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Long Suit Distribution Points (LSDP)

There are two different techniques used for counting your distribution points. The first when you have no idea what your partner’s hand contains is using extra length over and above 4 cards in a suit in called ‘Long Suits’ to calculate distribution points (LSDP’s).

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What are my distribution points when I first look at my hand?

 In Lesson 4 we counted your HCP.  Now we use the number of cards above and beyond a 4 card holding in each suit to give you extra points. These are called distribution points (DP).
When you are in this situation it is known as ‘without a fit’ – if you have more than four cards in a suit you give yourself 1 point for each card over and above the first 4 in any suit holding in your hand.

How to count your Long Suit distribution points.

To calculate your DPs you must add an additional 1 point for each 5-card suit and an extra 1 point for each additional card in the same suit. Distribution points are added to your HCP.

NB: In the next lesson we introduce ‘short suit distribution points.
Long and short suit points cannot be combined together at the same time, use only one or the other when evaluating your hand.

Your Hand

• ♠ A K 9 8 7 5
• ♥ A K 10 8 6
• ♦2
• ♣4

Exercise: Calculate the distributional points on this hand:Answer = 3 DPs. You have 3 DP’s for the extra cards over a holding of 4 in any suit. So you get 2 DP’s for the fifth and sixth spade cards and you get 1 DP for the fifth heart suit card.
This counting is performed before you know anything about partners suit holdings.

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