>>What is the point of such strange code? Why not take the count into a variable first and then add it as a field whatever number you need?
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>>In addition, the problem you're facing is called parameter sniffing. Check Plamen Ratchev article
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>>Parameter Sniffing
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>What is the point? No point... just a bad query by a dumb programmer. Sometimes I get stuck in a certain mindset and forget about things like including a sql select as a field in the query (See Sergey's sample code). Thanks for the link, I am reading about Parameter Sniffing now.

You're welcome. I didn't notice that you were using different tables at first. In any case, that code surely looked weird to me.