The Rabbi's Rule.
Bridge Column for October 8, 2000, By HARVEY BERNSTEIN
East-West vulnerable.  East deals.
                              NORTH
                              S: K Q J 10         
                              H: A 7 6 4 2   
                              D: Q 10 8      
                              C: Q     
            WEST                             EAST
            S: 8 5 3 2                       S: A 9 7 4      
            H: 9                             H: K          
            D: 5 3 2                         D: A 9 6             
            C: A 6 5 3 2                     C: K J 10 8 7  
                              SOUTH                         
                              S: 6    
                              H: Q J 10 8 5 3
                              D: K J 7 4 
                              C: 9 4      
          The Bidding://
                   EAST   SOUTH     WEST   NORTH                  
                    1C     1H       Pass    4H  
                   Pass    Pass     Pass
     This hand came up at a recent duplicate bridge game.  Mort
Pierce of Chagrin Falls was the declarer.  The vulnerability kept
the East-West pair out of the auction, and Pierce found himself
in four hearts missing three aces and the king of hearts.
     West opened the ace of clubs and when that held he switched
to the three of diamonds.  East won the ace and continued with
the six of diamonds.  Pierce won the king and led the queen of
hearts.  West played the nine and Pierce called for the ace,
dropping the singleton king.
     In this particular hand, the analysis that led to the play
of the ace of hearts was made easier by the opening lead.  Once
West has shown the ace of clubs, it would be impossible for him
to also hold the king of hearts.  Holding that card, especially
doubleton, he would most certainly have found a response to the
opening bid.  West's first round pass, and his play of the ace of
clubs, marked East with the rest of the outstanding honor cards,
and since the nine of hearts had already appeared, the king had
to be singleton.
     If you look in the Bridge Encyclopedia under the entry
"Rabbi's Rule", you will find that it applies to this hand.  It
is attributed to Milton Shattner of New York City who was known
as "The Rabbi" because of his ability to create rabbinical
sounding pronouncements for each and every bridge situation.  In
this particular situation, Shattner's rule was: "When the king is
singleton, play the ace!"  As it turns out, this is always good
advice.  Pierce made his game and got a very good score on the
hand as a result of following the "Rabbi's Rule".
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