Source: HAND EVALUATION: “Count covers, not high-card points”
DLR: South VUL: E/W
K 9 7 6 
4 
Q 8 7 5 2 
J 5 3
Sitting north in a team game, your partner opens 1 and, after a pass by west, you trot out 1. East passes and south jumps to 3. West passes again. Do you carry on to game, or pass? What is your thinking?
| West | North | East | South |
| 1 |
|||
| Pass | 1 |
Pass | 3 |
| Pass | ? |
When partner opens a minor and jump raises your major, he either has an unbalanced hand with 14-16 HCP, or a balanced hand with 18 HCP, or a “semi” balanced hand (5-4-2-2 type) with 15-17 HCP. If he held a balanced hand with 15-17 HCP, he would have opened One No Trump! Basically he will have a hand with about 16-17 dummy points!
On this auction your partner is guaranteed to have at least four diamonds, and an overwhelming number of times he will hold a five-or six-card suit. You have a double fit with about FOUR COVER CARDS; (cards which cover losers); ONE DIAMOND HONOR, ONE SPADE HONOR, AND TWO HEART RUFFS. Think of it this way. If south holds just A Q 3 2 3 2 A K 9 4 3 3 2,
he has only 13 HCP, but ten tricks are probable in a spade game. STOP COUNTING HIGH-CARD POINTS! Start counting cover cards!
My partner passed, however, and we missed a cold game. This was the layout:
It was hard for E/W to get into the auction at adverse vulnerability, but as you see, they can also make 10 tricks in hearts! Bridge is a bidders game.
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