This post continues the discussion started on Distribution Points. You can read the first post here: http://heidisbridgeblog.blogspot.ca/2016/02/distribution-points_16.html
Let's talk in more detail about Dummy Points. Here is a reminder of what we count for Dummy Points:
Dummy Points:
Shortness
Points
Useful void
5 points
Useful singleton
3 points
Useful doubleton
1 point
Seems pretty straightforward. What's so difficult with that? Well, the word "useful" for one thing. What happens if partner opens the bidding 1♠ and you have a ♠ void. Is this a good holding for your side or not later on in the auction when you've found a fit in some other suit?
Let's look at this hand:
♠
---
♥
AK93
♦
Q43
♣
AKJT82
Partner opens the bidding 1♠. You bid 2♣ and partner responds 2♥. Terrific! You have a 4-4 ♥ fit! Now you count up your HCP points (17) and your Dummy points (5) and come to 22 points! Plus partner opened the bidding so they should have about 13. That's enough for a small slam at least! So you bid 6♥.
Partner's hand:
♠
AKQ92
♥
QJ75
♦
J9
♣
73
Notice you are off the first 2 ♦ tricks. Down at least 1.
Now notice that the problem occurs because partner is counting points for their AKQ♠ and you are counting points for your ♠ void. This is called double counting. You are both counting points for the same control of the ♠ suit.
However it's not wrong to envision a slam with your hand. You just need partner to hold this hand:
♠
J9642
♥
QJ75
♦
AK
♣
Q3
Both hands partner would open the bidding 1♠. On the first hand you make game only in ♥ and on the second hand you would make 7♥. This works because partner is NOT counting points for the ♠ suit and you are. Partner's points are in the minor suits which is where you need them to be.
How do you get to slam one one but not the other?
The experts have ways of figuring this out. You don't. In a few years you will have more experience and know more bids so you can change your bidding system to allow you to get your partnership to the good slam but stay out of the bad slam. But that's in the future. Right now you will just have to work on what the most likely scenario is. Right now if your partner bids a suit and you have a void you probably shouldn't count any points for it. Sorry. It's even taking a bit of a chance to count 3 points for a singleton but this is less likely to get you into trouble if you do. Or you can just take a chance and bid the slam hoping partner has the right cards. There is no problem with that except newer players tend to take going down in a slam very personal. They are devastated. (They shouldn't be because after all they did had the guts to bid the slam!) So if you feel bad going down in your contract don't take the chance. If you don't mind taking a few chances bid the slam. You might actually make it and then you have a story to tell to all your friends.
Another thing to think about is singleton honours. Should you be counting 3 HCP plus 3 Dummy points for a singleton K? No. Again this is going to get you higher in the bidding than you should probably go.
Shortness with Honours:
Holding
Points
A
This is tough. Not really worth 7 points but better than just 4 points. Count 5 or 6 depending on how much you like a bit of risk.
K
Count 3 points for your singleton only
Q
Count 3 points for your singleton only
J
Count 3 points for your singleton only
A3
You should be okay counting for shortness here – 5 points for this holding
K3
You should be okay counting for shortness here – 4 points for this holding
Q3
Count 2 points for the Q only
J3
Count 1 point only
AK
You should be okay counting for shortness here – 8 points for this holding
AQ
You should be okay counting for shortness here – 7 points for this holding
AJ
Count for the high cards only. Don’t count for shortness – 5 points for this holding
KQ
Count for the high cards only. Don’t count for shortness – 5 points for this holding
KJ
Count for the high cards only. Don’t count for shortness – 4 points for this holding
QJ
Count for the high cards only. Don’t count for shortness – 3 points for this holding. On a bad day this might not be any better than a useless doubleton.
With 13 HCP you should open the bidding. If you have 5 cards in a major suit you want to open 1 of that major.
Therefore to open the bidding 1♠ you need 13 HCP and 5♠. That's it.
When partner opens 1♠ we no longer need 13 points to make a bid. Since partner opened the bidding they have the opening hand. We just need 6 HCP to respond. With 6 HCP we need to respond. To support partner's ♠ suit we should have 3 cards in the suit. (Partner needs 5 cards in the suit to open remember. So to get an 8 card fit we only need 3.)
If partner opens 1♠ and you have a fit you should probably tell partner about it right away.
The only bids that limit your hand are 1NT and 2♠. Both these bids limit your hand to 6 to 10 points and partner can pass both those bids.
If you respond with a new suit at the 2 level you must have at least 10 HCP. Therefore sometimes you might have a hand with a long suit that you can't tell partner about because you don't have enough points. You might get stuck bidding 1NT with an unbalanced hand. Such is life.
Therefore if your partner opens the bidding 1♠ here is a table that states your only possible responses if you have 6 to 9 points:
Bid
Points
Number in suit
1NT
6 to 10 points and
No 3 card ♠ suit
2♠
6 to 10 points and
at least 3 ♠
This is actually easy since there are not very many choices as to what to say when partner opens 1♠ and you have between 6 and 9 HCP. You either bid 2♠ with a 3 card ♠ suit or 1NT if you have fewer than 3♠. Pretty easy when you think about it.
With that in mind what do you respond when your partner opens 1♠?
Hand 1
With 13 HCP you should open the bidding. If you have 5 cards in a major suit you want to open 1 of that major.
Therefore to open the bidding 1♥ you need 13 HCP and 5♥. That's it.
When partner opens 1♥ we no longer need 13 points to make a bid. Since partner opened the bidding they have the opening hand. We just need 6 HCP to respond. With 6 HCP we need to respond. To bid a new suit we just need 4 cards in that suit. To support partner's ♥ suit we should have 3 cards in the suit. (Partner needs 5 cards in the suit to open remember. So to get an 8 card fit we only need 3.)
If partner opens 1♥ and you have a fit you should probably tell partner about it right away.
The only bids that limit your hand are 1NT and 2♥. Both these bids limit your hand to 6 to 10 points and partner can pass both those bids.
If you respond with a new suit at the 1 level you might only have 6 points, but you could have 13 points -- or even 20 points. Partner MUST bid again. But we can let partner worry about that.
If you respond with a new suit at the 2 level you must have at least 10 HCP. Therefore sometimes you might have a hand with ♣ or ♦ that you can't tell partner about. You might get stuck bidding 1NT with an unbalanced hand or you might have to bid a shorter major suit rather than a longer minor suit. Such is life.
Therefore if your partner opens the bidding 1♥ here is a table that states your only possible responses if you have 6 to 9 points:
Bid
Points
Number in suit
1♠
6 or more points and
at least 4 in the suit
1NT
6 to 10 points and
No 4 card ♠ suit and no 3 card ♥ suit
2♥
6 to 10 points and
at least 3 cards in the ♥ suit
With that in mind what do you respond when your partner opens 1♥?
Hand 1
With 13 HCP you should open the bidding. If you have 5 cards in a major suit you want to open 1 of that major. If you do not have a 5 card major but do have 13 HCP you still need to open the bidding. Since you don't have a 5 card major open the bidding 1 of your longest minor. This might only have 3 cards in it.
Therefore to open the bidding 1♦ you need 13 HCP and 3♦. That's it.
When partner opens 1♦ we no longer need 13 points to make a bid. Since partner opened the bidding they have the opening hand. We just need 6 HCP to respond. With 6 HCP we need to respond. To bid a new suit we just need 4 cards in that suit. To support partner's ♦ suit we should have 5 cards in the suit. (Partner only need 3 cards in the suit to open remember. So to get an 8 card fit we should have 5.)
If partner opens 1♦ and you have a fit but you also have a 4 card major, bit the major suit. You want to try to find a fit there. If you do not have a fit in the major you can always bid ♦ later on.
The only bids that limit your hand are 1NT and 2♦. Both these bids limit your hand to 6 to 10 points and partner can pass both those bids.
If you respond with a new suit at the 1 level you might only have 6 points, but you could have 13 points -- or even 20 points. Partner MUST bid again with any of these bids. But we can let partner worry about that.
If you respond with a new suit at the 2 level you must have at least 10 HCP. Therefore sometimes you might have a hand with ♣ that you can't tell partner about. You might get stuck bidding 1NT with an unbalanced hand or you might have to bid a shorter major suit rather than a longer ♣ suit. Such is life.
Therefore if your partner opens the bidding 1♦ here is a table that that states your only possible responses if you have 6 to 9 points:
Bid
Points
Number in suit
1♥
6 or more points and
at least 4 in the suit
1♠
6 or more points and
at least 4 in the suit
1NT
6 to 10 points and
no 4 card major suit or 5 card ♦ suit
2♦
6 to 10 points and
at least 5 cards in the ♦ suit with no 4 card major suit
With two 5 card suits bid the higher ranking one first. With two 4 card majors bid them up the line so ♥ first.
With that in mind what do you respond when your partner opens 1♦?
Hand 1
With 13 HCP you should open the bidding. If you have 5 cards in a major suit you want to open 1 of that major. If you do not have a 5 card major but do have 13 HCP you still need to open the bidding. Since you don't have a 5 card major open the bidding 1 of your longest minor. This might only have 3 cards in it.
Therefore to open the bidding 1♣ you need 13 HCP and 3♣. That's it.
When partner opens 1♣ we no longer need 13 points to make a bid. Since partner opened the bidding they have the opening hand. We just need 6 HCP to respond. With 6 HCP we need to respond. To bid a new suit we just need 4 cards in that suit. To support partner's ♣ suit we should have 5 cards in the suit. (Partner only need 3 cards in the suit to open remember. So to get an 8 card fit we should have 5.)
If partner opens 1♣ and you have a fit but you also have a 4 card major, bit the major suit. You want to try to find a fit there. If you do not have a fit in the major you can always bid ♣ later on.
The only bids that limit your hand are 1NT and 2♣. Both these bids limit your hand to 6 to 10 points and partner can pass both those bids.
If you respond with a new suit at the 1 level you might only have 6 points, but you could have 13 points -- or even 20 points. Partner MUST bid again with any of these bids. But we can let partner worry about that.
Therefore if your partner opens the bidding 1♣ here is a table that states your only possible responses if you have 6 to 9 points:
Bid
Points
Number in suit
1♦
6 or more points and
at least 4 in the suit
1♥
6 or more points and
at least 4 in the suit
1♠
6 or more points and
at least 4 in the suit
1NT
6 to 10 points and
no 4 card major suit or 5 card ♦ suit
2♣
6 to 10 points and
at least 5 cards in the ♣ suit with no 4 card major suit
With two 5 card suits bid the higher ranking one first. With two 4 card majors bid them up the line so ♥ first.
With that in mind what do you respond when your partner opens 1♣?
Hand 1
Not the best looking hand is it? How about if I tell you your partner's hand has no high cards in it at all. You probably wouldn't get too excited. Here it is:
Dummy:
♠
T7653
♥
5432
♦
5432
♣
Your hand:
♠
AJ9842
♥
♦
♣
8765432
Turns out each opponent has 1 ♠ and 3 ♣. This means that if ♠ are trump you can take ALL the tricks. That's right, all of them. You can trump 3♣ and by then all the ♣ in your hand are good. They are little but still good once you have taken all the opponents trump away from them.
So even though you only have 5 HCP between the two hands, you still make 13 tricks because of the distribution in the hands. It's because of hands like this that we can now start to give ourselves extra points if we have either length or shortness in our hands.
You should only count distribution points once you and your partner have found a fit. Shortness does not help you if you don't have a fit with partner. Don't believe me? Look at this hand:
Your hand:
♠
AQ65432
♥
♦
♣
AQ5432
This seems like a wonderful hand and it is -- IF partner has either ♠ or ♣. But what happens if partner has:
♠
♥
AKQJT98
♦
AKQJT9
♣
You end up in ♠ at some high level. Partner puts down dummy and you can't help thinking that you should probably be playing in one of partner's suits. But you do remember partner kept bidding them but you stuck to your suits and at the end partner had to back down because ♠ were higher. Okay, this can't be that bad can it? Well you can't get to dummy. You have to play everything from your hand and the opponents never lead a red suit when they get in. You are down quite a few. All this because you got a little excited with those red suit voids and partner got a little excited with all their points in the red suits.
Anyhow those were both extreme examples which will probably never come up in your lifetime. The thing to remember is that distribution is great and we can count extra points for it when we have found a trump fit with partner.
What do we count?
If we are dummy we get to count Dummy Points:
Shortness
Points
Useful void
5 points
Useful singleton
3 points
Useful doubleton
1 point
If we are declarer we get to count Length or Declarer Points:
Count 1 extra point for every card in a suit longer than 4 cards. So if you have a 5 card suit give yourself 1 extra point. If you have 6 cards in a suit give yourself 2 extra points. The suit does not have to be the trump suit. This also includes every suit, not just the trump suit. So with two 5 card suits you get 2 extra points.
Let's see this in action.
First let's review the point count needed to support partner's major.
So when partner opens 1 of a major and we respond
Points
Number of Trump
2 of that major this shows
6-10 points and
at least 3 trump
3 of that major this shows
11-12 points and
4 trump
Your partner opens the bidding 1♠. You have a fit. Right away you get to count Dummy points since you will be dummy.
♠
KT63
♥
KT52
♦
4
♣
KT65
You have 9 HCP (3 Kings are worth 3 points each) and 3 Dummy points for a total of 12 points. You now get to respond 3♠ to show partner you have 11 or 12 points with 4 trump.
Your partner opens the bidding 1♠. You have a fit. Right away you get to count Dummy points since you will be dummy.
♠
KT63
♥
T852
♦
4
♣
KT65
You have 6 HCP (2 Kings are worth 3 points each) and 3 Dummy points for a total of 9 points. You respond 2♠ to show partner you have 6 to 10 points with at least 3 trump. Now partner bids 3♠ asking if you have a minimum for your bid (6 or 7 points) or a maximum for your bid (8 to 10 points). You can now bid 4♠ to show you have a maximum response. You only have 6 HCP but you can count points now which includes Dummy points and you have maximum points for your original bid.
With that in mind what do you respond when your partner opens 1♥?
First state your HCP and then how many Dummy points you have to come up with your total points. Then state if you would bid either 2♥ or 3♥. If you decided to respond with 2♥ then state what you will bid if partner comes back with 3♥?
Hand 1
