Help
NemoJames, on 2025-August-03, 14:50, said:
It is interesting that my question has still not been answered. The closest was "If someone means HCPs then that is what they say, except in rare cases," but that is an opinion and not a rule. In my opinion the vast majority of club players assume 12 points means 12 HCPs on an opening bid when a suit has not been agreed.
One point you're missing is that no matter what definition they use, you have to take it with a grain of salt. Players are allowed to use judgement when evaluating their hands, they're not automatons who blindly apply simple rules that can be enumerated.
For instance, honors are more valuable in long suits than short suits and in combination with other honors. So competent players will upgrade a hand with AQxx in one suit compared to a hand with Ax and Qx in separate suits. It's simply not practical to distinguish these when answering "how many points are they showing?"
As another example, I open most hands with 12 HCP, and some with 11. But I don't usually open a 12-point hand with 4333 shape, unless the points are 3 aces, there are good spot cards, or maybe if I'm in 3rd seat. State of the match could influence me, too.
It's simply hard to disclose all this. We do the best we can.