Rule of Seven
The rule assumes play in a 3NT contract and is as follows:
- Subtract from seven the total number of cards that declarer and dummy hold in the defenders' suit and duck their lead of the suit that many times.
The rule can be generalized for all notrump contracts as follows:
- In a notrump contract, subtract from 'n' the total number of cards that declarer and dummy hold in the defenders' suit and duck their lead of the suit that many times; 'n' is equal to four plus the level of the contract.
In the hand above, there are five diamonds in the combined North-South hands, and declarer must duck two tricks (winning the third).
If there were an additional diamond in either the North or South hand, for a total of six, then declarer need only duck one trick (winning the second). This is because if West has five diamonds (and North-South six), then East will have only two and will be out of diamonds after two rounds of the suit. If East does have three diamonds, then West will have only four and the defenders can cash only two additional diamond tricks (for a total of three) upon winning the ace of clubs.
Read more about this topic: Hold Up (bridge)
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