[bravejason]

Partner bids a suit and you have a singleton spot card in that suit. You then find a trump fit in another suit.

Once the trump fit is found, do you count the singleton in partner's suit as an asset when re-evaluating your hand? How is the evaluation of the singleton different than if your partner had never bid that suit? Does it matter if partner opens the suit versus names the suit as a rebid?

I treat the singleton spot card the same no matter what (i.e., +2 points after a trump fit is found) because I figure that I can ruff the cards either way, but was wondering if there was a better approach.

If instead of a singleton spot card, suppose it was a singleton honor? Does anything change for the distribution evaluation? Do you make any adjustments to the high card points in the re-evaluation as compared to your initial evaluation?

I initially treat the singleton honor like any other singleton honor and reduce its hard card point value by some amount depending on which honor it is. Once partner bids the suit, I count the full value of the high card points. On the distribution side, I treat it just like a spot card. Again, just wondering if there was a better approach.

[WesleyC]

There aren't really hard and fast rules to follow, but your basic logic feels pretty sound.

A couple of additional ideas are:

1) Consider how much length/strength partner has actually promised in the suit. A shortage in Hearts after partner has overcalled Hearts has less potential value than a shortage in Clubs when partner has opened 1C.

2) If you've only got an 8 card fit, the hand will often play awkwardly. However, if you have a very big trump fit (eg. 10+ cards) then this usually mitigates most of the downside. On these kind of deals you can sometimes establish partner's long suit via a couple of ruffs, draw a couple of trumps and still have a trump left over to ruff in another suit!

[NickRW]

Expanding slightly on point 2) above, if your fit is say 8 cards and you have 5, then your singleton *may* help in ruffing partner's suit good, but may not and it won't be providing extra ruffing tricks (you'll be ruffing in the long hand). If, on the other hand, the fit is 5=3 the other way round, then at least you'll be ruffing in the short hand, even if partner's suit cannot be set up (but obviously a 5=3 fit this way round is less likely as it implies partner has two 5 card suits). As suggested, 9 and 10 card fits are a little more use in this regard as your trump suit is that more robust.

Nick