Page 29 - ABF Newsletter June 2025

WORKSHOPS WITH WILL with Will Jenner-O’Shea
SCORING: HOW ARE THE SCORES CALCULATED (OPENING WITH 11 POINTS)
In one popular workshop that I delivered this month we played real hands that were used in this year’s Gold Coast Congress Pair’s Final.
We looked at the scores from the Restricted Pairs (Under 300 MPs) A-Final and compared the scores from the tournament to what happened in the lesson. It gave many players a good insight into how Matchpoint scoring works. As well as calculating the score for making your contract, the players got to compare their scores to a table of real scores to look up their matchpoint score.
It was very interesting to see the results and how sometimes making your contract wasn’t good enough – the overtricks made a difference. Also there were some hands where bidding and going down scored well, because others went down by more, or the opponents could have made their contract.
Using Bridgemates to score has meant that many people aren’t great at knowing what the scores are for making various contracts, and also how that score is converted into the percentage that is displayed.
There was one interesting deal that occurred where West was the dealer (neither side vulnerable):
]975 [A53 }652
{ A J 10 3
]A642
[J974
}K43 }QJ98 {K8 ]KQJ103 {Q765
[86
} A 10 7 {942
If West opens the bidding with 1{ or 1}, then East will bid hearts and South will overcall spades. East- West will compete in hearts and North-South will
compete in spades and will likely win the auction and make 2] or 3].
There were a couple of discus-
sion points. Firstly, make sure
that you and your partner have
agreed which minor suit to open
when you have three diamonds and
two clubs. I usually recommend opening the longer or better minor, so my 1{ opening might only be 3+ clubs and my 1} can sometimes be a three-card suit.
The next point of discussion was what happens if West passes with 11 HCP. North will pass, East will pass, and South might also pass. Some South play- ers might feel obligated to open the bidding, but you can all pass.
When you “pass in” a board at Duplicate, it is not a 50-50 or an average. It is a score of 0 points. Scoring 0 points is better than scoring -50, but not as good as +50. On this board, since more North-South pairs made 2] than other contracts, passing the board out would have been bad for North-South (around 40%) and great for East-West (nearly 60%). Playing a normal sensible style of bridge, opening 11 HCP with a balanced hand is not necessarily a good idea. You should consider opening with 11 HCP if you have some shape and good suits.
There is a “Rule of 15” which helps you decide whether to open the bidding in the fourth seat. It suggests that if you add your HCP to the number of spades that you have, and it equals 15 or more, then you should open the bidding. The theory is that if you have fewer points or fewer spades, then you risk getting outbid. The team with the spade fit often wins, as in the example above. For players who use the Rule of 15 to decide whether to open the bid- ding in fourth seat, this hand meets the Rule of 15, but it is not great. I would probably pass the hand out rather than open the South hand after three passes. Opening and hoping for a plus score seems a little optimistic.
]8
[ K Q 10 2
Australian Bridge Federation Ltd. Newsletter: June 2025
Page: 29