Making Our Contract
Our score, assuming we make our contract, is made up of three parts. Our points for tricks bid, our points for overtricks and our bonus points for the level of contract we make. The points we win for tricks bid and over tricks are the same unless we are doubled and can be found in the table below.
Clubs/ Diamonds | Hearts/ Spades | NTs | |
Points for 7th trick | 20 | 30 | 40 |
Points per trick (from 8th trick) | 20 | 30 | 30 |
If we can make the same number of tricks whichever suit we play in, then we will score the most points in NTs. Earning only 20 points per trick in a minor, it is easy to see that we won’t build a big score that way. However, we can often make more tricks with a good trump suit, so it’s not always simple to know which suit to play in.
Bonuses
Bonus | Non-Vulnerable | Vulnerable |
Part-score | 50 | 50 |
Game | 300 | 500 |
Small Slam | 500 plus game bonus | 750 plus game bonus |
Grand Slam | 1000 plus game bonus | 1500 plus game bonus |
For bidding and making those high level contracts, we win great bonuses. We want to bid to the highest one of these we can make, so it’s attractive to bid them whenever we can.
A small slam is when we say we can make 12 tricks and a grand slam when we bid to say we will make all 13 tricks. For now, the usual games are 3NT, 4H, 4S, 5C and 5D. Why these contracts are games and some other game contracts will be covered in lesson 2.
Doubled
If our opponents think we cannot make our contract, they may double us. This ups the stakes as we will win more points for making our contract but lose more if we go down. Today we are only focusing on making contracts and below is how our score will be calculated.
Minors | Majors | NTs | |
Tricks bid | 2 x 20 = 40 | 2 x 30 = 60 | 2 x 40 = 80 for the first, then 2 x 30 = 60 |
Overtricks | 100 NV, 200 V | 100 NV, 200 V | 100 NV, 200 V |
Compensation for the insult | 50 | 50 | 50 |
We will also receive the bonus for making a part-score, game, small slam or grand slam depending on our tricks bid. Notice, that the suit we have chosen to play in does not affect the score we receive for our overtricks and the insult.
Redoubled
If our opponents doubled us, we could choose to redouble. This ups the stakes even further as we will win more points for making our contract but lose more if we go down. Today we are only focusing on making contracts and below is how our score will be calculated.
Minors | Majors | NTs | |
Tricks bid | 2 x 2 x 40 = 80 | 2 x 2 x 30 =120 | 2 x 2 x 40 = 160 for the first, then 2 x 2 x 30 =120 |
Overtricks | 200 NV, 400 V | 200 NV, 400 V | 200 NV, 400 V |
Compensation for the insult | 100 | 100 | 100 |
We will also receive the bonus for making a part-score, game, small slam or grand slam depending on our tricks bid. Everything is simply double what we would have scored if the contract was doubled.