A balanced hand or balanced distribution in

card game A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games (such as poker). A small number of card g ...

s is a hand with an even distribution of suits. In the game of

contract bridge Contract bridge, or simply bridge, is a trick-taking card game using a standard 52-card deck. In its basic format, it is played by four players in two competing partnerships, with partners sitting opposite each other around a table. Millions ...

, it denotes a hand of thirteen cards which contains no singleton or void and at most one . Three hand patterns are classified as truly balanced: 4-3-3-3, 4-4-3-2 and 5-3-3-2. The hand patterns 5-4-2-2 (an example of a two-suiter) and 6-3-2-2 (a single-suiter) are generally referred to as ''semi-balanced''. In natural bidding systems, balanced hands within specified high card point (HCP) ranges are generally opened with a notrump bid, or rebid in notrump. In the Netherlands, a bidding system called ''Saaie klaver'' ("''

Boring club The Boring Club (or in Dutch: Saaie klaver) is a bidding system in the card game contract bridge, designed by Lucas Smid of the Netherlands. In this system all balanced ('boring') hands, that in most natural systems would be opened 1NT or would be o ...

''") that reserves the 1 opening for all balanced hands (''boring hands''), has gained some popularity.

Literature

* {{WPCBIndex Contract bridge bidding

See also

Literature