Editing Law of total tricks (section)

{{Short description|Contract bridge guideline}}
{{Redirect|loTT|other uses|Lott (disambiguation)}}
{{See also|Glossary of contract bridge terms}}
{{More footnotes|date=April 2022}}

In [[contract bridge]], the '''Law of total tricks''' (abbreviated here as LoTT) is a guideline used to help determine how high to bid in a competitive auction. It is not really a law (because counterexamples are easy to find) but a method of [[hand evaluation]] which describes a relationship that seems to exist somewhat regularly.  Written by Jean-René Vernes for French players in the 1950s as a rule of thumb, it was first described in English in 1966 International Bridge Academy Annals.  It received more notice from appearing in The Bridge World in June 1969.{{citation needed|date=March 2016}} In 1981 [[Dick Payne]] and [[Joe Amsbury]], using their abbreviation TNT (Total Number of Tricks), wrote at length about it for British readers.<ref name=Payne>{{cite book
  |last1 = Payne
  |first1 = Dick
  |last2 = Amsbury
  |first2 = Joe
  |title = Bridge: TNT and Competitive Bidding
  |publisher = B.T. Batsford (London, England)
  |year = 1981
  |isbn = 0-7134-2543-1}}</ref> Later, in the US, [[Marty Bergen (bridge)|Marty Bergen]] and [[Larry Cohen (bridge)|Larry Cohen]] popularized the approach, using their preferred abbreviation: 'the LAW' (all capitals).<ref name=Cohen>{{cite book
  |last1 = Cohen
  |first1 = Larry
  |title = To Bid or Not to Bid:  The Law of Total Tricks
  |publisher = Natco Press
  |year = 1992
  |isbn = 978-0963471505}}</ref>

It was prefigured in [[S. J. Simon|S. J. "Skid" Simon]]'s 1945 book ''[[Why You Lose at Bridge]]'' in his aphorism "When in doubt, bid one more".<ref>{{cite book |title=[[Why You Lose at Bridge]] |first=S. J. |last=Simon |author-link=S. J. Simon |publisher=Nicholson & Watson |location=London |year=1945 |page=65 |oclc=18352804 }}</ref>