Kaplan Point Count

Mr. Edgar Kaplan was a bridge teacher, bridge writer of several publications regarding the game of bridge, Editor and Publisher of the magazine The Bridge World, and a bridge theorist in addition to being one of the pioneers of the game of bridge. In his studies and research he devoted much of his time to the values assigned to cards and devised the following after realizing that the standard, of his day, point count did not reflect several features such as the upgrading of Aces and Kings, the downgrading of Queens and Jacks, counting the semi-honors Tens and Nines and accounting for these particular cards, the honors in suits of length plus the honors in combinations.

The following is a representation of three features of the Kaplan Point Count.

High Cards:

It is to be noted that Mr. Edgar Kaplan came to the conclusion that only the three top honors should be valued in complete numbers and that the other honors should be relegated to fractional values.

Ace:	3 points
King:	2 points
King:	.5 points for a singleton
Queen:	1 point if a Tripleton if the Ace of King is also held. Otherwise only .75 points
Queen:	.25 points if a Doubleton. If Ace-Queen or King-Queen, then .5 points
Queen:	0 points if only a singleton
Jack:	.5 points if under exactly two honors: AKJ or KQJ
Jack:	.25 if under one higher honor
Jack:	0 points if only a singleton
Ten:	.25 points if under two higher honors or by 109 if under one higher honor

The Ten Card was especially difficult to evaluate and had to be determined by the suit quality. If the Ten Card was under two or more consecutive higher-ranking honors: AK10, KQ10, QJ10, then the count given was 1 point. If the Ten Card was under two non-consecutive higher-ranking honors: AQ10, KJ10, the Ten Card was assigned an evaluation of .5 points. Generally, however, the Ten Card was simply given .25 points if the higher-ranking honors were: AJ10 or K109.

The Nine Card also played an important part in the evaluation before the determination of the total evaluation process described under Suit Quality. The Nine Card was assigned a value of .5 point if the Nine Card was under the Ten Card and two higher-ranking honors. The Nine Card was assigned the same value and under only one higher-ranking honor if the Eight Card was also held: A1098 or K1098. The valuation was important to arrive at the correct total and had to be included in the evaluation table.

Suit Quality:

The suit quality for each suit was determined by the following method.

1. Add the number of Goren Points.

Ace:	4 points
King:	3 points
Queen:	2 points
Jack:	1 point

2. Multiply this total by the number of cards in the suit.

3. Divide by 10.

The above Suit Quality Count works for suits of six cards or less. Tens and Nines are not counted for suit quality in seven card suits or longer. However, if the Jack is missing in a seven card suit, the assigned value is given for it anyway when counting Suit Quality, and if the Queen is missing in an eight card suit, you again get the suit quality points as if it were there.

Distribution:

Points for valuation were also given or assigned to distributional features and are shown in the following schematic:

4-3-3-3:		Minus .5 points
Void:		3 points
Singleton:		2 points
Doubleton:		1 point

This total was added together and then one point is subtracted, which means that the first distributional point was simply eliminated.