In no-trump, you do not like short suits. In a trump contract, you love them. It is then that you use your trumps. Run out of cards in a suit? Good, start winning tricks with those trumps. In no-trump, if the opponents run out of cards in your long suit, they are helpless. In a trump contract, if they have trump left and a void in another suit, they are powerful. Similarly, if you run out of a suit in no-trump, the opponents can run wild playing that suit since you have no trumps to take control.

When you are playing in a no-trump contract, you count winners — immediate tricks such as aces, and tricks you have to develop, sometimes called “slow” tricks. In a trump contract you will count losers from the perspective of the hand with the longer trump holding — usually the declarer.