Pete’s Rules of Thumb for playing Bridge

Bidding

1) Bob Hamman’s Law: If you are faced with a choice of reasonable bids and 3NT is one
of them, bid it.

a. It’s always better to play in a contract that requires a lower number of tricks.
b. Your bidding might already have hinted at your holding but 3NT is also a
confident bid, saying that you don’t have weaknesses elsewhere (even if you
have). It puts pressure on the opponents to find a lead.
c. It stops the opponents playing in the same level but in a suit – in other words,
if they want to sacrifice, they have to go up a level.
d. Lastly, playing in No-Trumps also means that your opponents can’t ruff your
winners. They will have to set up long suits to beat you but, with the
majority of points, you are the favourite.

2) Prefer Majors to Minors.

a. As with Hamman’s Law, you get to a game at a lower level.

b. Playing in a major (especially playing in spades) means that the opponents
may have to go up a level to compete and/or sacrifice.

3) Playing in a 4-4 fit can often be better than playing in a 5-3 fit.

a. It is generally best declarer play to ruff in the hand with the shorter trump
suit. That way you make your long suit anyway and get “extra” tricks by
ruffing with the short suit.
b. If you have a 5-card trump suit or longer, you will often be relying on the long
cards as winners, simply because it’s a long suit. The trouble is that if you use
a 5th card to ruff, then you have not actually made a gain. It’s a trick you
were likely to win anyway.
c. Having a 4-4 fit gives you the choice of hands to be the “short” suit. You have
a majority of the trumps and the fourth card may come good as a long suit
but you can now pick the best hand for ruffing in.

4) Prefer length over strength.

a. You may look at a trump suit such as K J 10 9 and think that is better than
J 10 9 6 4 3 but that’s not the case.
b. Length in a trump suit gives you better control, particularly if the opponents
have a strong side suit and might force you to ruff. If the opponents can
shorten your trumps, they get control, since they may then end up with the
majority of trumps.
c. The long suit in trumps will always come good towards the end, which is not
the case with a long suit outside trumps.

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 5) When you have a misfit, be cautious; when you have a good fit, be brave.

a. Going back to the K J 10 9 holding, if your partner cannot fill in the gaps, you
may easily lose the K and the J, meaning that your hand is worth 4 points less
than you thought.
b. Clearly the same is true of any points in your partner’s hand.
c. The advantages of bonuses for game and slams in Rubber and Teams Bridge
(and even in Duplicate, though to a lesser extent) means that you should
push the boat out when you have a good hand.
d. You will seldom get to game in a misfit hand so making overtricks at the one
level is much better than trying to make a three level contract but with a
serious chance of going off.

Declarer play

1) Think slowly; play quickly.

a. This is more psychological than technical. Confidence in declarer play is

everything. Make the opponents think they have no chance and you will
often goad them into making mistakes.
b. Take your time at trick 1 and make a good plan. Only change that plan if
something unexpected happens, for example, declarer showing out in a suit
or a bad trump break.

2) Missing the queen? Eight ever; nine never.

a. This applies to hands where you have Ace and King in a suit but not the
queen.
b. This maxim suggests that, if you need to make the maximum tricks, you
should try for a finesse if you have 8 cards but try for the queen to drop if you
have 9.
c. The maxim is predicated on percentages. The finesse will work 50% of the
time (but see below). If you have 9 cards, the queen will drop 53% of the
time.
d. Treat this maxim with caution. It only really applies when you can’t afford to
lose a trick.
e. If you have a hint where the queen is (eg because of the bidding), the
percentages are changed and the maxim might fail. Use all the available
information.
f. The maxim also fails if you have A K J in one hand, since you can play the Ace
first, just in case it picks up a singleton queen.

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Defending a contract

1) Against a no-trump contract, strongly consider leading a major suit.

a. We saw that a principle of bidding was to play in a major suit over a minor
suit. If declarer hasn’t explored a major suit, they are unlikely to have a
majority of the cards in that suit.
b. If you have a shortage in both points and a major suit then your partner may
have enough of both to establish the major suit and still have an entry to get
in to cash the longer tricks.
c. If you have a choice, prefer spades to hearts, since opponents would also
prefer spades over hearts, were they given a choice.

2) Play through strength and play into weakness.

a. Imagine you are on lead and dummy will play fourth to your lead. Play a suit
that dummy is weak in because your partner may be able to beat Declarer’s
card. In any case, dummy may not be able to beat your partner’s.
b. If you on lead and dummy will play second to your card, play through
dummy’s strength. Your partner may be able to flush out declarer’s high card
quite cheaply. Even if dummy plays high, declarer may need to use two high
cards to take out just one from the defence.

3) Second hand plays low; third hand plays high.

a. When you are playing second, generally, don’t give things away. You
probably don’t know declarer’s plan so keep your good cards hidden, unless
it’s essential that you win a trick. Your high card is unlikely to disappear and
you may be giving a trick away.
b. When you are playing third, it means your partner had a reason for leading
that suit. If your partner led into strength, there was a reason so play your
best card.

4) Aces are mean to take kings, not twos

a. Don’t be in a rush to cash your ace.

b. Imagine a case where declarer has Kxx and there is Qxx on table. Declarer
leads low and, second in hand, you go up with your Ace. Now declarer can
make both Q and K. Hold your Ace up and Declarer can only make the Q,
losing two tricks in that suit.

5) Cover an honour with an Honour

a. It is seldom wrong to follow this rule wholeheartedly.

b. Don’t let your opponents make a cheap trick. Just as Aces are meant to take
Kings, so are Queens meant to take Jacks etc.
c. If your opponents lead a high card and you cover, you will have taken out two
of their high cards with just one of yours, which is nearly always the right
thing to do.

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