Any rules of thumb to fix this non-functioning board I just made?
Board getting hot is a clear sign of potential permanent damage. Even if that solder bridge was the only issue, powering the IC while this bridge was present had a good chance of damaging it irreversibly (sometimes ICs survive such abuse, but this rarely happens when you count on it).

Having some resistance with a defective IC is to be expected. If there was a 0 Ohm short between VCC and GND, your board wouldn't get hot in the first place. Also, resistance value by itself is not very helpful: 50 Ohm could be 60mA @ 3V (hardly enough to get hot) or 20mA @ 1V (which could become 1A when you apply 3V).

Do a thorough visual inspection on the next board before you power it on.