[Jean-Pierre Rocafort] i don't see your "convention" as logical, nor convenient, nor intuitive. as a simple soul, i would understand 18.0 to correspond to the most "normal" 18 hcp hands. the worst 18 hcp would be worth less than 18.0 say 17.5 for the purpose of the normalisation to 1-range, and the best 18.5 [nige1] Then you prefer Tim and John's variation :)