Counting Cards in Suits During Play

Counting is how you track your own cards and cards in oppositions hands. It is one of the most useful techniques to help decide on your card play.

Description

Counting cards in your own hand allows you to know how many the opposition hold. It informs ruffing, holding up, ducking, end-plays and squeezes. Developing counting skills requires practice even if is not enjoyable. Counting out a hand is common and the key to good card play.

Counting for Assessing Distribution

Knowing the distribution of cards in a suit held by your opposition enables you to manage your suits. If you and partner have a fit (an 8 card suit between you) you can know that the cards will be distributed in one of several patterns. The outstanding seven cards could be split
Learning or having a fair idea of these distributions will dramatically improve your card playing results.

Other Numbers of Card Split Statistics

With 2 Cards In Opponents Hands

1 - 1 split in opponents hands occurs 52% of the time
2 - 0 or 0 - 2 split in opponents hands occurs 48% of the time

The odds are roughly similar for both distributions

With 3 Cards In Opponents Hands

2 - 1 or 1 - 2 split in opponents hands occurs 78% of the time
3 - 0 or 0 - 3 split in opponents hands occurs 22% of the time

If its a King out as part of the 3 cards out its nearly always advisable to play for dropping the King in one round

With 4 Cards In Opponents Hands

3 - 1 or 1 - 3 split in opponents hands occurs 49% of the time
2 - 2 or 2 - 2 split in opponents hands occurs 41% of the time
4 - 0 or 0 - 4 split in opponents hands occurs 10% of the time

Three rounds in this suit will extract them all 90% of the time.

With 5 Cards In Opponents Hands

3 - 2 or 2 - 3 split in opponents hands occurs 68% of the time
1 - 4 or 4 - 1 split in opponents hands occurs 28% of the time
5 - 0 or 0 - 5 split in opponents hands occurs 4% of the time

This distribution means that you have a fit in this suit, so this is a powerful suit for you.

With 6 Cards In Opponents Hands

4 - 2 or 2 - 4 split in opponents hands occurs 47% of the time
3 - 3 split in opponents hands occurs 36% of the time
5 - 1 or 1 - 5 split in opponents hands occurs 15% of the time
6 - 0 or 0 - 6 split in opponents hands occurs 2% of the time

Notice that a 3 - 3 split only occurs approximately 30% of the time

With 7 Cards In Opponents Hands

3 - 4 or 4 - 3 in opponents hands occurs 62% of the time
2 - 5 or 5 - 2 in opponents hands occurs 30% of the time
1 - 6 or 6 - 1 in opponents hands occurs 7% of the time
0 - 7 or 0 - 7 in opponents hands occurs 1% of the time

You can see that its most likely that 2-3 rounds of your 8 card fit will draw out all of opponents cards. It is helpful to check by counting opponents cards as they play them in the suit. Discovering a 1-6 or 0-7 distribution means you may need to develop a new line of play in the middle of a game.

With 8 Cards In Opponents Hands

4 - 4 split in opponents hands occurs 33% of the time
5 - 3 or 3 - 5 split in opponents hands occurs 47% of the time
6 - 2 or 2 - 6 split in opponents hands occurs 17% of the time
7 - 1 or 1 - 7 split in opponents hands occurs 3% of the time
8 - 0 or 0 - 8 split in opponents hands occurs 2% of the time

A lot of the time you aren't going to be able to draw out opposition holding in this suit.
If 9 cards are out well, you aren't going to be able to do much in that suit, so theres not much point in doing anything except carefully observing

More Distribution Statistics

Just in case your head isn't already spinning. Of 39 possible hand patterns, 6 &hand patterns comprise approximately 75 percent of the the possible distributions. If you can learn these percentages it will help with planning your play

The most common distributions are

Probability of Distribution of Cards in all Four Hands

4-4-3-2 - occurs 22% of the time
5-3-3-2 - occurs 16% of the time
5-4-3-1 - occurs 12% of the time
5-4-2-2 - occurs 11% of the time
4-3-3-3 - occurs 10% of the time
4-4-4-1 - occurs 3% of the time

Instant Progress Quiz - Check all correct answers

Practice This Lesson

Count Trump Suit as You Play

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Extra for Experts

A different game on the same subject as this lesson, with questions for community discussion in the comments area below.

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