Wednesday, January 26, 2005 12:17 PM
Counting HCP's
PITBULLS:
You
pick up your hand and the first thing you do while sorting it is count your
HCP’s . This total will guide your bidding throughout the pending auction. If
you think your HCP counting is now over until the next hand you are badly mistaken. Both as declarer and
defender you must be a human “HCP odometer” as the play or defense or bidding progresses.
Develop this habit especially if they have bid NT.
Here is a hand that came up with the young pair of Kevin & Jason. Jason has Kxx Jx QJxxx AKx and opened 1♦ and the auction went double pass 2NT invitational and 3NT. Jason led a low diamond and the board came down with Qxxx KQ109x x Q109 . This was an insane takeout double and even a more insane raise of an invitational bid to 3NT. Anyway the declarer wins his diamond 10 and leads a low club what do you play and why ? Time to be a human odometer. Declarer has the diamond AK known after your opening lead and give declarer the heart Ace for not attacking hearts. He probably has the club jack for the club play so what’s the running total of his HCP’s ? AK , A and jack so there is his 12 HCP he has shown or inferred on the bidding. Declarer can not hold the spade Ace or the spade jack for that matter. Win your club and switch to a small spade and partner puts in the spade 9 which wins !! The spade 10 comes back and you cash 4 spades and your AK of clubs for the top that you expected on the bidding. You duck your club and declarer takes 3 diamonds , 5 hearts and club for –600 and a cold zero.
Here
is an example of counting points during the auction. Matchpoints and a
tormentee held Axxxx xxx AJ AQx . I opened 1♥ which brought
a 1♠ response . I bid 3♦
and the tormentee bid 4♣ which got doubled and I bid 4♠. What
do you bid ? Time to add up the HCP’s during
the auction. Partner shows around 19 HCP for his strong jump shift.
You have 15 HCP with a two suited fit . More than enough to bid 6NT to protect
your AQ of clubs from the opening lead and a top board as the field is in a
major suit slam. The tormentee said he never thought of bidding 6NT to protect
his clubs. Counting HCP’s during the auction would have made this decision
simple.
Balancing is where counting HCP’s is really necessary. How many HCP’s can partner likely hold on the auction ?
You have this hand Axxxx xx AQJ109x void and RHO opens
1♣ in 3rd seat with everyone vul. You overcall 1♦ and LHO bids 2NT invitational showing 10-11 HCP . The 3rd
seat opener passes and your decision so do you bid again and if so what .
Counting points around the table time 11 HCP to your left and maybe 12 for the
3rd seat opener and pass. Partner should hold around 7 HCP and the
diamond king is not 3 of them as that is to your left. If you give partner the magical 7 HCP Kxxx Axxx x xxxx you are cold for 7♠ with a two-two break . If partner holds xxxx xxxx x xxxx you are cold for 4♠ with a
two-two break. LHO denies the majors and the 3rd seat opener did not open a major. Partner could easily
hold 4 spades. You bid 3♠ as you show a minimum of a 6-5 with that bid & this
auction and the 4 level in diamonds should be safe. Partner will
never pass you without length in spades as he knows you are going to get tapped
in clubs on the opening lead. Partner had a reasonable 5 HCP for me but not the
length in spades I had hoped for Q10 Kxxx xxx xxxx and 4♦ makes for +130.
Defense is where you really do your odometer impersonation. I count HCP’s all the time and it is amazingly simple with years of practice. Peter Jones shows off sometimes as defender after I opened 2NT and he has “recorded” the HCP’s , he will say near the hand “cash your Ace as that’s all you getting”. How did he know that ? I have shown up with 16 HCP’s already and he knows that. Simple. There are tricks to help partner out with counting HCP’s. I blew 12 IMPS tonight by being careless. Susan was in 5♣ with ♠Q1098 ♥xx ♦10xx ♣AKJx and partner led his doubleton diamond . I held J9872 of diamonds and Susan played low so which diamond do you play. There is a time to break rules. 3rd man high is one of them if you want partner to count HCP’s properly. Play the diamond deuce so when declarer false cards with the Ace , partner can place the AKQ of diamonds in her hand. Susan played the spade K and BJ won his A. Now it is a simple matter to count her HCP’s . 9 in diamonds, the spade king , the club queen implied so she can not have the heart Ace or her NT opener would be 18 HCP’s. BJ returns a heart and we cash our two heart tricks for +100.
Finessing as a tool in declarer play is greatly assisted by counting HCP’s during the play. This is a discovery play. You have to find 2 queens to make your contract. RHO opened a diamond and rebid 1NT. LHO leads a diamond and the opener plays the King & Ace of diamonds and switches to the AK of clubs. Thank you opponents , as you have just found both queens for me. Opener has shown up with 14 HCP so can not hold any more points .Bridge is a simple game if you train yourself to be a HCP odometer.