Evaluating Partnerships

Introduction

In Bridge, the success of a partnership can depend on whether the partnership gets a contract it can win. The chances of success on any contract is greatly dependent on the cumulative value of the partnership’s cards.

Many of the Bridge concepts on these pages comes from How to Play Bridge Like a Boss by Anthony Medley. I will try to denote the ideas that are my own.

Partnership Point Count

One measure of success is the partnership point count, which is the sum of the high-card points in each hand of the partnership. The partnership point count will indicate a high probability that the partnership can win the contract with careful play.

Game contracts and slam contracts are the most desirable contracts, because they are awarded extra bonus points in addition to trick points. When you have enough points in a partnership, bidding game or slam generally increases your point total.

In my experience the contract thresholds listed below are very reliable measures of success and work most of the time.

The object of the Bridge Auction is to find a hand that achieves a game score or a slam score, because the bonus points can make the difference in a winning hand. Based on a review of many hands, a 4 ♥ or 4 ♠ bid is easier to make than 3 NT, as long as there are at least 8 trumps. Otherwise, a 3 NT bid is usually easier. A 5 ♣ or 5 ♦ bid is harder unless there are sufficient HCP.

If the partnership is not strong enough for a game, but it has made a bid, then the partnership should play at the lowest level possible or pass.

No Trump Hands

A suit is stopped if you have the highest card still in play. If you have the Ace, the suit is stopped. After the Ace played, the King is the highest card. If you don’t have the highest card still in play, your highest card must be protected by smaller cards. A, Kx, Qxx, and Jxxx are all stopped suits.

The two hands in a partnership should have all suits stopped.

Communication between two hands in a partnership is the ability to play a card in one hand that wins a trick in the other. Communication can be critical in No Trump. Ideally, either hand should not have voided suits nor singletons nor more than 2 doubletons, when possible. Many players avoid No Trump when the player’s hand has 2 doubletons.

Length in a suit is important. If the partners are both short-suited in the same suit, they have a big weakness.

Hands with Trump Suits

Having enough trumps is the most important factor in a contract with a trump suit. Ideally you should have 8 or more trumps between the two hands in the partnership. A 7-card trump suit is much harder to play, and having less than 7 trumps is a distinct disadvantage.

Voided suits and singletons can be valuable when there is a trump suit, because the ability to trump a suit in one hand or the other enhances communication between the hands.

Evaluating two Hands, Part 1

2 hands from the first Bridge Note are shown below for evaluation.

The North hand has 10 HCP and 11 points overall. The South hand has 17 HCP and 17 points. The combined points in the two hands are 27 HCP and 28 points.

They have stoppers in all 4 suits. Distribution is balanced with no doubletons, singletons, or voids.

The ♠ suit and the ♥ suit have 7 cards, less than ideal for a suit contract.

Based on points and suit-size, a 3 NT bid is recommended.

Review Questions

Some questions have more than one correct answer.

1. What would be a good bid for this pair of hands?

2. What would be a good bid for this pair of hands?

3. What would be a good bid for this pair of hands?

4. What would be a good bid for this pair of hands?

5. Which of the following is a stopped suit?

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