Scoring & Hand valuation - Facts sheet 1

Scoring 1
There are 13 tricks to be made in each deal (one for every card held by each player). To win more tricks than the Opposition, you and your partner need to make 7 tricks or more.

Trick points
The first 6 tricks your side makes are called the book. They receive no scoring points.
Each trick after the 6th trick you make scores trick points as follows :

  • In No Trumps (NT) : 1st trick = 40 trick points     each following trick = 30 trick points

  • In ♥ and ♠ : each trick = 30 trick points

  • In ♣ and ♦ : each trick = 20 trick points

Bonus points
Bonus points are added to the total of trick points and awarded as follows :

  • Partscore (less than 100 trick points) = 50 bonus points

  • Game score (100 trick points or more) = 300 bonus points (500 when "Vulnerable")

  • Small Slam (making 12 tricks) = 800 bonus points (1250 when "Vulnerable")

  • Grand Slam (making all 13 tricks) = 1300 bonus points (2000 when "Vulnerable")

Hand valuation
Valuation of the strength of a hand uses High Card Points (HCP) and Length Points (LP)

High Card Points
High Card Points are allocated to the five "Honour cards" in each suit :

Ace = 4   King = 3   Queen = 2   Jack = 1   10 = ½

There are therefore 10½ HCP in each suit and 42 HCP in a total Deal.

Length Points
Length points are allocated for every card after the 4th card in a suit.   A 5-card suit receives therefore 1 LP, a 6-card suit receives 2LP, and so on.
The total of HCP + LP in a hand represents the strength of a hand.

Hand shape
There are three different types of hand shapes :

  1. Balanced hands : contain no or just one doubleton (4333, 4432, 5332)

  2. Semi-balanced hands : contain 2 or 3 doubletons (6322, 7222)

  3. Unbalanced hands : contain a singleton or void (4441, 5431, 5440, 6421, 7510, etc.)