As well as providing a simple and accurate means of hand assessment the Winning Trick Count also has a significantly broader scope than the more traditional evaluation procedures.

In particular, as I shall show below:

.

-It can be used to assess the possible merits of contention for the weaker pairs of hands in competitive bidding situations

.

-It can be used when one of the hands has less than three cards in the proposed trump suit.

.

2.1THE WINNING TRICK COUNT – AND WEAK HANDS

.

 The Winning Trick Count has the advantage that it will provide an accurate estimate of the trick-taking prospects for both pairs of hands in competitive bidding situations. 

On the other hand when we look again at the second board we see that N/S, the weaker pair, have a total count of 17 rather than 16 points, but that this is now combined with only an 8-card club fit. This means that they have an expectation of making only 7 tricks - their five honour cards (2A's; 2K's and 1Q) and two trump tricks (an eight-card suit minus six) – and in this case the Winning Trick Count indicates a more cautious measure of contention against their strong vulnerable opposition.

.

.

When this board was played a total of eight times in the Semi-Finals of the 1991 World Championships the outcome supported the Winning Trick evaluations for both pairs of hands.

Despite their weakness N/S competed on seven of the eight deals. At one table they were four down doubled in an ill-judged 5-club sacrifice - as forecast by their WTCof 7 tricks. In two other instances, however, the N/S interference was much more successful. At one table it resulted in E/W playing, and failing to make, 3 NT and at the other in a missed-game contract of 3 hearts making 4. In contrast, in the other five auctions, E/W successfully bid and made 4 hearts as forecast by the WTC.

And as we shall see in Chapter 8, when we examine the success of the Winning Trick Count in evaluating the trick-taking prospects for a large number of World Bridge deals, the estimatesfor the low-point contracts (those where the side whichwon the auction and actually played the hand, had a total of nineteen points or less) were similarly quite comparable in accuracy with those for the stronger pairs of hands

2.2 THE WINNING TRICK COUNT – AND THE QUALITY OF THE TRUMP FIT

Conventional evaluation procedures such as the Losing Trick Count have difficulty in coping with deals where one of the hands has less than three cards in the proposed trump suit, as may happen, for example if partner has made a pre-emptive bid.

In contrast, the Winning Trick Countestimate of the partnership trump trick prospects - the combined holding of trumps minus six – can still be used with such adverse distributions.

Moreover, in such situations both players can simply continue to base their own Winning Trick estimates on their respective holding of trumps minus three. In which case the player with the shortage just has to deduct one trick from his total with a doubleton trump support (since two minus three equals minus one); or two with a singleton (one minus three equals minus two).

The first board of the 1991 World Bridge Finals provides an instructive example of such a deal:

.

.

Despite the 7/2-trump fit the Winning Trick Count correctly forecasts that N/S can make 8 tricks in hearts - made up of five honour cards (2A’s; 1K and 2Q’s) and three trump tricks (a nine-card suit minus six).

Similarly, if we consider the two hands separately we see that we reach the same total of 8 tricks. Thus, South’s WTC estimate of 2 tricks is obtained by deducting one trump trick (two trumps minus three) from his holding of three honour cards, while North’s WTCestimate of 6 tricks corresponds to his holding of two honour cards added to his four prospective trump tricks (his seven-card heart suit minus three).

In fact, the board was played twice in hearts by N/S and the outcome - four hearts minus two at one table and three hearts doubled minus one at the other - supported the Winning Trick forecast of eight tricks in hearts.

Then, just two boards later in the same World Final, N/S encountered an even worse trump fit on the following hand, where South had a good one heart opening bid but then had the problem of coping with his partner’s understandable preference for his own seven-card spade suit.

The outcome – the failure to make game at the two tables where North finished up in the final contract of four spades - once again supported the simple Winning Trick estimate of nine tricks made up of two trump tricks (an eight-card spade suit minus six) and seven honour cards (2A’s: 2K’s; and 3Q’s).