Hand evaluation

Wbridge5 mainly uses point-count system for bidding. One counts only honors for notrump contracts and defensive values, with distribution points combined for suit contracts. The losing trick count helps evaluate distributed hands for suit contracts.

High card points

Wbridge5 employs the well-known 4-3-2-1 count.

Ace

4 HCP

King

3 HCP

Queen

2 HCP

Jack

1 HCP

Distribution points

Void

3 points

Singleton

2 points

Doubleton

1 point

Refined honor points

Wbridge5 makes some adjustments for 10s and unguarded honors, but I have not figure out its rules. Luckily, Thomas's Bridge Fantasia provides precise evaluators friendly to humans.

Binky

Binky is a theoretical evaluator impossible for a human player to use. To obtain Binky points, one looks up an exhaustive table for every pattern and holding. This evaluator is regarded as a reference here.

Fifths

The Fifths evaluator is the perfect evaluator for 3NT. It is good for other notrump contracts too. Its correlation to real notrump tricks is 0.931, near to Binky's 0.947.

Ace

4.0 HCP

King

2.8 HCP (↓ 0.2)

Queen

1.8 HCP (↓ 0.2)

Jack

1.0 HCP

Ten

0.4 HCP (↑ 0.4)

Bum-rap

The Bum-rap evaluator is good for suit contracts. With distribution points added, its correlation to real tricks is 0.914, near to Binky's 0.925.

Ace

4.5 points (↑ 1/2)

King

3 points

Queen

1.5 points (↓ 1/2)

Jack

0.75 points (↓ 1/4)

Ten

0.25 points (↑ 1/4)

Additional distribution points

Thomas has not justified these point-adding systems popular in France, but the Wbridge5 program uses them.

Length

Add 1 point for the 6th card and thereafter in every suit.

Fit

While this is not documented in Wbridge5, I believe the program uses it secretly from my observation on its bidding.

The 9th card

1 point

The 10th card

2 points

The 11th card and thereafter

1 point