Chapter 11 - Tricks vs. Points.
The Professor, absent for a while, returned with several graphs that he just created to illustrate Nutty's approach to counting tricks and pointed to the dashed lines on the graph. "In no trump, we expect to take 7 tricks with 20 high card points (line A), 9 tricks with 26 high card points (line B), and we need 33 high card points to make a slam (line D)" - he pointed to the dashed lines on the graph - "The circles show declarers' tricks and the triangles show defenders' tricks."
"When both sides have 20 high card points, according to the graph, declarer will take 6 and ¾ tricks, on average, compared to 6 and ¼ for the defenders" - Nutty pointed out.
"That is the advantage of seeing the dummy's cards" - explained Max - "Thus there is a half trick displacement between declarer's (squares) and defenders' lines (triangles)."
"Since a combined 26 high card points will produce 9 tricks most of the time, after one no trump opening with 13-15 high card points, one would make an invitational bid with 11 high card points, which would yield 26 points when the opener has a maximum. The invitational bid can be made with 10 high card points when a working five card suit or well textured suits are present to boost trick-taking potential" - Max related the graph to a typical bidding situation - "After 1 club - 1 diamond - 1 NT sequence, good 6 or 7 high card points would be needed to match opener's 19 high card point maximum."
"Combined 33 high card points are needed to make a slam" - continued Larry -" In a typical worst-case scenario, an ace and a king would be missing, or the success would depend on a finesse. However, even with 36 combined high card points a grand slam is not guaranteed, since an ace can be missing or a finesse of a king needs to be taken."
"When the partnerships proceeds in three high card point increments, it is easy to see if the slam is possible" - added Nutty.
