New Page 1

CHAT LOG FROM SESSION 1 OF HAND EVALUATION CLASS

.:*~*:._!h_.:*~*:._!h_.:*~*:._!h_.:*~*:._!h_.:*~*:._!h_.:*~*:.

. Hi everybody! :)

. A special thanks to Dennis for his help in developing this class.

. Please grab a pencil and paper to jot things down as we go through this. :)

. It would probably be smart to turn off lobby chat to prevent distractions.

. To do that, call up your profile, click the "Chat" tab, check Ignore chat "From lobby."

. At the same time, you might want to turn off notifications of when friends log in.

. Do that under the "Friends" tab of your profile.

. I'll give you a minute to do that.

!H . This is the 1st of three 30-minute classes on our Method of Hand Evaluation.

. In this session, we will be talking about counting High Card Points, Shape and part 1 of Fit.

. In the next sessions, we will address Fit and Quality of Suits

. This Method applies to 5-card major systems.

. The next 2 sessions will occur a week apart on Fridays at 7 Eastern.

. If you email me at WizInTn@gmail.com, I will send you a copy of my part of chat.

. I will give you time to write down my email address. :)

!H This is the first time we've tried to do this in a live format.

Thank you in advance for your patience and understanding.

We may run into a few kinks and bumps, but we're still learning. :)

If you have any suggestions for improvements or other classes

please email me at wizintn@gmail.com

ALSO...

We MUST have a system to keep us from all talking at once..

. or it is going to get very confusing. :):)

PLEASE... Hold your comments and questions until I ask for them!!!!

!H So......... Without further ado...

. LET'S GET STARTED :)

. !H

. WINNING HAND EVALUATION IS A PROCESS.

. We're going to take things by steps, keeping each step simple and easy to understand - I hope. :)

. We BEGIN with HIGH CARD POINTS (HCP) - just the START of Hand Evaluation.

To count High Card Points (HCP), we assign points for face cards -

. 4 points for an Ace, 3 for a King, 2 for a Queen, 1 for a Jack.

Remember...Count the high card points - all of them, protected or not.

Let's count a few hands...

(Insert prepared hands)

. Count the HCP for each hand and jot them down.

Remember... Count ALL HCP's, but no shortness points.

You CAN NOT count shortness points until a trump suit has been agreed to

N=8, E=8, S=14, W=10 HCP's

How did you do?

!H We've talked about High Card Points (HCP).

. We still have SHAPE, FIT AND QUALITY to talk about.

. Next we will talk some about SHAPE.

. !D SHAPE REFERS TO LENGTH OF SUITS. !D

Until a trump suit is agreed to, we MAY NOT adjust for shortness.

. BUT... There is one other thing we can and should do

. when we are deciding whether to open our hand.

!H We must adjust our point count by adding points for long suits.

. Add 1 point for each card over 4 in any suit.

. A 5-card suit is worth 1 extra point; a 6-card suit is 2, etc.

. Let's try that out now. Count North & jot down your answers.

!H North

Spade - 5 High Card Pts (HCP), 1 Long Suit Pt (LSP)

Heart - 2 HCP, 0 LSP

Club - 0 HCP, 0 LSP

Diamond - 6 HCP, 1 LSP

13 HCP + 2 LSP = 15 Total Points

. Now count East....

!H East

Spade - 0 High Card Pts (HCP), 0 Long Suit Pt (LSP)

Heart - 5 HCP, 1 LSP

Club - 5 HCP, 0 LSP

Diamond - 4 HCP, 0 LSP

14 HCP + 1 LSP = 15 Total Points

. Now count South...

!H South

Spade - 2 High Card Pts (HCP), 0 Long Suit Pt (LSP)

Heart - 0 HCP, 0 LSP

Club - 4 HCP, 0 LSP

Diamond - 0 HCP, 0 LSP

6 HCP + 0 LSP = 6 Total Points

. Now count West

!H West

Spade - 3 High Card Pts (HCP), 0 Long Suit Pt (LSP)

Heart - 3 HCP, 0 LSP

Club - 1 HCP, 0 LSP

Diamond - 0HCP, 0 LSP

7 HCP + 0 LSP = 7 Total Points

. Now let's sum up...

. The sum of high card points (HCP) and shape points is called total points (TP).

. When you are opening a bid (or bidding a new suit)

. you must evaluate your hand with HCP & long suit points.

. So, at this point ... Remember You can't count short suit points until a trump suit is agreed upon.

. TOTAL POINTS = HIGHCARD POINTS plus LONG SUIT POINTS

. Now ... if you have 13 points, you should open. Some people open with 12. I do

. !H

Now let's talk about how Hand Evaluation changes as the bidding progresses.

You're counted your Total Points (HCP & LSP), of course, when the hand was dealt,

But... If your partner has opened, you will need to re-evaluate your hand for FIT.

You re-evaluate your hand using High Card Points (HCP), Length Points AND now...

SHORT SUIT POINTS, sometimes called Support Points or Playing Points.

Once a trump suit has been agreed upon, or at least a partial fit uncovered,

ruffing (trumping in) potential becomes as significant as long suits.

Therefore, you must now re-evaluate your hand adding points for shortage.

. A void = 3 points

. A singleton = 2 points

. A doubleton = 1 point

. Make sure you don't count shortage in your partner's bid suit.

But... WATCH FOR POTENTIAL TO ADD BONUS SHORTAGE POINTS!

With a shortage in a suit bid by opponents, you may add MORE distributional points.

. Instead of 3 points, the void is now 5 points

. Instead of 2 points, the singleton is now worth 3 points.

. The doubleton does not change. It is still worth only 1 extra point.

These "shortage points" are added to HCP plus Length Points.

Shortage points are also known as "support points" or "playing points"

because... we do this ONLY after a fit has been found.

. AND ONE MORE IMPORTANT THING...

!h Add points for shortness ONLY when holding 3+ of partner's bid suit

. that has shown you at least a 5-card suit - a GOLDEN FIT of 8+ cards in the suit.

REMEMBER! Add shortage points ONLY after you and partner have a FIT!!

!H LET'S SUMMARIZE WHAT WE'VE LEARNED TODAY.

First we assign points for High Cards - 4,3,2,1 for Ace, King, Queen, Jack.

Next we add 1 point for each card over 4 in all suits.

ONLY when a trump has been agreed to can we add points for short suits:

3 points for a void, 2 points for a singleton, 1 point for a doubleton, UNLESS

your shortage is in a suit bid by opponents. Then you can add points

5 points for a void, 3 points for a singleton, 1 point for a doubleton.

THESE ARE THE RULES. Following them, you will do well most of the time.

Eventually we will talk about a few RARE exceptions.

Now let's pause and give you a chance to ask questions.

Then we will do a few practice hands.

Let's try to keep questions relevant to what we have presented today.

Next week we will discuss additional considerations.

Please remember to type in an exclamation point ! if you want to say something.

I will call on people one at a time.

IF YOU HAVE A QUESTION, TYPE IN ! (EXCLAMATION POINT).

!h SORRY BUT WE NEED TO END QUESTIONS NOW! !h

We will spend the last 10 minutes doing some practice hands.

I will open the seats to the first 4 people who would like to participate.

We will change players at the end of each hand.

IF YOU WANT TO SIT, DO SO. :)

WE ARE REQUESTING THAT YOU USE THIS METHOD THIS WEEK.

Jot down any questions or comments during the week.

Email them to me at wizintn@gmail.com. We will talk about them briefly next Friday.

Our next sessions on Hand Evaluation will cover

* FIT continued

* Quality of Suit

* Law of Total Tricks

* Losing Trick Count

and a few other things :)

Each class will start at 7 PM Eastern on Fridays.

To attend, add TDBluff to your friend's list. Just before 7 PM, right click TDBluff and select "Join TDBluff's Table."

This is a basic class primarily for intermediates. Hope you will join us.