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
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