 club trick is the A.
When your cards are not touching, count the number of cards that cannot be guaranteed to take a trick and that’s how many losers you have in that suit.
When your cards are touching, count the number of cards the opponents have that are above your cards as losers.
Sometimes we need to combine methods one and two because our suit has a combination of little cards and high cards. In that case, we begin by assuming that the opponents’ high cards will take our high cards. Next, we figure how many high cards can beat our high cards, and then we count however many little cards we have as losers.
3. It is important to understand that trump losers are different from the losers we have in any other suit. Why? First and foremost because when we run out of trump, if the opponents still have trump, we will lose those tricks. In counting a suit that isn’t trump, we assume that when we run out, we won’t lose more tricks. But remember that that assumption is based on our ability to trump when the opponents lead the suit. That won’t work with trump. If we are out of trump but the opponents still have trump, they will certainly still take those tricks.
Thus, being out or short in trump is not a defense against losing trump tricks like it is in a side suit (a suit that isn’t trump).
Another consideration is that even if all of our cards are high in trump, this doesn’t prevent the opponents from taking tricks with their little trumps.
If this weren’t a trump suit, we would count zero losers and that would always be true. When counting this suit as trump, you will also count zero losers, but in the case of trump, you are making an assumption that you will have a chance to draw all of the opponents’ trumps before they have a chance to take a trick.
Most times, that will be true. But, should you fail to draw trump or simply not have a chance to do so, the opponents’ little trumps can and will take tricks if a suit is led that they are out of.
Lastly, because we almost always have at least eight trumps between our two hands, we frequently have to consider how our length affects the number of losers that we have, when we often do not need to do so in our side suits. We still have to sometimes do this with side suits (any suit that has at least eight between the two hands needs to be considered for length), but not as often. We won’t be covering length losers in this installment, but if you read the length portion of the counting winners, you’ll have an inkling of where this is headed.
In the next installment, we will discuss counting the losers from only one hand (otherwise known as setting up one hand).
1. 10 losers: 3 spades (we have four spades, only one of them can take a trick, so we count the other three as losers). Even though the spades are a sequence, they aren’t high enough to be meaningful. 2 diamond losers (we have solid diamonds and so we look for what we are missing: the A and the K). 3 club losers (again, we are solid, so we look for what we are missing: the A, K, and Q). 2 heart losers (we have two hearts, neither of them can take a trick so they are both losers.
2. 7 losers: our diamonds are solid, the only one we are missing is the ace, so that will be one losers. We have four clubs and none of them are certain to take a trick, so all four are losers. Remember that the K of clubs has only a 50% chance to take a trick and we want to have making him good as a part of our plan. We have two hearts and we can win one trick, which makes the other one a losers. We have two spades, only one can take a trick for certain, the other has a 50% chance to not take a trick. Just like with the clubs, we want to count the Q as a loser so that making her good is a part of our plan.
3. 9 losers: We have four hearts only two of which are certain to take a trick. The other two are losers. We have a 50% chance to take a trick with the J, but because we need that to be a part of our plan, we count him as a loser. We have four spades, three of which can only be beat by the A and the K. The third spade can be beat by the 9, so we would count 3 losers. We have two diamonds, neither of which can take a trick and therefore both are losers. We have three clubs. We can take one trick for certain (either the K or the Q will be good) but the other two are losers. With this suit, it’s tempting to assume that after the opponents lead the ace we will play the 2 and then take two tricks, we don’t want to assume our opponents are going to do something that foolish. A good defender will not lead an ace when they don’t have the K. A good defender will wait to take either the K or the Q with his ace. Because of this, we want to start by assuming that the defense will play the ace on the K or the Q. We might be able to prevent that, but again, that’s the sort of thing that needs to be apart of our plan, so anticipating it helps us plan for it.
4. 8 losers. You have two spades, both of which will lose and both of which are therefore losers. You have four hearts. Because the Q and J are touching, both cards can only be beat by one card, the K. The 7 however, is definitely a loser, which means we count the suit as two losers (the K that can beat the Q and J, and the 7, which stands next to no chance to win). In clubs, we have four clubs. Three of our clubs can only be beat by the A. The other club, the 2, is certain to lose. Again, we do not assume that the missing high card will play on our low card (this is true for hearts in this hand as well), we assume the missing high card will play on the highest card it can beat. This means we are likely to lose two tricks, one to the A (on our K, Q, or J) and the other with our 2. Notice that we are combining some of our techniques here to determine what the suit is likely to lose. In diamonds, we have three diamond tricks and are missing two high cards, both of which we will count as losers.
5. 9 losers. In diamonds, we can count the suit either way. We can figure that the T will lose to the Q and the 9 to the J, or we can just say that we have four diamonds, only two of which we are certain we will win. In clubs, we have two little clubs, both of which are losers. In hearts, we have solid hearts missing only the ace, so we count only the ace as our loser. In spades, we have four spades, not one of which we can be certain to take a trick with. We should count all four of these as losers. Remember, we assume that the opponents’ high cards will take our high cards. So, if we assume the A will take the K, the Q will take the J, the T will take the 9, and the 8 will take the 7, we have four losers.Dance with my father - Luther Vandross makes me cry!
Rose Garden - Lynn Anderson makes me happy - reminds me of being very young and carefree!
Tell you what song always makes me cry....wit horror not sentiment lol...is the vile Mull of Kintyre...ewwwwww!!!
Especially for you Jessi!!
ooooh evil......,,,good thing I'm a fast mover and got out of that before a single note was played......
Copacabana by Barry Manilow. Makes me laugh (and cringe) when I hear it. The first, and last time I've ever karaoked..... I was very, very drunk, lol.
Des'ree - Kissing You.
I don't know why but this song always makes me tearful!
I don't know why but 'Life On Mars' by David Bowie always makes me want to cry! So wierd i don't know why?
The songs that make me happy are Kung Fu Fightin by Carl Douglas its from the 70's and I dont feel like dancing by The Scissor Sisters. The Songs that make me sad are The Wind Beneath My Wings by Bet Middler, and Every Day by Slade.
Last edited by Heather74; 11-07-2008 at 14:34.Director Dillingham has faced controversy over attempt by Trump administration to exclude illegal immigrants from the census count.
The Trump-appointed U.S. Census Bureau director says he'll resign Wednesday, as Democrat Joe Biden is sworn in as the next U.S. president.
Director Steven Dillingham, who has worked for the federal government for more than 20 years, was appointed by President Trump in 2018 to lead the bureau. His term was set to expire at the end of 2021.
Recently, Dillingham has faced accusations of politicizing the bureau, as the 2020 census process has been heavily scrutinized due to the coronavirus pandemic, as well as a Trump administration directive for the bureau to produce a population count that excludes illegal immigrants from American