Monday,
August 14, 2006 9:51 PM
Hand
Evaluation -The 40 Pt Deck
PITBULLS:
There
are only 40 HCP’s in the deck in the game of Bridge. This is a bench mark in assisting Bridge players to
make bidding decisions & defensive decisions. 37 HCP’s in NT virtually
guarantees a grand slam. 33 HCP is a nice watermark for a small slam in NT
& 26 HCP will do nicely for a NT game unless you are Meckwell ( 23-24) .
What
is less known is that HCP’s are
your friend on defense also. You
must be a human odometer & count HCP’s as cards are played. HCP’s are a known clue to plan your defense so “think in HCP’s” if the
opponents have bid. Kiz Fung had a
hand playing with Tom Gandolfo that drives that point home. Kiz & Tom are
nv vrs vul where leeway is routinely given when bidding non vulnerable. My partner open 1♠ vulnerable , so I bid a
Jacoby 2NT. Tom “played the vulnerability” bid 3♣. My partner passed so Kiz
played the vulnerability also by jamming to 5♣ on ♠QJ ♥xx ♦AJxxx ♣Axxx which I doubled. My partner
pulled to 5♠
and that ended the auction.
♠ |
♥ |
♦ |
♣ |
|
|
|
|
K |
K |
K |
K |
x |
x |
10 |
Q |
x |
|
9 |
|
x |
|
x |
|
|
|
x |
|
Kiz led the
club Ace and everybody followed. Tom played a middle card which in their
signaling system shows no particular
suit preference. The first thing
that strikes Kiz is the 14 HCP’s
on the board. As she has 12 HCP’s also , she has 26 HCP’s of the deck accounted for. Vulnerable declarer must
have virtually all the remaining HCP’s. You give nv partner a lot of leeway so
you trust vulnerable opening bids.
Now
go back your old friend patterns.
The diamonds are 5-5-2-1 so either declarer or partner has a stiff diamond .
Does it matter who it is ? If declarer has 2 diamonds , you can give partner a
ruff and if declarer has one you are not
beating this hand. Kiz lays down the diamond Ace and gets rewarded
when Tom ruffs. This is “standard’ expert defense. Anything but a diamond means
you were too lazy to count HCP’s or apply
patterns. These skills are the two basics of defense. Tom could have played a
low club to signal a diamond switch but that might
have been a disaster if declarer was trying to find a queen. Tom
should just play “neutral” like he did
letting his expert partner
figure things out on her own. Being a Bridge expert comes at a price. You are expected to think.