Bridge Lesson 7: Counting Your Winners as Declarer

A sure winner in bridge is a trick you can take at any time without giving up the lead: an ace, an ace-king, or a run of top honors such as A K Q. Before you play a card from dummy, add up the sure winners in all four suits and compare the total with the tricks your contract needs.

That one count is the start of every declarer plan. This is lesson 7 of the beginner course, and the first of five lessons about playing the hand.

Count the two hands of your side together, suit by suit. A card is a sure winner when no card the opponents hold can beat it, counting the cards still out. These are the common cases:

Two limits catch new players out:

1. Only top cards count. A king is a sure winner only when the ace is in your own hands, or has already been played.
2. A suit cannot give more tricks than the cards in the longer hand. With A K opposite Q, you hold the three top honors but only two cards in the longer hand, so the suit is worth two tricks, not three.

Cards like the ♥K Q J 10 are not sure winners yet. They become winners once you knock out the ace, and that is the subject of lesson 8. A queen next to an ace may win if a finesse works, which is lesson 9. For now, count only what is certain.

When dummy comes down, do not touch a card. Go through three steps first:

1. Target. How many tricks does the contract need? 3NT needs 9, 4♠ needs 10.
2. Count. Add up the sure winners in each suit.
3. Compare. If the count reaches the target, take your tricks and make the contract. If it is short, the gap tells you how many extra tricks to find, and you plan where they will come from before you play.

The count also tells you what not to do. With enough sure winners in hand, any risky play is a waste: you can only lose by it.

The target is nine tricks. West leads the ♠Q. Now count, suit by suit:

• Spades: ♠A K in your hand. Two winners.
• Hearts: ♥K Q J in dummy and ♥A 8 6 3 in your hand. The four top honors are all yours, and you hold four cards. Four winners.
• Diamonds: ♦A in hand and ♦K in dummy. Two winners.
• Clubs: ♣A in dummy. One winner.

Two plus four plus two plus one is nine. You have your contract with no risk at all, so you simply take your tricks. Win the spade lead, and when you play hearts, cash dummy's ♥K Q J first and keep the ♥A for last. That way the suit never gets stuck in one hand.

Is there a tenth trick? Your side holds seven diamonds, the opponents six. If their diamonds split three and three, your fourth diamond becomes a winner after three rounds, and on this deal they do. But the third round goes to West's ♦Q, so you must give up the lead to get it. A trick you must lose the lead to set up is not a sure winner, so it does not go in the count. Here it is safe to try, because you still hold the ♠K after trick one: lesson 8 shows how. Reveal the hands to check.

Count your winners on every deal you declare, even the easy ones. It takes about ten seconds, and the habit pays off on the hard deals, when you will need the number to choose a plan. Defenders count too: our article on counting declarer's tricks shows the same count from the other side of the table.

To practice the count on real deals, use BridgeDummy's free double dummy solver. Enter a deal, count your winners, then let the solver show how many tricks each contract really makes.

Previous: Lesson 6: The Contract. Next: Lesson 8: Setting Up a Long Suit, where small cards become winners.