Rule of 5." In a competitive auction it is better to defend after the opponents have reached the five level than to bid. Your rho opens one heart and you overcall one spade. Lefty jumps to three hearts and your partner bids three spades. Rho bids four hearts and you four spades. When lefty bids five hearts it is best to pass and defend. Incidentally, this holds true in low-level contracts at the three-level. Klinger has a memory guide for this, "defend on odd occasions." Another Klinger rule is the "Rule of four." It is better to play in 4-4 fits than 5-3 because you may be able to sluff losers via the 5-3 fit. Holding K742-AJ7-J6-8432 over partner's one heart opener you should respond one spade instead of immediately raising hearts. Pard could have four spades; if not you can always bid the heart suit later. Another example would be if pard opens one spade and you hold AQ7-KJ63-A752-53, don't raise spades but temporize by bidding two diamonds. Partner just might show a four-card heart suit. You should not make the direct two over one call of two hearts because you specifically would show five in the major. In fourth seat if all before you have originally passed it is wise to apply the "Rule of 15." Simply count your hcps then add to that sub-total the number of spades you hold. If the total is at least 15, open the auction. The theory is that points are evenly divided between the partnerships so the spade suit will facilitate competing in the bidding. We all know rules are made to be broken, but following these will give you far more pluses than minuses.