Contract Bridge

The Rule of Eleven usually offers a greater advantage to the defenders than to the declarer, but it is nevertheless a two-edged sword that either side can utilize. Assume West leads his fourth-best spade, the five, against three notrump. South deducts that number from 11, which tells him that North, East and South together have six cards higher than the five.

Since South sees two of those cards in dummy and three in his own hand, he knows that East has only one card higher than the five. Declarer follows low from dummy and wins East’s ten with the ace. He then plays the K-Q of diamonds, which West, of course, ducks.

South has only one certain entry to dummy — the king of spades — and if he uses it to establish the diamonds, he will be unable to get back to them later. So South leads the spade seven at trick four, and, after West follows low, he finesses the nine.

The finesse, fortified by the Rule of Eleven, succeeds. Declarer then leads the jack of diamonds and — with the spade king still in dummy as an entry — makes the contract.

Declarer should play this way even if he has never heard of the Rule of Eleven. But if he is familiar with the rule and knows when and how to apply it, he will find bridge much easier to play.

Note, however, that if West is alert, he can defeat the contract. He should anticipate declarer’s planned spade finesse and thwart it by playing his jack when South leads the seven! This play limits dummy to one entry and renders the contract unmakeable.

In cold analysis, the jack of spades is clearly West’s proper play. He knows South has the spade queen because East failed to play it at trick one. Since the jack is subject to a finesse in any case, West should play it in an effort to deprive South of a second entry to dummy.