
instead of thirteen as called for under 5cMABBS for trump play. The Rule of Twenty reads: if hcpts. plus the number of cards in the two longest suits adds up to twenty or more, open the bidding. In other words, under Rule of Twenty a hand with eleven hcpts. or more and two strains of cards adding to nine can be opened due to that combination of hcpts. and cards providing thirteen plus points.
This holds true except for the hand shapes 5-4-3-1, 5-4-3-2, 5-4-4-0 when used with the point count method put forth by the A.C.B.L., Kaplan and any other that calls for only distribution length points in the opening hand. For the instructions to do so are given through the point count method that determines a hand's distribution count, not a hand's shape.
Hand shapes from a completed trump deal are made-up of doubletons, singletons and voids. Depending upon the shape of hand and the assigned value given the doubleton, singleton and void through the point count method in use, an additional twenty points can be added to a combined hand's point count for auction purposes. But when the point count method doesn't call for distribution short points from the opening hand, as the A.B.C.L. and Kaplan do, the point count from an opening hand is restricted to delivering one point from 5-4-X-X hand shapes.
