[naskoSM]

Hi, my first post. I’m not an expert or high level educator but maybe this will be of interest for beginners.
Since late 70-ies, from polish sources, I’ve got this firmly implanted in me:

40 (4-3-2-1) hcp, 13 tricks, 3 hcp for a trick.

To estimate expected tricks for your side with BALANCED hands, add your hcp to the known minimum hcp of the partner and divide by 3. For 3NT you’ll need 27-26 hcp.

In trump contracts, with 5-3 or 4-4 fit, you hope for 2 more tricks from small trumps when remaining trumps are 3-2 – the little Xs annihilate 5-6 of the enemy’s hcp, so add 5 trump points to the combined hcp and again divide by 3. And NO, don’t add any points for void, singletons, doubletons. For game in major you’ll need 24-25 hcp.

Add two more trump points for every trump after the fifth in the long trumps hand or after the 3rd in short trumps hand (when ruffing indication exist) because this is one more trick steeled from enemy hcps. So, for game in major with superfit you’ll need 22-23 hcp.

Grasp the conception of “good” singleton (X – against Xs in partner), and “good” auxiliary suit (HHxx – against Hxx in partner) > add 2-3 more points. Learn some convention for combined Low/Short suit game try.

Same math, after controls check, for slam levels. Don’t forget the trick-taking power of little Xs.

When to start calculating, who calculates? At the end of descriptive phase of bidding when one of the hands is limited to 2 hcp range, the other hand calculates.

I don’t know who invented this method or its name – my free translation from polish was “contract on a level by balance”. But any time I read an article on hand evaluation and see 3 points for void, 2 for single, 1 for double – I cry a river! What is the bridge logic of equalizing a void with a king? On what math it is based?

And this oldie is so siple and reasonable

[gwnn]

I like the Bowles method better.

[NickRW]

naskoSM, on 2010-October-23, 04:14, said:

But any time I read an article on hand evaluation and see 3 points for void, 2 for single, 1 for double – I cry a river!

The 3/2/1 points for shortages is a fairly reasonable addition to hcp for the purpose of deciding whether to open or not. This is a little different to what you were talking about which has more to do with evaluating a level for the combined assets of a hand.

Nick