November 2017 - 46

Newer Players

Play & Learn
BY PAT HARRINGTON

ppharrr@gmail.com

Losing trick count
Whatever point-count method we
use, we must realize that our point
total is only an estimation of the tricktaking value of our hand. How we value
our hand might change as the auction
progresses. Losing trick count (LTC)
is a hand evaluation tool that can help
you better judge the value of your hand.
LTC has nothing to do with counting
losers, as declarer does when planning
the play. It's used to evaluate your own
13-card hand. Here's how it works. Go
through your hand, suit by suit, and
count one loser for each missing ace,
king or queen in that suit starting with
the ace. No suit can have more than
three losers; short suits will have fewer
than three losers. With a singleton,
count only a missing ace; with a doubleton, count only a missing ace or king.
Let's see how LTC works by examining some responding hands that might
qualify for a limit raise of partner's 1♥
opening bid. Our first two hands are
from last month's column.

❶ ♠6 4

♥Q 7 4 3 ♦K 8 3 ♣A 7 5 2

For the doubleton spade, count two
losers for the missing ace and king. We
don't worry about the missing queen
because we have only two cards in the
suit. Missing the ♥A and ♥K, there
are two heart losers. With four-card
or longer suits, assume partner will
either have enough length to make
your fourth card good or shortness and
trumps for ruffing. The missing ♦A
and ♦Q make two diamond losers, and
the missing ♣K and ♣Q make two
club losers. This hand has eight losers.

46 Bridge Bulletin November 2017

To give this number meaning, you
need to know that a typical minimum
opening hand has seven losers. The
fewer losers a hand has, the stronger it
is. Below is a chart showing expected
LTC for minimum, medium and maximum categories:
Strength
Minimum
Medium
Maximum
Strong Two Opening

♥Q 7 4 3 ♦K 8 3 ♣A 7 5

This hand also values to 10 points
in support of hearts. Let's use LTC to
decide whether it should be treated
as a limit raise or a single raise. With
three spade losers and two losers in
every other suit, our LTC total is nine.
This hand is best treated as a single
raise to 2♥. Hands having 4-3-3-3
distribution generally produce fewer
tricks than other distributions having
the same high cards.
For the next two hands, partner again
opens 1♥.

❸ ♠A Q 7 6

❹ ♠Q 6 3

♥K 9 6 2 ♦5 4 ♣7 6 5

With 10 points and one spade loser,

♥A J 7 2 ♦J 6 5 ♣Q 9 2

Hand 4 also comes to 10 points but

Opener's hand
13-15 points - 7 LTC
16-18 points - 6 LTC
19-21 points - 5 LTC
22+ points - 4 or fewer LTC

Using LTC is helpful when your
hand is on the borderline between two
categories; it can improve responder's
judgment with a 10-point hand, which
may fall into either the minimum or
medium category. Hand 1 totals 10
points and, with an LTC of 8, can be
treated as a limit raise to 3♥.

❷ ♠J 6 4

two heart losers, two diamond losers
and three club losers, Hand 3 comes
to a total of eight losers, worth a limit
raise to 3♥.

Responder's Hand
6-10 points - 9 or more LTC
10+ to 12 points - 8 LTC
13+ points - 7 or fewer LTC

has nine losers (two spades, two hearts,
three diamonds and two clubs) and is
best treated as a single raise to 2♥.
A flaw in LTC is that it values an ace
the same as it values a queen. Even
beginning bridge players realize that
A-x-x is better than Q-x-x. When
using LTC, most players will make a
downward adjustment in hands with
an excess of queens over aces. This
hand has one ace and two queens, all
of which were not counted as losers. A
good adjustment is to add half a loser
for every excess queen that was not
counted as a loser. We said this hand
had nine losers, but with two queens
and one ace, many would consider this
hand to have an extra loser, reinforcing
our choice to raise to 2♥.
LTC could be just what you need
to improve your judgment. For more
details, refer to Jennifer Jones's series
starting in the December 2011 Bulletin.
Past issues of the Bulletin are available
to ACBL members at acbl.org.
◾
http://www.acbl.org
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of November 2017
