The 30 point deck

Let us say that there is a suit in which partner has no cards (a void) and you have no honours in that same suit. Assuming your side declares in a reasonable trump fit, there are only 30 out of the 40 points in the pack that will play a role in taking tricks (the 10 points in that suit, all held by the opponents, will be useless). Only about 18 points will be required to make Game (instead of the normal 25) and only about 24 points will be required for a Small Slam (instead of the normal 33).

West’s 3 ♠ opener showed a weak hand with seven decent ♠s; North’s double was for “take-out” - showing an opening hand with short ♠s and support for the other three suits; after East raised the ante with 4 ♠, South deduced - holding four ♠s - that his partner was void and therefore he was playing with a “thirty point pack” of which his partnership held at least 24; his jump to 6 ♥ was thus an excellently judged bid.
West led ♦ 3 and declarer counted ten easy trick in the red suits. He needed to trump two ♠s in dummy to bring his total to the required twelve. He won ♦ J, trumped ♠ 4 with ♥ J, led ♥ 5 to ♥ 10, trumped ♠ 5 with ♥ K, led ♥ 6 to ♥ Q and drew East’s ♥ 9 with ♥ A. He cashed ♦ A, led ♦ 8 to ♦ 10 and cashed ♦ KQ discarding ♠ 86. He conceded a trick but was left with two trumps in hand.

ANDREW’S TIP: Are you playing with a “thirty point pack”? If so - be bold!