Bidding in depth
Before a fit is found, add points for long suits; once a trump fit is agreed, add points for short suits instead.
High-card points count your honours and nothing else. But shape wins tricks too, in two different ways at two different moments in the auction. Counting them at the right moment is what separates a good raise from a missed game.
While you are still looking for a home for the hand, a long suit is the asset. Every card beyond the fourth in a suit is likely to become a trick once the suit is established and the defenders have run out. So, before a fit is agreed, add one point for each card past four.
Length points: add 1 for every card beyond four in a suit.
An 11-count with a six-card suit is worth 11 + 2 = 13: a sound opening, where the bare points are not. One shape is docked: a completely flat 4‑3‑3‑3 loses a point, because it has neither a long suit to run nor a short one to ruff, the least productive shape there is.
Agree a trump fit and the picture reverses. Now a short side suit is the asset: with trumps in your own hand you can ruff away the losers in a suit where you are short. So once trumps are agreed, both hands revalue by shortness instead of length — not only the hand doing the raising.
Support points: a void is worth 5, a singleton 3, a doubleton 1, counted in the side suits once a fit is agreed. Two limits apply: a short suit is never worth more points than you hold trumps, and a king, queen or jack in a short suit does not count twice. A singleton king is 3 points in total, not 3 for the king plus 3 more for the singleton.
That trump limit is a statistically validated cap on distribution points: a short suit pays off through ruffing, and a hand with few trumps cannot cash the ruffs. So a void opposite three trumps counts 3, not 5; opposite four trumps, 4; with five or more the full value stands.
BidMaestro counts support points wherever a trump fit is already known: raising partner’s major, the Bergen raises, Jacoby 2NT, splinter bids, Reverse Drury, the help-suit game try, the strong raise in Inverted Minors, the cue-bid raise in competition, and accepting partner’s invitation to five of a minor.
A singleton king seems to be worth three high-card points and three shortness points. It is not. The king is only worth its high-card points if it wins a trick, and a bare king usually falls under the ace; if instead you ruff the suit, the king never wins anything at all. You cannot have the trick both ways, so BidMaestro counts the honour or the shortness, not both: a singleton king is worth its three high-card points and no shape credit. A doubleton queen or jack with no ace or king above it earns no doubleton credit for the same reason.
A short ace is the exception and keeps its full shape credit: an ace wins its trick whenever it is played, so it is a control and a certain trick rather than a hope. There is one more discount: if partner has already shown the ace or king of a suit, your own shortness there earns nothing. Ruffing away partner’s winners gains no tricks. It merely duplicates values the partnership already had.
You count length or shortness, never both, and shortness only when you have a trump fit to ruff with. In notrump there are no trumps, so a short suit is a liability rather than an asset.
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