Today I will speak about Matchpoints. This topic is in anticipation of the upcoming NABC Online Individual! First let me talk about this event a bit. This event will be held July 23-26 on BBO, and is open to all ACBL members. Each of the 4 days you play 24 boards for a total of 96. The best part is you can play them at any time during the day! Play a few, go have breakfast, then play a few more. The humans will all be partnered and opposed by GIB. To help people get ready for this event, I will talk about some declarer play strategies at Matchpoint scoring.

Matchpoint scoring is not for the meek. You need to be willing to take chances when appropriate, even at risk of your contract. There are two important factors to keep in mind. The first is evaluating your contract, and the second is remembering what the opponents know about your hand. Let me start first with remembering what the opponents know about your hand, and using that to your advantage.



You open 1NT, and your partner bids Stayman. You bid 2H and partner closes the auction with 3NT. LHO leads the 4 of spades. You certainly don’t want to duck this trick, so you win as RHO plays the 9 (standard signals). So how would you approach this hand at IMP scoring? That is easy. You have 9 top tricks making your contract cold, and you shouldn’t possibly risk them. You play a club to the ace first, ensuring you can run the suit if either opponent has four to the jack. Then you can run the clubs, just in case the opponents make a mistake. And as long as the opponents save enough hearts that they can possibly beat you, you will not take a diamond finesse.

Matchpoints is quite different. I think it’s completely clear to finesse the diamond at trick 2. Imagine how this hand looks to the opponent on your left if it loses. He knows you have four or five hearts (don’t forget the auction!) so he won’t be eager to switch to that suit. He knows his lead didn’t blow a trick in the suit, and appears to have been promising. And he doesn’t know you have a club suit ready to run. There is just no way he will be able to find a heart switch very often, from a suit he didn’t even want to lead from. I would absolutely take the diamond finesse at trick 2, before they know anything about the hand. One time in 20 my opponent may somehow work out to switch to a heart, and I will feel pretty badly. But all those other times that the diamond finesse wins, I will have gained, and that’s what Matchpoint scoring is all about.

What about running the clubs first and then deciding later whether to take the diamond finesse? That is not nearly as good as taking it right away. Take your risk before the opponents can signal to each other. Running the clubs lets them count those high cards, as well as encourage hearts for each other. It is much better to risk putting them back on lead when they are still in the dark rather than later. That is what I mean about remembering what the opponents know about your hand, and taking advantage of it.

Now let’s discuss how to evaluate your contract. The idea is that in a normal contract, you will take any risk that works more often than not. Whereas in an unusual contract, you want to do your best to beat all the “normal scores”. This can mean taking great risks to make, or it can mean playing extremely safely to either make or to ensure you don’t go down more than a certain amount. Let’s see an example.



You open 1NT, partner bids 2C Stayman, you bid 2H, and partner bids 3NT, which gets the queen of diamonds lead. Now before planning the play, let’s talk about this auction a bit, because I am sure most people would not duplicate it. First, the decision to open 1NT even with five hearts is quite normal for me. We have 15 points so we are in range, and 5332 hands should usually suggest notrump. I would have no qualms with making this bid at all. Partner’s bidding is a bit more unusual, as it looks quite normal for him to transfer to spades and bid 3NT to offer you a 5-3 spade fit. But I don’t think his choice is as ridiculous as it may look. He knew with his 13 high card points that your side has 28-30 total. That often means there are extra tricks available in notrump, so he decided not to investigate a 5-3 spade fit. He bid Stayman to at least ensure a 5-4 fit wouldn’t bid missed, and then placed the contract in 3NT.

That is all fine to discuss for now, but at the table it hardly matters. You simply have to realize that this 3NT contract is not normal. Any player who opens 1H is likely to end in 4H, and even players who open 1NT are more likely to end in 4S. Those contracts are almost sure to make 13 tricks if the spade finesse works, and either 11 or 12 if it doesn’t (depending on whether they received a diamond opening lead). So your 9 top tricks in notrump are not going to do you any good. However, don’t fret. Your unusual contract gives you a great opportunity. If the spade finesse works, you have 13 top tricks yourself. And that will beat all the pairs in 4H and 4S, surely giving you a great score! Win the lead, run all the hearts in case they might throw a diamond or two should your finesse lose (this time it’s ok to run the suit first, since looking at dummy and their hands there is zero doubt the opponents will continue diamonds whenever they can), and close your eyes and take that spade finesse. If it loses, all you have done is make your bad score (for 3NT making 9 tricks), a bit worse, not much of a loss. But if it wins you will have all 13 tricks for a fantastic score. Don’t forget to compliment partner on his great judgement, but not in front of the opponents please. It’s not very nice to rub it in.

Let me discuss one more factor about this hand. What about ducking a couple of diamonds as a sort of compromise? That way if the spade finesse loses but diamonds are 5-3, the opponents can’t run the diamond suit to beat you, and you will still get 10 tricks. It’s a reasonable thought, but definitely the wrong play. It costs you an opportunity at all 13 tricks when the spade finesse is onside. And at what gain? 10 tricks will lose to the 11 or 12 than all players in a major suit are making with that spade finesse offside. So don’t you dare duck a single diamond trick. Like I said, Matchpoint scoring is not for the meek. You have to be willing to take risks to get some big scores, and being in 3NT on this hand is an opportunity that can not be passed up. It doesn’t matter whether you agree with partner’s judgement or not. He chose what he chose, so do the best with wherever you find yourself.

Let’s try one last hand to see how Matchpoint scoring can affect our thinking, also featuring the concept of evaluating our contract.



Partner opens 1C, and suppose you bid 1D. Partner rebids 3C, you bid 3N. LHO leads the 4 of hearts, you play the T from dummy (why not), it goes J on your right, and you win the K. Now similarly to the last hand, some unusual judgements have been taken here, with partner rebidding 3C when most would probably rebid 2C, and you bidding 3N over that when others might pass. These judgements have resulted in a 3NT contract on merely 19 high card points. But not to fret, since having won the heart king we are in a fantastic position! With 7 likely club tricks and the ace of spades still to come, it looks like we are going to make! Therefore, should we be risky and aggressive like on the other examples, and take a spade finesse? Absolutely not! We are in a fantastic position that should not be risked. Reaching 3NT and making it on these cards will be a great score. Also, if the spade finesse loses, they will clobber us no matter which red suit they return, so the opponents can’t go wrong. So at trick 2 I might lead the queen of spades, attempting to tempt a cover, but if it’s not covered I will go up ace and happily run my clubs. There is an impression among many players that Matchpoints is all about taking wild chances and always going for the maximum. For sure you need to be fearless when called for, but other times call for playing safely, and this is one of them.

Let me close by again reminding everyone about the NABC Online Individual event. Any ACBL member can sign up and play from anywhere, July 23-26. It will be a lot of fun so give it a shot! The entry fee is low, you can win an NABC title, and do it all from the comfort of your own home at any time of day. Thanks for coming today. I will field questions about declarer play at Matchpoints, as well as about the NABC online event. Thanks.
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Questions & Answers:
Q1: Why is this NABC event not stratified? How is it fair?
A:That is a fair question.
One thing I try to remember about bridge is that everyone has different preferences. And among those, some people prefer playing against players with a similar experience level, and others like challenging themselves against better players.
There is no reason there can't be events that suit everyone. BBO and the ACBL both offer lots of different choices, so there is no reason any player can't find an event that suits them.
So I hope you give it a shot. The worst that happens is you play a lot of bridge and have a good time, and there is always a chance you do well and show those better players a thing or two.

Q2: Question: Playing with/against the GIBs - won't play be pretty standard - no strange bidding/playing?
A:Let me put a couple links out there to help answer that question.
Here is a link to GIB's system notes. It usually follows its system, but sometimes deviates a bit based on judgment.
Here are the conditions of contest for the 2017 NABC Online Individual.
And here is a lecture I gave a few years ago about playing with GIB.Improve Your Play With Robots.
Hopefully that information is useful.

Q3: What conventions should be avoided in MP that are good for IMPs?
A: Good question, let me give one example.
There is a popular convention called DONT. When the opponents open 1NT, your bids have the following meanings: Double is a single suit, 2♣ is clubs and a higher suit, 2♦ is diamonds and a major, 2♥ is both majors, and 2♠ is spades.
I consider this very much a matchpoint convention, not an IMP convention.
The advantage is that you can always stay on the 2 level, as opposed to other conventions that (for example) play 2♠ is spades and a minor, forcing you to the 3 level to play in the minor.
That lets you overcall aggressively, knowing you can stop low.
The disadvantage is you might end up in a minor suit when you have a major suit fit.
If partner bids 2♣ and your distribution is 4243, you probably have to pass in case partner's second suit is hearts. So if his second suit happens to be spades, you will play in clubs dispite having an 8 or 9 card spade fit. jdonn: That is much worse for game bidding, since if you have game it will be in a major suit. And game bidding is crucial at IMP scoring.
So at IMPs I might play a convention more like the following: Double is a 4 card major with a long minor, 2♣ is both majors (then 2♦ asks which is better), 2♦ is either 6+ major, 2♥ is 5 hearts and a minor, 2♠ is 5 spades and a minor.
That convention always reveals that we have one or both majors, and their exact length. It is much better for bidding game, so it's more of an IMP convention.
Whereas at Matchpoints, it doesn't even allow us to bid 2 of a minor suit on a single suited hand, and we can't afford to be blocked from the auction.
So that's my answer of a convention that might be better at IMPs and one that might be better at Matchpoints.

Q4: In 2nd board, where the contract was 3nt+4, if we take finesse and spade king is offside then we have to give 1 spade trick and 4 diamonds trick. Then the contract goes down. Why should we do that finesse?
A: The point of this hand is that your contract is unusual. I think we can agree most players will be in 4♥ or 4♠.
If they are in those contracts, they will make 11 or more tricks. 11 is the least, if they get a diamond lead, and the spade finesse loses, the opponents can take one spade and one diamond trick.
So if you take 9 tricks in 3NT by rejecting the spade finesse, you will lose to all those players. You are guaranteeing yourself a terrible score.
Your only chance at salvaging your score is to take the spade finesse. And the beauty is that if it wins, you will beat those players since you get 520 for 13 tricks and if they take 13 tricks they get at most 510.
So the spade finesse is a 100% clear play. This is a very important concept, so I want to make sure you understand why it's right to take a 50-50 risk of your contract.
To play Matchpoints really well, you absolutely have to know if your contract is normal or unusual. That determines your goal.
Hopefully that made sense.

Q5: In 3rd board - can you tell us more about 3♣ rebid when maybe others would definitely rebid 2♣?
A: So obviously with 7 clubs we are going to rebid the suit, there is no question about that.
With 12 HCP (high card points), the normal rebid is definitely 2♣. Normally 3♣ is about 16-18 HCP.
So the question is, is north's hand worth upgrading to a 3♣ rebid?
It's not totally ridiculous. You have a 7th club when you might have had just 6. You have a great suit that could run. And you have top tricks. Still, I judge that most players would rebid just 2♣. Upgrading all the way to 3♣ is a lot with just 12 HCP.
That is what makes this 3NT contract so unusual. Both players took aggresive viewpoints. The opponents could have actually beaten it by 4 tricks (diamond lead, jack of hearts switch), but of course they can't see all the cards.
Let's put it this way. If you are in 3NT with 19 points, and you can make it, make it! Your score will be great because how many people will bid game with just 19?
Contrast this with the last hand. We had to take a risk or else our score was sure to be bad. Here we must not take a risk to protect our score that is definitely good.

Q6: Bidding when vulnerable vs non vulnerable. Anything to watch for in MP?
A: It wasn't what I talked about today, but when not vul be very very aggressive. When vul don't be so aggressive since the worst thing is to go down 200 or more (you lose to any part score the opponents might make).

Q7: We were wondering if you would play the NABC Online Individual event? :) If so we wish you good luck.
A: I would love to play it but I am not allowed! Employees of BBO and their families are not eligible. So there is no need to worry about collusion :)
I can tell you if I was eligible I would 100% play it, and be looking forward to it.

Ok thanks for coming everyone. Good luck in the online NABC event, and every other event you enter too. Why not.

Click here for notes from our previous lectures.