Short Suit Distribution Points

This is the distribution point guideline

If you are considering a trump contract, you can count “short suit distribution points” or DP for short.

In your non-trump suits,

• if you have a void (no cards in suit), you count 3 points.

• A singleton (one card in suit), you count 2.

• Last for a doubleton (2 cards in suit), you count as 1 point.

Why is that so?

Note: In competition, you may want to modify this guideline. See this link.

The case for assigning points to a short suit

Remember that when you count HCP, each suit only has AKQJ that can be assigned HCP. That’s a total of 10 HCP.

If it turns out you can easily ruff at least one of these honors, when it is held in your opponent's hands, it must be of value.

To take a simple example, if you have a void in hearts, and the trump contract is in spades. Then if your partner has a QH, but opponents have AH and KH between them, their AH and KH now become potentially useless – their 7HCP has become valueless – it effectively is yours. I say “potentially” because it may depend on whether you have enough trump cards in your hand to trump all of opponent’s high cards.

Why only 3 pts for a void since you could cancel out opponent’s high cards (as much as 10HCP)? That’s because (A) you need enough trumps in your hand to trump opponent’s cards and (B) Maybe it is your partner that has the high honors, not your opponents.

So the 3 pts is like an “average”. Sometimes, it works out, sometimes it doesn’t. But on average, it works out to be equal to a 3 point advantage (about equal to a K).

Examples

Note: the software uses "10" to denote a ten spot card. It does not use "T".

Here North has a void in spades. The prospective contract is in diamonds (NS has a 8 card fit). South has a K, which is almost useless. However, opponents have a AQJ, which can be ruffed by you. Your overall advantage is 7HCP – 3HCP = 4HCP.

In the example above, you may have spotted that EW (East West) also have a trump fit - in Spades.  While NS can consider a diamond contract, EW can consider a spade contract at the same time. If the trump contract is a spade contract, then for EW, they can count 3 doubletons in West (3DP). The value of the hand in West's hands if spade contract is the one played is 10HCP + 3 DP = 13 pts - but only if the contract is in spades.

Here North has a singleton Q in spades. The prospective trump contract is in hearts.

Your Q is useless as it is easily taken. But luckily, your partner in South has an Ace.

That means that potentially, opponent’s KJ is useless – that’s 4HCP back to you.

On the other hand, you only have 3 trump cards in North, so it is possible that you may not be able to trump all of opponent’s spades in North, so your singleton is not worth the full 4HCP, but probably less (how much less depends on the play).

Conclusion

In the two examples, when we can see ALL the cards, we can see how much value a void or a singleton might be. This, however, serves to illustrate that a void, doubleton or singleton can be of value - the value changes according to what each player actually holds, and how the play progresses.

The guideline is a simple rule of thumb that allows you to simply add some value to your hand when you see a shortage in a suit, when you are considering a trump contract in another suit.

The guideline again:

• Void - 3 pts

• Singleton - 2 pts

• Doubleton - 1 pt

If you are happy with this, you may want to read the article on applying a 5-3-1 DP to your short suits in a competitive situation.