Opponents' Ace. What's the value of an Ace of the opponent's trump suit? Is it ever going to take more than one trick? Rarely will it be of much additional value to the defense.
Aces and Kings are worth more than the normal point count and Queens and Jacks are worth less.
Combo's Aces and Kings in combination with each other or in combination with partner's Aces and Kings are worth even more, as they will develop tricks in long suits if you are declarer. They are worth less in short suits -- such hands are more valuable at defense than offense.
Partner's Queen. A Queen of your partner's rebid suit is a magic 2 points - it helps set up little card winners. An Ace is great, but you already counted it for 4 points.
Magic Card Combinations There are some magic combinations of cards:
Any honors in partners bid suits are magic as they fill in sketchy suits. This is true on offense but queens and jacks are of little value on defense.
A fourth trump, of any size, is powerful -- it has no point count value, but it's great for declarer's purposes.
- 10's and 9's, especially in important suits, are worth more than the zero assigned to them in the point count system. Which of these two would you rather have for a dummy opposite your © Kxxxx?
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10's and 9's are "pushers" as they 'push' honors from the opponents' hands. They have real value but usually only as declarer's cards.
Singletons in opponents' suits are also magic -- voids are even better. The worst combination is two of opponents' suits -- chances are that both you and your partner will have two, so opponents will take the first two tricks.
(c) Robert D. McConnell, 1998 All Rights Reserved