Losing trick count is a secondary tool, after primary HCP count and Total Points, for hand evaluation. It is relevant only while bidding a suit contract.

Losing trick count is a helpful assessment tool in two following situations :

• While making opening bid with 11 or 12 HCP hand.
• 2^nd bid of opener after Trump Fit in a Major suit is found.

This method is not to be used when bidding for No Trump games. While Fit in a Minor suit is also relevant, priority in such cases is always to play No Trump game contracts.

This is an estimation method to check game or slam, which encompasses both the HCP and the shape of hand. It counts the A, K and Q in each suit of your hand up to the suit length or max of 3 and then assigns the loser count:

• Void suit has no losers
• In a singleton only Ace is winner else loser count equals 1
• In a doubleton Ace and King are winners else loser count is 2 or 1 depending on presence of A+K, A/K+1 or none
• In 3 Cards or more A, K and Q are counted as winners, so losers are 3,2 or 1 depending on winner count subtracted from 3.
• Since there are 4 suits in a hand and max losers per hand are 3, you can only have a maximum of 12 losers per hand.
• Most modern players refine the loser count by subtracting ½ point for each Ace and adding ½ count for each Q not accompanied by Ace or King.

At bidding stage:

The golden rule is to bid under following situations or else PASS

• 13+ HCP hand – bid a suit or No Trump depending on HCP count and other basic parameters.

• 12 HCP hand-Bid a suit when either 2 quick tricks (2 Aces or AK of same suit) or losing trick count upto 7 is true.

• 11 HCP hand-Bid a suit when both 2 quick tricks and upto 7 losing trick count are true.

At 2^nd bid of opener after FIT is agreed by responder’s 1^st bid:

To continue bidding for game or PASS to play in part score, opener can use losing trick count to refine his next move.

• 8+ losers is a bad opening hand-Should pass and leave further action on responder.
• 7 losers is minimum hand-Should pass and leave further action on responder.
• 6 losers a good hand-Consider inviting your partner using game try conventions.
• 5 is a game forcing hand.
• 4 being a strong club (2!C ) Standard American kind of hand.

The opener can use the above information while making a 2^nd bid after looking at responder’s 1^st bid.

Important Notes:

• In a weak 2 pre-emptive opening bid, conventional rules state that you should bid at level 2. However, if you see the losing trick in your suit being 6 or less, bid at level 1. This gives space to responder to bid appropriately while keeping the level of bidding low, at initial stages.
• In a trump suit fit scenario, when the HCPs are falling short for game, 2 factors will assist opener in taking a call:
  • Total points based on shortages and length.
  • Losing tricks count.