Hi,
What's meant by the term "working points".
Thanks,
Mark
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Working points
#2
Posted 2021-June-20, 10:51
Early in the bidding the (Milton Work) points in your hand are some estimate of your trick-taking potential. After a few rounds of the bidding your honour cards may end up being more or less likely to take tricks compared to your initial assessment. For example, Qx is initially evaluated at 2 points (or around 0.65 tricks, if you take that literally). If the opponents now bid this suit you typically expect to take less than 0.65 tricks average with this holding, so these points are 'not working'. If partner bids the suit then the queen rates to either take a trick or promote something in partner's long suit, so the average tricks go up and the points are 'working'.
The most striking example is if partner shows shortness, for example with a splinter. If you happen to have little or no points in that suit all honours in your hand rate to be important for the play, whereas if you have values in the bid suit those might be worse than useless.
The most striking example is if partner shows shortness, for example with a splinter. If you happen to have little or no points in that suit all honours in your hand rate to be important for the play, whereas if you have values in the bid suit those might be worse than useless.
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