Finding a Fit

In Lesson 4 we counted your HCP .  This lesson is about when you and partner have both been bidding and you find that between you you hold at least 8 card in a suit, this is called a 'fit'. If you have a 'fit' in a suit this is a very strong situation as your side have the majority of the points. So now that you have one very long suit, it is to your advantage if you have a small number of cards in other suits.

Dis-regard Long Suit Distributional Points

Firstly, you must now ignore the long suit distributional points that you previously calculated (pre-fit finding) and start again (remember you can only use one method of distributional points evaluation at a time).

After establishing that you and partner have at least 8 (or more) cards in the same suit , suit shortages in other suits can add extra power to your hand. These shortages enable you to ruff the side suits gaining extra tricks:

• voids  (0 cards in a suit)  are worth 5 extra points
• singletons (1 card in a suit) are worth 3 extra points
• doubletons (2 cards in a suit) are worth 1 extra points
  
  

How to count your Short Suit distribution points.

The following system is commonly used for Short Suit Points:
Short suit distribution points: 5 points for a void in a suit; 3 points for a singleton in a suit and 1 point for a doubleton with no honor cards, these are added to your HCP after your partnership has reached a fit. This is the way you re-evaluate the strength of your hand after you partner has supported (bid) your trump suit .

Definition of Terms · a 'void' is where your hand contains no cards in a suit; · a 'singleton' is where your hand holds only 1 card in a suit; · a 'doubleton' is when your hand holds two cards in a suit; · a 'fit' in a suit is when you and your partner have 8 or more cards in one suit;