These tips give guidance to some important numbers to be used in Bridge.

If there is just one trump out that is higher than yours, leave it out.  Why waste two of your trumps to get rid of a trump that will win anyway?

Cash the AK, then, assuming a 3-2 split, the opponents have one master trump. Leave it out and go about your business in the other suits. Try to stop that trump from drawing two of your small trumps; aim to scores dummy's remaining trump by ruffing.

[Note to defenders: if you do find yourself on play with the master trump, cash it when it draws two of the opposing small trumps].

When partner has bid a suit as an overcall, you should almost always support when you have 3 card support - he has 5 good cards.

The bidding has proceeded (1 ♦ ) - (1 ♥ ) - (1 ♠) - ? What should you bid now with these:

Hand A. Bid 2 ♥ You do not need six points to support an overcall – provided you have the three cards to make a known eight-card fit.

Hand B. Bid 2 ♥ Nor do you need a supporting honour; remember partner has five decent cards.

Hand C. Bid 3 ♥ Holding a known nine-card fit, the best bid is to jump to the nine-trick level. This is termed “bidding to the level of the fit”.

When choosing which 4 cards suit to bid ....open the Major ( ♥ with 4 ♠ and 4 ♥ ); respond with the cheaper.

What would you open with these?

With Hand A, open 1 ♥, planning to rebid Notrumps at the lowest level.

With Hand B, open 1♠, planning to rebid 2NT.

With Hand C, open 1♥, planning to rebid Notrumps at the lowest (but raise a 1 ♠response to 2)♠

Hand D is the exception — 4441s usually are. It’s actually better to open 1♣, opening 1♣ with a red-suit singleton (and 1♥ with a black- suit singleton).

If you bid two suits, you should have five (+) cards in your first suit.  In other words try not to bid a second suit if you have just four cards in your first suit.

What would be your two-bid strategies with these opening hands?

Hand A. Bid 1 ♠ then, over a 2 ♦ or a 2 ♥ response, rebid 2 NT (15-16 balanced). It is mistaken to open 1 ♦, planning to rebid 1 ♠ over 1♥, for that would imply five diamonds. It is precisely because you are not planning to bid both your suits that with a 4-4 major-minor, you should open the major.

Hand B. Open 1 ♥ – the exception to the open-higher-ranking-of-equal-length-suits rule for opener. You do not plan to bid spades, unless partner does. Over a 2  ♣, 2 ♦  reply, rebid 2 NT. If partner has responded (say) 2 ♦with four ♠ - five ♦ it is his duty to find the spade fit by bidding 3 ♠ over 2NT.

Hand C.  Open 1 ♣ and rebid 1♠ showing five(+) clubs. A classic example of the Rule of Five.

Hand D. Open 1 ♦ and rebid 2 ♣.You are guaranteeing five(+) diamonds. In this case, you have six, but prefer to introduce the second suit (than repeat diamonds) as it is cheaper. [Note the only exceptions to the Rule of Five will occur when you have the dreaded 4441 shape. In these – rareish – situations, do not open at all with poor 12 counts;

With a goodish seven-card suit and a weak hand, plan to make your first bid at the 3 level (unless partner has opened).  Then shut up.

Note, the Rule of 7 applies whether you are opening or making a jump overcall.  Also remember the vulnerability: if you have a marginal call, make it only if non-vulnerable.

What would you open with these?

Hand A.  Happily open 3 ♦ — vulnerable or non-vulnerable.

Hand B. Don’t open 3 ♠ at any vulnerability. But you open a Weak Two, perfectly admissible with a seven-card suit that looks too weak for Three.

Hand C. Is probably a pass — because there is no Weak 2 ♣ However, if non-vulnerable, chance a 3 ♣ opener — yes, without the seventh card (but only because the suit is stuffed full of intermediates and good shape.

It is a simple way of working out how many times to duck tricks, before playing a winning card. 

It is only used when the contract is 3NT.  Declarer uses the rule after the opposing partnership have lead.  It is used to decide whether or not declarer should win the trick if they can, or whether it would be more beneficial to duck (or hold up).  If it’s beneficial to duck the trick once, would it be beneficial to duck it again?  If so, how many times should declarer duck before playing their winning card?

This is where you use The Rule of 7.  It is a simple way of working out how many times to duck tricks, before playing a winning card. It’s easy to use. Declarer simply adds up the number of cards they hold in the suit to the number of cards in the suit held in Dummy’s hand and deducts the total from 7. The answer is the number of times to duck the trick.

Respond to partner's One-of -a-Suit-Opener with fewer than six high-card points when the number of cards in your long suit (that you can bid at the one level) added to your high-card points gets to at least ten.

Partner has opened 1♦ What would you respond with these?

Hand A. Respond 1♠. You may be able to make a spade part-score, or game. You may steal from the opposition, who think two bidding opponents have more strength than they actually do.

Hand B. Pass 1 ♦ because you cannot bid your long suit at the One-level — so would have to respond 1 NT.

Hand C.  You should definitely respond 1 ♥. Leaving the bidding in 1♦ feels very wrong with only one diamond. Indeed, make ♣K into ♣ J (now failing the Rule of Ten), then still scrape up a 1 ♥ response — after all, we have FIVE more hearts than diamonds.

The point to emphasise here is that while you are compelled to respond to partner’s One- of-a-Suit opener with six+ points, that does NOT mean that you are compelled to pass when you have fewer than six points.

Assuming the opening lead is fourth highest by defender in a NT contract - taking the value of the lead card from 11 will give the number of higher cards in the other 3 hands (apart from the leader's).  So, with dummy on view, both declarer and the leaders' partner can work out how many high cards than the lead are held in the other' hand.

The rule of 11 is most widely known as a technique for declarer.

Taking seven from 11 gives four; there are four higher hearts than ♥7 between dummy, East and you as declarer; you can see four higher ones – three in dummy (♥AQ10) and one in your hand (♥8). Therefore East has none higher; you can play ♥4 from dummy, running ♥7 round to your ♥8, then finessing ♥10 and later ♥Q to secure all four heart tricks. 

Each Bridge hand has 13 cards; each suit contains 13 cards.  These hands and suits are divided into patterns.  The top 10 (starting with the most common) are:  4432, 5332, 5431, 5422, 4333, 6322, 6421,  6331, 5521, 4441.

The more you can familiarise yourself with the above common patterns, the better. Think in terms both of the hand pattern of a hidden player and the suit pattern of an individual suit.

Remember that two of the lengths are known (yours – whether a defender or a declarer – and dummy’s); work out one of the hidden lengths and you know the other.

Use positive inferences e.g. “he bid a suit as an overcall therefore he has five+ cards”; “he bid vulnerable to the four-level so must have a shapely hand including a singleton/void” etc.

At least as importantly, use negative inferences e.g. “he didn’t bid 1 ♠ as an overcall, therefore he does not have five good spades he led a two (vs. notrumps) indicating a four-card suit therefore he has no five-card suit or he'd have preferred that"

When an opponent opens 1NT, you should double whenever you have 16+ High Card Points.

This applies whether or not you are balanced or have a long suit. It is a penalty double, expecting partner to pass and hoping to defeat 1NT doubled lucratively.

Each of these hands should double a 1NT opener:

The best double of the three is the one with the fewest points – the last – with a lovely source of tricks.

Partner will normally pass the double [assuming the next hand has not rescued – which he will do whenever he has a five-card suit]. Partner will only remove the double when he has a very weak hand (0-4 pts) and a long suit.