SAYC
× Introduction:
  1. Introduction
  2. Evaluate an Opening Hand
  3. Bidding Process / Hierarchy Chart
  4. Bidding Strategy

  SAYC (Standard American Yellow Card)
  Statistics
× Opening Bids
       Opening Bid Options
Open 1 Level
   Open  1 ♠ 
   Open  1 ♥ 
       Open  1 NT 
           Open Better Minor
           Open  1 ♦ 
           Open  1 ♣ 
Weak Opening Bids
 •          2 ♦   2 ♥   2 ♠  (6-card suit)
 •  3 ♣   3 ♦   3 ♥   3 ♠  (7-card suit)
 •                  4 ♥   4 ♠  (8-card suit)
Strong Opening Bids
      • Open  2 ♣ 
      • Open  2 NT 
      • Open  3 NT 
Opening vs Table Position
× Bid 2: Respond to Suit Openings
   Guidelines for Responses
         1-over-1 Restriction
         Distribution Points
   Respond to  1 ♠ 
   Respond to  1 ♥ 
         (Jacoby  2 NT )
   Respond to  1 ♦ 
   Respond to  1 ♣ 
Bid 3: Opener's Next Bid
   Responder Supports the Bid Suit
       (Response to Jacoby  2 NT )
   Responder Proposes a New Suit
Respond to Weak Openings
  • Respond to  2 ♠   2 ♥   2 ♦ 
  • Respond to  3 ♠   3 ♥   3 ♦   3 ♣ 
  • Respond to  4 ♠   4 ♥ 
Respond to Strong Openings
  • Respond to  2 ♣  using:
      • 2-Diamond Waiting
      • 3-Point Step
      • 2-Diamond Bust
  • Respond to Strong 2
× Respond to NT Openings
Respond to  1 NT 
    Transfers (1NT)
       Stayman (1NT)
          No 4-card Major (1NT)
Respond to  2 NT 
    Transfers (2NT)
       Stayman (2NT)
          4-card Major (2NT)
Respond to  3 NT 
    Transfers (3NT)
       Stayman (3NT)
          No 4-card Major (3NT)
× Other Bids:
 • Slam (Blackwood & Gerber)
 • Overcalls
 • Doubles
 • Balancing
× Practice Bidding:
   • Open 1 Level
   • Responses to 1 Suit Openings
   • Open 1 NT & 14 Responses
   • Open 1 NT & 16 Responses
   • Responses to 2 Club Opening
   • Overcalls
Practice Websites:
   • SAYC Bidding Practice
   • Trickster
× Taking Tricks:
Leads on Defense
Leads on Offense
    • Finessing a Tenace
× Keeping Score:
1. Contract Points Scoring
2. Match Points Scoring
× Downloads:
SAYC Summary
Open 1-Level
Responses to 1-Suit Opening Bids
1 NT Openings & Responses
Responses to Weak Openings
Responses to 2 Club Openings

Statistics

Number of Unique Hands

In each deck of cards, there are 52 unique cards. From that deck of 52 cards, there are
 635,013,559,600 
unique sets of 13 cards from that deck. That is 6 followed by 11 numbers (6.35 x 1011). It is unlikely a player will play the exact same hand again.

Number of Unique Rounds of Bridge

In each round of bridge, there are 4 hands of cards, each hand with 13 unique cards. From that deck of 52 cards, there are
 53,644,737,765,488,792,839,237,440,000 
unique sets of 4 hands from that deck. That is 5 followed by 28 numbers (5.36 x 1028). It is unlikely a player will ever play the exact set of 4 hands again.

Distribution of High Card Points

The likelihood of a hand containing a certain number of high card points is plotted in the graphs below:
Frequency Distribution of HCPs
Bar Graph Frequency Distribution of HCPs
The following tables summarize the likelihoods of a hand holding a certain range of high card points.
Weak Count (0 to 11 HCPs) - 65.3%
      •   0 pts (Yarborough) - 0.40%
      •   1 to 5 pts - 14.00%
      •   6 to 9 pts - 32.83%
      •   10 to 11 pts - 18.35%
Opening Count (12 to 21 HCPs) - 34.39%
      •   12 to 14 pts - 20.63%
      •   15 to 17 pts - 10.10%
      •   18 to 19 pts - 2.64%
      •   20 to 21 pts - 1.02%
Strong Count (22+ HCPs) - 0.42%
        •   22 to 24 pts - 0.38%
        •   25 to 27 pts - 0.04%

Hand Shape

The shape of a hand is generally described as X-X-X-X (i.e. the number of cards in each suit). The accompanying table lists the 10 most frequent hand shapes and their frequency of occurrence.

These 10 hand shapes account for 91.1% of all hands.

Note that 3 of the top 5 hand shapes (with yellow background) are described as "balanced hands", and account for 47.6% of hand distributions.
Hand Shape Likelihoods

Suit Length

The accompanying table lists the longest suit lengths and their frequency of occurrence. These 5 maximum suit lengths account for 99.97% of all hands.
   •  Note: a 5-card suit is more frequent than a 4-card suit.
   •  Note: a 6-card suit (used in "weak 2" bids) is almost 5 times more frequent than a 7-card suit (used in "pre-empt bids).
Longest Suit Likelihoods

3/24/2024
Reed's Bridge Site © 2024         (Updated 11/20/2024)