August 2017 - 26

The Laws of Bridge
Writer Simon Cocheme warns
players not to swallow their laws
in tablet form.
In the last issue, we looked at the
rules of bridge. Now we move up the
scale to some laws, none of which are
in the Law book.
Simon's Law of Laws: A law has a
name in its name.
The three most famous are
Hamman's Law (often quoted in
bidding competitions), Burn's Law
(popular with online commentators)
and the Law of Total Tricks (also
known simply as The Law).
Hamman's Law states that, if you
have a choice of bids, and 3NT is one of
them, then bid 3NT. Bob Hamman is a
(very) multiple world champion, so he
knows what he is talking about.
Hamman's Second Law is couched
in personal terms and will be useful if
you ever happen to partner him: "Don't
play me for the perfect hand; I never
have it."
Burn's Law says that, when you play
in a suit contract, you should choose a
suit in which your side has more cards
than your opponents. David Burn is not
a multiple world champion, but this is
excellent advice. There are examples of
games being made on 4-2 fits, but you
should not seek to add to them.
Burn went on to produce Burn's
Second Law: "You can't make 3NT on
a crossruff." How true. The corollary
is that when you lay down dummy in a
notrump contract, never put a suit bid
by partner on your right. Partners are
easily confused.
And as if that were not enough, you
might find Burn's Third Law useful
in the slam zone. "During the auction,
ascertain how many aces are held by
your opponents. Subtract this number
from eight. Do not bid at the level given
by the answer." The problem is perhaps
more "Easley" solved by using Mr.

26 Bridge Bulletin August 2017

Blackwood's exceedingly fine convention. This will be lost on those who
think that Mr. Blackwood's forenames
were Roman, Key and Card.
The Law of Total Tricks is a rare
exception in that its developer, Larry
Cohen, unaccountably failed to call it
Cohen's Law, a missed opportunity for
self-promotion if ever there was one.
The law states that the total number of
tricks available on a deal is equal to the
total number of trump cards both sides
hold in their respective best suits. For
example, suppose that East-West hold
10 hearts between them and North-
South hold nine spades. Then the total
number of tricks that the two sides can
make should be (close to) 19. The position of a king, over or under an opposing ace-queen, will change the number
of tricks one side can make, but that
will be balanced by a corresponding
change in the number of tricks the
other side can make; it doesn't affect
the combined total.
Loosely related to the Law of Total
Tricks (a sort of in-law law) is the
concept of bidding to The Level of the
Fit. This says that you can bid preemptively to the level of the combined
trump holding, so with 10 spades between you and your partner, bid to 4♠.
This could have been Cohen's Second
Law; he really should get himself a new
PR advisor.

In the early years of bridge, Ely
Culbertson espoused the Law of
Symmetry which said that if your
hand had, say, 5-4-3-1 distribution,
then one of the suits would also break
5-4-3-1. Wisely he did not call it
Culbertson's Law of Symmetry; it has
since been shown to have no basis in
mathematical fact.
The 1965 European Championships
included this controversial deal. It
features John Collings, the enfant terrible of English bridge well into his 60s,
playing with Jonathan Cansino.
Dlr: West ♠ Q 5 2
Vul: E-W ♥ 8 3
♦ Q 10 9 4 3
♣ 10 7 3
♠AK93
♠J874
♥ K Q 10 2
♥AJ654
♦AK872
♦J5
♣-
♣J9
♠ 10 6
♥97
♦6
♣AKQ86542
West
2♣
5NT
Dbl

North
East
Cansino
Pass
2♥
7♠
Pass
All Pass

South
Collings
4♠
Pass

The ♦A was led, followed by a heart
to the ace. East switched to a club,

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of August 2017