What Is Losing Trick Count in Bridge?
Losing trick count, known as LTC, is a way to judge how high to bid once you and partner have found a trump fit. Instead of counting the points you hold, you count the tricks you expect to lose, and the arithmetic tells you the level.
What Losing Trick Count Measures
High card points, the method covered in how many points to open, work well for balanced hands. But once you and partner have agreed on a trump suit, shape starts to matter more than raw point count. Two hands with the same 13 points can be worth very different numbers of tricks depending on how the cards are distributed.
Losing trick count answers a more direct question: instead of asking how strong is this hand, it asks how many tricks will this hand fail to win. That is a more accurate guide once a fit is found, because it looks straight at trick-taking potential rather than at a proxy for it.
How to Count Your Losers
Look at your three highest cards in each suit. A missing ace, king or queen among those top three counts as one loser, up to a maximum of three losers in any single suit, no matter how long it is.
Counting losers by holding
Add the losers across all four suits and you have your hand's total: usually somewhere between 7 for a very strong hand and 12 for a minimum opening.
Estimating Partner's Losers
You cannot see partner's cards, so LTC uses starting assumptions based on the bid partner made, then adjusts from there.
Opener
A one level opening typically shows about 7 losers. Stronger opening hands have fewer; a bare minimum may have slightly more.
Responder
A new suit response at the one level typically shows about 9 losers. A simple raise or weaker response suggests more.
As the auction develops and partner shows extra strength or a second suit, you revise that estimate downward. This is why losing trick count works best as a running estimate throughout the auction, not a single calculation done once.
The Formula: From Losers to a Bidding Level
Combined losers and the level they support
The rule of thumb: subtract your side's combined losers from 18 to estimate the tricks you can make in a suit contract. If you and partner have 14 losers between you, that points to 18 minus 14, or four-level, a game contract in a major suit.
A Worked Example
Partner opens 1♠ and you hold:
Count your losers suit by suit. Spades K-10-7-4: you hold the king but are missing the ace and queen, so 2 losers. Hearts A-Q-2: you hold the ace and queen but are missing the king, so 1 loser. Diamonds 6-3, a doubleton with no honors: missing both the ace and king, so 2 losers. Clubs K-J-9-5: you hold the king but are missing the ace and queen, so 2 losers. Total: 7 losers.
Partner opened 1♠, so you assume about 7 losers opposite. Combined: 7 plus 7 equals 14 losers, which points straight at 18 minus 14, or game in spades. You have a fitting hand with a clear raise to 4♠, even though 10 high card points alone might have looked like an invitational hand rather than a game-going one.
Losing Trick Count vs High Card Points
Use points when
- The hand is balanced or nearly so
- You are deciding whether to open
- No trump fit has been found yet
Use LTC when
- An 8-card fit or longer is confirmed
- Your hand is unbalanced
- You are deciding how high to bid, not whether to
Most strong players use both: points to get into the auction, then losing trick count once a fit appears, to fine-tune the level. For the points side of that partnership, see how many points to open and try the opening bid calculator.
Common Losing Trick Count Mistakes
- Using it on balanced hands. LTC is built for unbalanced, fitting hands. On flat hands it overstates trick potential.
- Forgetting the three-loser cap. A four-card suit with no honors is still only 3 losers, never 4.
- Not revising the estimate. As the auction continues and partner shows more strength, update your loser count instead of freezing your first guess.
- Ignoring quality within a loser. Kx counts the same as xx as a 2-loser holding in some simplified versions, but a king still has more defensive and ruffing value: use judgement alongside the count.
Key Takeaways
- Losing trick count judges how high to bid once a trump fit is found, not whether to open.
- Count losers as missing ace, king or queen among your top three cards per suit, maximum 3 per suit.
- Assume about 7 losers for an opening hand and 9 for a new-suit response, then adjust.
- Subtract the combined total from 18 to estimate the tricks your side can make.
- Use it alongside, not instead of, high card points.
Related Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
Losing trick count, or LTC, is a way to judge how high to bid once your side has found an eight card trump fit or longer. You count the losers in your own hand, add an estimate of partner's losers, and subtract the total from 18 to find how many tricks your side should make.
Look at your three highest cards in each suit. Missing the ace, king or queen in the top three counts as a loser, up to a maximum of three losers per suit. A doubleton missing the ace and king is two losers; a singleton that is not the ace is one loser; a void is zero losers.
A typical one level opening bid has about 7 losers. A hand that responds by bidding a new suit at the one level usually has about 9 losers. These starting points let you estimate partner's shape before you know their exact hand.
Use high card points, covered in our how many points to open guide, for balanced hands and early decisions about opening or responding. Switch to losing trick count once a trump fit is confirmed and your hand is unbalanced, because shape then matters more than raw point count.
The method was popularized by Australian bridge expert Ron Klinger, though earlier versions of loser counting existed before his widely read books brought it into mainstream teaching.
No, it is designed for unbalanced hands where a trump fit has been found. For flat, balanced hands, high card points remain the more reliable measure of strength.