Quick summary

Bidding and making 5 is difficult

You'll need 28 points & some luck

Try to play in 3 No Trumps instead of a 5 of a minor ! The reward is the same.

spadeheartdiamondclub

Example Deal


«  0002  »

Game in a "minor" is harder to reach

"9 and 28"

For a game in a Major, recall that you need:

  1. unbalanced(1) hands;
  2. a fit in a Major suit (heart, spade);
  3. sufficient trumps between you for game in the suit: namely 8;
  4. sufficient points between you for game: 25 is the minimum, including distribution points

For a minor clubdiamond, you should reckon on needing 28 points between you to be able to make the 11 tricks needed for game.

You can only afford to lose 2 tricks, so it's going to be easier if you have a 9-card trump fit. But in any case, try to find something less demanding to bid, such as 3NT, which only requires 9 tricks and where you can lose 4 but still make game.

This advice does not really apply if you are going to try find a Slam. If you can bid a Slam (12 or more out of the 13 tricks) then minors are in most cases just as good as Majors at scoring large numbers of bonus points. It's a lot better to bid and make Slam in a minor than game in NT.

Note, when counting points with a suit contract, shape is important. Credit needs to be given for length and for voids and singletons(2), unless the short suits are in trumps of course !

(1) No suit or pair of suits dominates your hand, and no suit is close to absent.

(2) Distribution Points:  Points for shortages are not counted until trumps have been agreed, and obviously not at all for NT. 5 for a void, 3 for a singleton, 1 for a doubleton (provided you have enough trumps to take advantage of the shortage). Points for extra length can be counted before trump agreement.

Now try the quiz

Can you put all this into action ? Try the quiz for this subject by clicking on the link at the top left of the page, just below the main menu.
(You can try quizzes for any other subjects too while you're there. Look out for the thin red line).

spadeheartdiamondclub


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