Learning bridge
Valuing a bridge hand
Two hands, both exactly 11 high card points. One is worth an opening bid and the other is a pass. Point count is where hand evaluation starts — treating it as where evaluation ends is what puts partnerships in the wrong contract.
Shape is worth more than the count admits
11 points, 4-3-3-3. Nothing will develop and there is nothing to ruff.
The same 11 points, 5-5-2-1. Two suits that can be established and a hand that plays itself.
Identical high card points. The first will take about three tricks whatever happens; the second will often take seven or eight in a spade contract.
Long suits win tricks with cards that are not honours at all. Once the opponents' cards in a suit are gone, your small ones are winners, and a 4-3-3-3 hand has no suit long enough for that to happen.
The rule of 20, which encodes exactly that
Add your high card points to the lengths of your two longest suits. Twenty or more, open.
- Flat 11: 11 + 4 + 3 = 18. Pass.
- Shapely 11: 11 + 5 + 5 = 21. Open.
It is not magic — it is a shortcut for "does this hand have a source of tricks". Use it on the borderline hands and ignore it when the answer is obvious.
Shortage counts only after you have found a fit
A singleton is worth nothing until you know there are trumps to ruff with. Once partner has shown a suit you can support, count it — as the supporting hand only.
- Void — 5 points
- Singleton — 3 points
- Doubleton — 1 point
Both hands counting shortage is the classic way to bid a bad slam. Declarer's own shortage is usually already reflected in their long trump suit.
Where the honours sit
Point count treats every king as three, and they are not all worth three.
- Honours together are worth more. ♠ K Q J is far better than a king, a queen and a jack spread across three suits — the same 6 points, and one of them takes two or three tricks while the other frequently takes one.
- Honours in your long suits are worth more. They protect the suit you are trying to establish.
- Lone honours are worth less. A singleton king often falls under an ace and takes nothing. A queen-jack doubleton in the suit an opponent bid is usually wasted paper.
- Aces are undervalued and queens overvalued at 4 and 2. Aces control suits and win tricks whenever you like; a bare queen needs the cards around it to cooperate.
A hand's value changes as the auction goes on
This is the part most players never start doing, and it costs more than any convention they could learn instead.
13 points as dealt.
- Partner opens 1♠. Excellent. Four-card support and a singleton heart — worth about 16 now.
- Partner opens 1♥. Poor. Your singleton is in their suit and your spade honours may be facing nothing.
- An opponent opens 1♥. Better than it looks — your shortage is in their suit, which is where you want it.
Same 13 cards, three different hands. If your valuation of a hand never moves during an auction, you are not using the information partner is giving you.
Losing trick count, for when you have a fit
Once a fit is agreed, point count stops being the best tool. Count losers instead: in each suit, look at the first three cards only and count anything that is not an ace, king or queen as a loser.
A singleton is one loser, a void none, and a doubleton at most two. Add your losers to the number partner's bid implies, subtract from 24, and that is roughly the level you belong at.
It is a blunt instrument and it is much better than points at judging shapely hands with a known fit, which is exactly where point count is worst.
What to actually do at the table
- Count high card points, and add length points for suits over four cards.
- On a borderline opening, apply the rule of 20.
- Once a fit appears, re-count: shortage on for the supporting hand, and switch to losers if you know them.
- Downgrade a hand whose honours are scattered, alone, or in the opponents' suit.
The ranges in the bidding cheat sheet all assume a hand valued this way, not by raw point count.