Search MSO Worldwide

Hand Evaluation Part III

When looking for a long suit on which to play, even a four card suit is better than nothing. Take these two hands:

(a)		A1094	(b)		A1094
		KJ3			KJ63
		A64			A4
		J105			J105

Hand (b) is stronger than hand (a) because it has two four card suits. This gives declarer two possible sources of a length trick as against only one with hand (a). Also, two four card suits doubles the chance of finding a 4-4 trump fit and, what is more, if you do find a trump fit you have a ruffing value courtesy of the doubleton diamond which may provide an extra trick.

Which of this next pair would you rather hold?

(c)		AK76	(d)		A3
		K1094			1085
		A3			AK76
		1085			K1094

The correct answer is hand (c). Although the hands look identical, and indeed are identical in terms of playing strength in no trumps, this hand offers the possibility of finding a 4-4 fit in either major, which may be better than playing in no trumps. Hand (d) only offers the possibility of finding a fit in a minor suit, a less attractive option as it means playing game at the five level, and even a partscore will score less well. Let's look at one more set of balanced hands, then we can move on to something a little more exciting.

(e)		Q865	(f)		AJ106	(g)		A865
		Q732			AJ93			AJ93
		AJ7			J4			Q87
		AJ			QJ8			QJ

It is good to have honours in your long suits, particularly ones which may eventually become trumps. It is also good to have honours in combination in the same suit, where they can back each other up. It is also good to have intermediates in suits where they can back up higher cards.

All this means that hand (e) is the poorest as the two long suits are weak and there are too many loose honours. Even the two minor suits are not that wonderful as AJ combinations are only strong opposite some specific holdings in partner's hand.

Hand (f) is better than hand (g) because the two majors have better intermediates and the club suit is more promising than either of the minors in the other hand.

Let's just recap then on what features are plus features, things that might persuade you to upgrade your hand.

1) Many intermediates
2) Intermediates in the long suits
3) Having a five card suit or two four card suits
4) Honours in the long suits
5) Touching honour cards in combination
6) Length in the major suits
7) Holding aces

Conversely, features which might make you downgrade your hand, i.e. minus features, would include:

1) Lack of intermediates
2) Suits headed by unsupported honours or two honours which are not touching
3) 4-3-3-3 distribution
4) Honours in short suits, particularly queens and jacks
5) Too many jacks

Distributional Hands

A distributional hand is any hand including a singleton, a void, or two doubletons. Occasionally, a 5-4-2-2 hand may be treated as balanced if much of the strength is in the short suits but, in principle, this is a hand with which you would like to bid both your suits and give partner a choice.

With a distributional hand, it becomes even more important that you have high cards in your long suits rather than the short ones. If a trump fit can be found, that is the one suit in which you will have no choice but to concede however many losers you have, so to play 4 with a trump suit of Q863 opposite 10754 is not a very attractive proposition. Better to have high cards in the trump suit.

While aces and, to a lesser extent, kings will always be useful, jacks and queens in your short suits will often fail to pull their weight. Consider this hand:

	AK1084
	KJ63
	Q5
	J2

If you find a fit in either major you will be reasonably happy with the quality of your trump suit. But consider the minors. Opposite many holdings partner might have these doubleton honours will prove to be no more effective than would a small doubleton. Consider that a queen gives you third round control of a suit, but so does a doubleton. Combining the two features leaves you with a case of overkill, two different kinds of third round control. That is not to say that the queen and jack will never be valuable, just not as often as they might be in a long suit.

What you really look for in a distributional hand is trick taking capacity in the long suits and controls in the short suits. In the long suits, high cards are important. In the short suits, an ace or king is very nice but can only be played once. A singleton, on the other hand, gives you repeated control of a suit, subject to your holding sufficient trumps. And, of course, not only does it give you control of the suit, it also gives you a source of extra tricks by ruffing partner's losers in the suit.

Just as a 4-4-3-2 hand is superior to a 4-3-3-3, so 5-4-3-1 is a more promising shape than 5-4-2-2. Similarly, 6-3-3-1 or even better 6-4-3-0 is stronger than 6-3 2 2. And once we get on to holding seven card suits, I would always prefer 7-3-3-0 or 7-4-2-0 to 7-3-2-1 and prefer that in turn to a 7-2-2-2 shape.

I will leave you to think why that is the case. In the next article we will see why and look at some illustrative examples.