Losing trick count

A hand can have at most 3 losers in a suit, for a maximum of 12 in a hand. You count distribution losers (0 for void, 1 for singleton, 2 for doubleton, 3 for tripleton or more) and high card losers (1 for each missing ace, king, queen). The number of losers in a suit is the minimum of its high card losers and its distribution losers, with high cards covering distribution losers. For example, Ax is 1 loser; the doubleton has 2 losers and the ace covers one of them. Another example, Qx is 2 losers; the doubleton is 2 losers and the queen is not useful until after 2 tricks are lost.

A typical opening bid has 7 losers, such as AKxxx Axx xx xx (1+2+2+2=7). To figure out how high to bid, add the number of losers in your hand and partner's hand and subtract from 24. So, 7 losers opposite 7 losers leads to 24-14 = 10, so game in a major is likely. Another example: 7 losers opposite 5 losers leads to 24-12=12, so a slam is likely.

The flaws in this method are that an ace is undervalued and a queen is overvalued. Also, it undervalues short honor combinations such as Qx or a singleton king. It does not place any value on cards jack or lower.