Trump is great. Because you can ruff, and make tricks more easily.
So clearly, these 3 hands don't have the same strength when Hearts is trump:
With hand 1, you have a bit of everything, so it's going to be hard to ruff.
With hand 2, you will be able to make tricks more quickly by ruffing Diamonds.
Hand 3 is the best. And imagine if your partner opened 1 (promising 5), you have 10 trumps instead of 8: you will be able to make lots of tricks by ruffing.
So add distribution points (D points) to your count: from 0 to 6 in these examples, once you've found a trump suit, depending on your short suits and the number of trumps (in addition to the required 8).
To give you an idea:
- hand 1 gives you 0 D (no easy ruffs),
- hand 2 gives you 2 D (if you only have 8 certain trumps)
- hand 3 adds 6 D if you are sure to have at least 10 trumps in your partnership.
If you want to learn more about calculating these D points, it's here. If you prefer to go by intuition, estimate roughly and it will be fine. But remember in all cases: an evaluation is never precise to 1 point, so keep your personal judgment about your hand.
Learn more: here
A 9th trump | + 2 D (and +1 D for each additional trump from the 10th) |
Only 2 cards in a suit (a "doubleton") | + 1 D |
Only 1 card in a suit (a "singleton") | + 2 D |
No cards in a suit (a "void") | + 3 D |
The fit is established with ten known trumps. Your hand has a void, but no singleton or doubleton. How many D points does the detailed scale add?
The big mistake to avoid
At No Trump, a short suit is useless because you can't ruff. So a common mistake, I warn you, is to count D points when you haven't found a trump suit yet.
Before finding a fit, Lea adds her 10 H and 2 D from a singleton to propose a game at No Trump. What total should she use for this decision?
With this, you can refine your thresholds for playing a game in a trump suit. Add your side's H points and D points: you always need 25 H for 3NT, but 27 DH for 4 or 4 (and 30 DH for 5 or 5, yuck).
A tip to make it easy on yourself
If you have enough to play a game at No Trump, don't ask yourself if you have the points to play a game in a trump suit if a fit is found. The answer is yes 9 times out of 10, and remember that all this is not precise to 1 point. So bid 4 or 4, and play well.
You have a fit in Hearts. You have 11 H and 3 D; your partner announces a hand evaluated at 13 DH. What contract do these evaluations suggest?
Your turn, pal!
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