NUMBERS 10 AND 11 DOWNING STREET

In London, the prime minister lives at 10 Downing Street, and the chancellor of the exchequer at No. 11. That is appropriate because the man who deals with numbers is in the house with the more useful bridge number -- 11.

Yesterday, we looked at the Rule of Eleven. It helped third hand to find the winning defense at trick one. Sometimes, though, it gives assistance later in the play -- as in this deal.

After South, in answer to Stayman, denied a fourcard major, the contract was three no-trump. West led the spade seven: five, jack, king. Declarer played a club to dummy's ace and a club back. What should East have discarded?

South started with eight top tricks: one spade (given the first trick), two hearts, three diamonds and two clubs. He was hoping for overtricks if the clubs would run. However, those hopes were dashed when East discarded on the second round. Still, he might have survived, except that East applied the Rule of Eleven to the opening lead: 11 minus 7 is 4. So, there were four spades above the seven in the dummy, the East hand and declarer's hand combined. And East had seen all four. So, West's suit was ready to run. Also, from the auction West was known to have started with five or six spades. But West did not know who held the spade queen. If South had begun with KQ-x of spades, West had to try to get East on lead for a spade play through declarer. To clarify matters for his partner, East discarded the spade queen. Copyright United Feature

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