Losing trick count
Losing trick count (sometimes abbreviated to LTC) is a method of hand evaluation in the game of Bridge.
A hand can have at most three losers in each suit, for a maximum of twelve in a hand. You count distribution losers (0 for void, 1 for singleton, 2 for doubleton, 3 for tripleton or more) and high card losers (1 for each missing ace, king, queen). The number of losers in a suit is the minimum of its high card losers and its distribution losers, with high cards covering distribution losers. For example, Ax is one loser: the doubleton has two losers and the ace covers one of them. Another example, Qx is two losers: the doubleton is two losers and the queen is not useful until after two tricks are lost.
A typical opening bid has seven losers, such as AKxxx Axxx xx xx (1+2+2+2=7). To figure out how high to bid, add the number of losers in your hand and partner's hand and subtract from 24. So, seven losers opposite seven losers leads to 24-14=10, so game in a major is likely. Another example: seven losers opposite five losers leads to 24-12=12, so a slam is likely.
The flaws in this method are that an ace is undervalued and a queen is overvalued. Also, it undervalues short honor combinations such as Qx or a singleton king. It does not place any value on cards jack or lower.
Recent new insights on such issues have led to the New Losing Trick Count (The Bridge World, Vol 74, Issue 8, may 2003). This count utilises the concept of half-losers: a missing Ace is three half losers, a missing King two half losers and a missing queen one half loser. A typical opening bid has fifteen or fewer half losers. The trick taking potential of two opposing hands equals 25 minus the half of the sum of the half losers of both hands. So, fifteen half-losers opposite fifteen half-losers leads to 25-(15+15)/2 = 10 tricks.
