February 2020 - 57

Intermediate Players

Better Bridge with Bergen
BY MARTY BERGEN

martybergen.com

Secrets of accurate hand evaluation - part 7
It's time to apply what we've covered
in the first six months of this series.
Here's a review:
⦁ Is the hand upgradable, downgradable or neither?
⦁ Consider your distribution. Is it
balanced (boring) or unbalanced
(interesting)?
⦁ What is the true value of the five
honor cards?
Reminder: Aces and 10s are worth
more than their assigned value.
Queens and jacks (quacks) are
worth less. Evaluating kings as 3
high-card points is accurate.
⦁ With three of the same honor card:
Add 1 HCP for three aces or three
10s. Subtract 1 HCP for three jacks
or three queens.
⦁ Add 1 HCP for a rare but precious
quality suit (four-plus-card suit
with at least three honors).
⦁ Downgrade hands with strength in
a short suit.
⦁ Add for length (5+ cards in a suit).
⦁ Think about your intermediate
cards (10, 9, 8) and quick tricks.
Starting points
The result of immediately applying
the above enables you to calculate what
I refer to as your number of "starting
points." This is a far more accurate assessment of the true value of your hand
than your number of traditional highcard points. Here are some examples of
my thoughts and calculations when I
pick up my hand:

❶

♠K ♥K 6 5 3 ♦Q J 4 3 ♣Q J 6 3

Step 1: Is this hand upgradable,
downgradable, or neither? Answer: Extremely downgradable. It's loaded with
negative features. No aces, a singleton king, four quacks, no long suit, no
intermediate cards and a mere ½ quick
trick. Yuck!
Step 2: The hand's traditional number of high-card points is 12.
Step 3: Now I adjust. Subtract 1 point
for the singleton king. Subtract another point for having no aces. I never like
having no aces, but if the hand looks
OK, I don't subtract a point for being
aceless.
After subtracting 2 HCP for downgrades, there definitely are no additions, so I think of it as a mere 10
starting points. Even if you open light,
this hand is not worth an opening bid. I
know that many players open all hands
with 12 traditional HCP. You'll do what
you'll do. But I always look carefully
and adjust when necessary. All 12-HCP
hands are not created equal. After
evaluating, I don't regard this as being
worth 12 points. While I definitely
open lighter than most players, even
if in the very advantageous position of
being dealer nonvulnerable, I'd pass.

❷ ♠K 10 2 ♥A K 10 8 3 ♦A 10 8 2 ♣4
Step 1: How does this hand look to
you? I hope your answer resembled,
magnifique. Why is this hand very
upgradable?
⦁ It has a quality heart suit.
⦁ None of the seven honor cards is a

quack.
⦁ 5-4-3-1 is an upgradable distribution. Of all the distributions
that include a five-card suit, only
three of them occur frequently.
Those are: 5-3-3-2, 5-4-2-2 and
5-4-3-1. Of the three, 5-4-3-1 is
clearly the best, while 5-3-3-2 is
definitely the worst. In fact, when
you open 1♥ or 1♠ with 5-3-3-2
distribution and partner raises your
major, because you have the worst
distribution you could possibly
have - tread lightly.
⦁ You have 3 ½ quick tricks. For a
hand with 14 traditional HCP, that
is an excellent number and almost
the maximum possible (AK, AK = 4
quick tricks).
⦁ You have five intermediate cards,
and four of them are located in
your two longest suits. That is the
best place to have them. As always,
"location, location, location."
Step 2: If you haven't already done so,
determine the number of traditional
high-card points. As noted, it is 14.
Step 3: Time to adjust.
Add 1 point for the hand being extremely upgradable. Add 1 HCP for the
quality heart suit.
Add 1 HCP for the three 10s. Add 1
length point for the five-card suit. No
subtractions.
So, before the bidding starts, I regard
this hand as having 18 starting points!
If you think that's too much, I understand. But the most important thing
is to realize that the true value of this
hand is nowhere near 14.
◾
February 2020 Bridge Bulletin

http://www.martybergen.com

February 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of February 2020