Card combinations

Browse the combination catalogue

Every suit holding worth thinking about, with the best line's odds beside it. Narrow by how many cards the two hands hold between them, by how many times the line has to change hands, or by how often it brings the target home.

Holding Cards
Playing for Best line makes it
Entries at worst
J8 opposite AQ9xx 7 4 70.25% 1 The line
J8 opposite AQ9xx 7 5 7.11% 1 The line
J8 opposite AQ97x 7 4 71.46% 1 The line
J8 opposite AQ97x 7 5 8.72% 1 The line
J8 opposite AQTxx 7 4 87.61% 1 The line
J8 opposite AQTxx 7 5 17.76% 0 The line
J8 opposite AQT7x 7 4 88.82% 1 The line
J8 opposite AQT7x 7 5 19.38% 0 The line
J8 opposite AQT9x 7 5 27.05% 1 The line
J8 opposite AQT97 7 5 27.05% 0 The line
J8 opposite AKxxx 7 3 91.99% 1 The line
J8 opposite AKxxx 7 4 59.75% 1 The line
J8 opposite AK7xx 7 3 94.41% 1 The line
J8 opposite AK7xx 7 4 61.37% 1 The line
J8 opposite AK9xx 7 3 100.0% 1 The line
J8 opposite AK9xx 7 4 70.25% 1 The line
J8 opposite AK97x 7 4 77.05% 1 The line
J8 opposite AK97x 7 5 8.72% 1 The line
J8 opposite AKTxx 7 4 87.61% 1 The line
J8 opposite AKT7x 7 4 93.2% 1 The line
J8 opposite AKT7x 7 5 25.84% 0 The line
J8 opposite AKT9x 7 5 43.2% 1 The line
J8 opposite AKT97 7 5 43.2% 0 The line
J8 opposite AKQxx 7 5 83.98% 0 The line
J8 opposite AKQ7x 7 5 83.98% 0 The line
13126–13150 of 72,594 results
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What one row is

A row is a holding and a target: these cards, this many tricks. The same cards played for a different number of tricks is a different problem with its own best line, so it gets its own row. That's why a holding you recognise may appear here more than once. Holdings of five to eleven cards between the two hands are covered, but a holding only gets a row if the play is worth thinking about. If the obvious card is already right, there's nothing to teach and the holding is left out.

Reading the columns

Best line makes it is the share of layouts on which the best line guarantees the target. The defenders are assumed to see all four hands and to play best defence (the card that hurts you most, even if a book would play something else). So a line only counts where it works against any defence at all. These numbers are lower than the ones you get by assuming honest opponents, but you can safely bet a contract on them. A plain finesse is fifty per cent, so compare the rest against that.

Entries at worst is the most times the line can need to change hands, counted over every way the missing cards can lie. We use the worst case rather than what the line needs on the deal shown on its own page, because if you can't afford a line when the cards lie badly, you can't play it. Filter to none to answer "I have no way back to dummy, so what can I still play for?" A book can't easily tell you that.

Why the lengths are so uneven

The counts beside the card chips are worth a look before you pick one. Seven- and eight-card holdings carry the most, and carry more rows than there are holdings, because two posable targets on one holding is normal at those lengths. You can play for the extra trick or settle for the safe one, and the two need different cards. At the other end, eleven cards between the hands gives almost nothing: with only two cards missing there is rarely a decision to get wrong. Short holdings are thin for the opposite reason. There are too few cards to give you a choice at all.