An application of the Rule of Eleven will materially assist you
to draw correct inferences from the lead of a small card. It will
indicate whether the lead is from a short or a long suit.
If you see more high cards than the Rule of Eleven would allow, you
can mark the lead, not as fourth best, but as the top of a short
suit. If the lead indicates a long suit, you can often determine the
exact combination of cards from which it has been made.
=The Rule of Eleven=
Deduct the size of the card led from eleven,
and the difference will show how many cards
higher than the one led are held _outside_ the
leader’s hand.
The lead of an eight or a seven (except at no-trumps) is more apt to
be from a short than from a long suit; combinations in which these
cards would be fourth best are seldom opened by good players.
It will be easier for your partner to read your lead, if with long
weak suits, headed by jack, ten, or nine, you lead the fourth best
card. These cards can be led to indicate a short suit.
You can determine the length of your partner’s suit by noticing the
fall of the low cards.
When it is evident that your partner has led the lowest card of his
suit, his lead indicates exactly four cards. If your partner is
leading from a long suit and plays down on the second round, he holds
more than four cards.