Bridge bidding

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 28. Chapters: Losing-Trick Count, Hand evaluation, Zar Points, Preempt, Takeout double, Useful space principle, Reverse, Game try, Law of total tricks, Balancing, Forcing pass, Five-card majors, Shooting, Transfer Walsh, Overcall, Fourth suit forcing, Sacrifice, Psychic bid, Unusual vs. unusual, Gambling 3NT, Quantitative no trump bids, Inverted minors, Forcing bid, Canapé, Brown sticker, Principle of fast arrival, Highly unusual method. Excerpt: In contract bridge, various bidding systems have been devised to enable partners to describe their hands to each other so that they may reach the optimum contract. A key initial part of this process is that players evaluate their hands; this evaluation is subject to amendment after each round of bidding. Several methods have been devised to evaluate hands taking account of some or all of strength, shape, fit and "quality" of a suit or the whole hand. This article explains the methods and the situations in which each may best be used. Most bidding systems use a basic point count system for hand evaluation using a combination of the following: Based on the McCampbell count of 1915 and publicised/advocated by Milton Work circa 1923 (and called the Milton Work Point Count for many years) this method recognises, in simple arithmetic form, that an ace has a higher trick taking potential than a king which similarly is more powerful than a queen etc. HCP are awarded thus (Cohen & Barrow 1967): No pretense is made that four jacks are as powerful as one ace. Nevertheless, this method has the twin benefits of simplicity and practicality, especially in no trump contracts. Evaluating a hand on this basis takes due account of the fact that there are 10 HCP in each suit and therefore 40 in the complete deck of cards. An average hand contains one quarter of the total i.e. 10 HCP. Most bidding systems are built around the belief that a better than average hand is required to open the bidding; 12 HCP is generally considered the minimum for most opening bids. The combined HCP count between two hands is generally considered to be a good indication, all else being equal, of the number of tricks likely to be made by the partnership. The rule of thumb (Root 1998 and Klinger 1994) for games and slams in NT is: A simple justification for 37 HCP being suitable for a grand slam is that it is the lowest number that guarantees the partnership holding all the aces. Similarly 33 HCP is the lowest