- John Kozero of Santa Rosa, CA writes of Losing Trick Count, Vol. II: How refreshing! A bridge booklet that uses a few clear guidelines and simple bread-and-butter examples to accurately evaluate how your hand fits with pard's. Don't be surprised if Losing Trick Count regularly puts you in more makeable games while avoiding the poor-percentage contracts.
- Harry from Indiana writes: I'm still having good success using LTC. Best 10 bucks I have spent in a long time.
- A bridge teacher from Canada writes: I would like to order your Losing Trick Count Teacher Package as well as a copy of your new book, LTC, Vol. II. I am excited about teaching this to our intermediates in the winter. I am sure that they will benefit greatly from your lessons. Thanks you so much for preparing this material. I have really enjoyed the articles that you wrote for the Bulletin.
- From Memphis Mojo, bridge-blogger: I've just started reading Vol. 2 and it's great!
I used Losing Trick Count effectively to aid in slam bidding at the
Philadelphia NABC, winning IMPs against top players. See the recent blog entries
Slamming in Philly I, II and III.
Practice using LTC until it becomes second nature. Whenever you have an issue with hand evaluation it will come to your aid. Here are a couple of hands played against me this week in which experienced players neglected to use LTC:
1. (IMPs, Non-vul.vs. vul.) Partner opens 1♣, RHO overcalls 1♦ and you make a negative double.
♠ Axxx
♥ Qxxx
♦ KQx
♣ xx
Partner now bids 1♠ and it is your call. What should you bid?
Having located a fit, you should now evaluate your hand using LTC. You have 7 1/2 losers which makes the hand worth at least an invitational bid. Other factors are always in play: the skill of your partner and the opponents, the vulnerability, form of scoring, state of the match, etc. A sensible bid would be a jump to 3♠ and I wouldn't fault anyone for jumping directly to game. The player holding these cards made an underbid of 2♠ and they played there, making 5. We won 6 IMPs as our teammates bid the game. The opening bidder held:
♠ Q10xx
♥ Axx
♦ xx
♣AQxx
2. (Pairs, Non-vul.vs. vul.) You open 1♠ and partner bids 2♦, game-forcing.
♠ AKQJ97
♥ K632
♦ K
♣ 52
Various rebids are possible, but this player bid 2♠. His partner now bid 3♠ and it was back to him. How should he proceed?
A critical component in his thinking should be to note that his hand has only 5 losers. The ♦K may not even be a loser given that his partner bid 2♦. As his partner should have no more than 7 losers, they are in the slam zone and he needs to investigate.
A practical bid would be a cuebid of 4♦, which might let partner take control. In this instance partner would probably cuebid 4♥ and now the opening bidder would have another decision to make. A possible bid would be a jump to 5♠, asking about a club control. Had opener rebid 3♠ (showing solid spades and setting the trump suit), partner would have cuebid 4♣ which would have made life easier.
Instead he bid only 4♠ and they played there making 6. Here are both hands:
♠ xxx
♥ AQx
♦ J10xx
♣AKx
♠ AKQJ97
♥ K632
♦ K
♣ 52
Spades broke 2-2 and hearts broke 3-3 so the play to make 12 tricks was easy. I held the Qxx of diamonds which would have meant an extra trick in diamonds had declarer needed it. There are various ways to get to slam and a third of the field bid it.
Don't forget to use Losing Trick Count for accurate bidding!
*******************
Readers--do you have any good losing trick count hands or stories? Any questions or comments? Let me hear from you!
See you at the table!
Practice using LTC until it becomes second nature. Whenever you have an issue with hand evaluation it will come to your aid. Here are a couple of hands played against me this week in which experienced players neglected to use LTC:
1. (IMPs, Non-vul.vs. vul.) Partner opens 1♣, RHO overcalls 1♦ and you make a negative double.
♠ Axxx
♥ Qxxx
♦ KQx
♣ xx
Partner now bids 1♠ and it is your call. What should you bid?
Having located a fit, you should now evaluate your hand using LTC. You have 7 1/2 losers which makes the hand worth at least an invitational bid. Other factors are always in play: the skill of your partner and the opponents, the vulnerability, form of scoring, state of the match, etc. A sensible bid would be a jump to 3♠ and I wouldn't fault anyone for jumping directly to game. The player holding these cards made an underbid of 2♠ and they played there, making 5. We won 6 IMPs as our teammates bid the game. The opening bidder held:
♠ Q10xx
♥ Axx
♦ xx
♣AQxx
2. (Pairs, Non-vul.vs. vul.) You open 1♠ and partner bids 2♦, game-forcing.
♠ AKQJ97
♥ K632
♦ K
♣ 52
Various rebids are possible, but this player bid 2♠. His partner now bid 3♠ and it was back to him. How should he proceed?
A critical component in his thinking should be to note that his hand has only 5 losers. The ♦K may not even be a loser given that his partner bid 2♦. As his partner should have no more than 7 losers, they are in the slam zone and he needs to investigate.
A practical bid would be a cuebid of 4♦, which might let partner take control. In this instance partner would probably cuebid 4♥ and now the opening bidder would have another decision to make. A possible bid would be a jump to 5♠, asking about a club control. Had opener rebid 3♠ (showing solid spades and setting the trump suit), partner would have cuebid 4♣ which would have made life easier.
Instead he bid only 4♠ and they played there making 6. Here are both hands:
♠ xxx
♥ AQx
♦ J10xx
♣AKx
♠ AKQJ97
♥ K632
♦ K
♣ 52
Spades broke 2-2 and hearts broke 3-3 so the play to make 12 tricks was easy. I held the Qxx of diamonds which would have meant an extra trick in diamonds had declarer needed it. There are various ways to get to slam and a third of the field bid it.
Don't forget to use Losing Trick Count for accurate bidding!
*******************
Readers--do you have any good losing trick count hands or stories? Any questions or comments? Let me hear from you!
See you at the table!
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