Abandoning Ship

12th August – Board 20: Game All. Dealer West.

	North: S 8 3 H Q 7 6 D 10 9 2 C J 10 7 5 4
West: S K Q J 9 2 H K J D 8 7 4 3 C 6 2		East: S A 10 6 5 H A 10 4 3 2 D 5 C A 8 3
	South: S 7 4 H 9 8 5 D A K Q J 6 C K Q 9

The Losing Trick Count is a wonderful tool for letting you bid lots on low-pointed hands albeit with tons of distribution, but sometimes things go the other way. There are several misconceptions about the LTC and one is that if you don’t open you must have eight losers or more. Not true I’m afraid. Look at the West hand above – it has seven losers but anyone over the age of 25 wouldn’t open it because it will not be useful unless there is a fit with partner. And if you find one then you can treat is as you would an opener. Another misconception is that a hand with just three aces is bad news. Well three aces are more than useful, especially in an unbalanced hand, so much so that you can deduct a loser for what is called ‘overall control.’ Which makes the East hand above a six-loser hand. I think the bidding should go:

West	North	East	South
No	No	1H	2D
2S	No	4S	End

The 2S bid should be treated as forcing, even by a passed hand, and because of this it would be hard for East to make up a hand where game wasn’t odds-on. As happened at more than one table game wasn’t reached because East abandoned ship too soon, and twelve tricks were made with little sweat.