The "Law of Total Tricks" (commonly written as "LTT") is frequently referred to in discussions and articles about competetive bidding. Usually, though, it is a corollary of the Law of Total Tricks that is being referred to, rather than the LTT itself. I will explain the corollary and its application first, since that is the practical and useful part of the LTT.
In a competitive auction, or an auction which is likely to become contested (such as when your side has opened with a pre-empt), your side should bid for the same number of tricks as you hold total trumps.
For example, an opponent has opened 1
and your partner has overcalled 2
.
The next player raises the opener to 2.
If you have a hand with diamond support that is at least reasonably distributional,
you should raise your partner's diamonds to the level that contracts for
the number of tricks that your side has trumps.
How do you know that number? Most players I play with will often make a two-level overcall on five cards (even though the books say you should have six!). So it is best to work from that safe assumption.
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.
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If you have only eight trumps between you and a minority of the high-card strength,
it will be a poor spot. So you should pass.
If your partner will nearly always have six cards for his overcall of
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The level that you bid to tells your partner how many trumps you have. If he has one more than his bid has shown, for example he has six when he would have made the overcall with only five, he now knows that he should advance by one level more. This helps your side to know when to pass and defend and when to sacrifice. In order to get a count on the total number of trumps held, though, you need to decide between yourselves how many cards your overcall shows. Assume five for a simple overcall, six for a jump overcall, unless you have a different agreement.
If your side has a fit of nine trumps,
the other side has
Whenever your side is known to have a fit, you should assume that the other side probably has an equal fit. Whenever your opponents are known to have a fit, you should assume that your side probably has an equal fit as well. These assumptions will not always be right but will never be far wrong and will be right most of the time. They are of great help in deciding whether to compete or defend when the opponents have shown, by their bidding, that they have found a fit.
Now to the LTT itself. The Law of Total Tricks was discovered through a process of statistical analysis and logical reasoning by Jean-René Vernes in the 1950s. It states that the number of tricks makeable by one side in its best trump suit added to the number of tricks makeable by the other side in its best trump suit is approximately equal to the number of trumps held by the first side added to the number of trumps held by the other.
It doesn't say whether one side or the other can make a contract at the same level as the number of trumps held (though it suggests that such a contract will be makeable more often than not). What it does say, however, is that if your contract at that level is failing then the opponents' contract at the level of their number of trumps would be making.
The LTT and the observation I made earlier about a fit one way implying a fit the other way lead to the corollary given at the start of this page. If your side has, say, a nine-card fit then you should certainly bid to the three-level since, if you assume that the opponents have a nine-card fit as well, either:
In all of these cases you want to be declaring, so bid to that level as rapidly as possible and let the oppenets guess what to do.
If your denomination ranks lower than theirs, you may even want to bid one level higher than your number of trumps, especially if not vulnerable or you think you are unlikely to be doubled. You will still mostly score better than letting the opponents play the hand.
Author: Chris Burton
Gravesend Bridge Club