January 2017 - 48

Newer Players

Ask Jerry
BY JERRY HELMS

Dear Jerry,
A friend just returned from one
of your recent seminars. She was
particularly impressed with your
explanation of short-suit evaluation.
Could you explain it for me?
Hannah
Hi Hannah,
Let's start with some history about
evaluating for distribution. In the
1940s, Charles Goren expanded Milton
Work's 4-3-2-1 Point Count System
for aces, kings, queens, and jacks to
suggest certain values for short-suit
holdings. According to Goren, prior to
finding a trump fit, the total worth of a
hand should be the sum of the highcard points plus the following: 1 point
for a doubleton, 2 points for a singleton
and 3 points for a void.
As dealer, you hold:
♠A 9 3 2 ♥- ♦A K 5 4 3 ♣Q J 8 7.
Goren would have suggested that
with 14 HCP plus three distributional
points for the heart void, your hand
was in the intermediate range of 16-18.
I strongly disagree. Wouldn't it be
shocking if you open this hand 1♦ and
your partner responds 1♥?
Irrespective of how the bidding continues, if the final contract becomes
any number of hearts, will you happily
table this dummy and proclaim your
intermediate strength? What if a series
of bids leads to the conclusion where
your partner becomes the declarer in
a notrump contract? In each case, not
only is the heart void not a positive, it

48 Bridge Bulletin January 2017

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is, in fact, a negative.
My personal decision would be to
ignore the heart void for now because
I have no idea whether it is a good
thing or a bad thing. I would count the
five-card diamond suit as a plus factor
because it might help create winners in
any final contract.
Holding the identical hand, it might
be pertinent to consider what your reaction would be if you open the bidding
1♦ and your partner responds 1♠.
Perhaps it would be something that
James Brown made famous years ago:
I feel good!
Fifty percent of your bidding problems are effectively resolved: We will
play some number of spades, and at
some point, I will table my hand for
you to be declarer. The only remaining
issue is how many spades to play. Your
14-point hand has now grown in value.
Goren also suggested re-evaluating to
reflect post-fit values, and I agree with
these adjustments:

Post-fit hand re-evaluation
1 point for a doubleton
3 points for a singleton
5 points for a void
Here's part of the thinking: Say an
opponent leads the ♥A against a spade
contract. The play of a low spade from
dummy wins the trick, making it perhaps more valuable than the 4 points
assigned to the ♥A.

Without trying to be too wordy
(something I am often guilty of!), do
not add value for short-suit holdings
until you know your shortness is valuable.
Another consideration is where the
short suit is located. Look at two different partial hands with spades as trump.

1.

West
♠852
♥9

East
♠ A K Q J 10
♥863

2.

West
♠852
♥987

East
♠ A K Q J 10
♥5

With each of these hands, declarer
loses the first heart trick. But if hearts
are continued, declarer can ruff and
win the second trick. The big difference? Ruffing in the hand with
the short trump holding (No. 1) both
stopped a loser and created a winner,
while ruffing in the hand with longer
trumps (No. 2) stopped a loser but did
not create a winner.
My editor will not allow me to
continue this sermon much longer. To
wrap it up, shortness held in the hand
with the most trumps is not as valuable as shortness held in the hand with
fewer trumps.
Oops! What about when trumps are
evenly divided? That must wait for
another day.
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