[billw55]

Monday night at club, partner and I held:

♠AJ9xx
♥ -
♦AJxxx
♣Qxx

♠KT
♥Qxxx
♦QTxxx
♣Kx

Partner opened 1♠ and I landed in a pretty good looking 5♦ contract. I was pretty happy, we avoided 3NT and are light on high cards, so I was thinking this could be a good score. The opening lead is a spade, obvious stiff, RHO playing the queen. So I think, hahah I am not risking the silly finesse, I will play safe to guarantee +600. ♦Q, not covered, ace from dummy. RHO shows out and also turns up with the ♣A, down 1. Meanwhile the underbidders and autofinessers are all plus of course. We observed that I would have been much better off bidding six, forcing me to take the winning hook.

Later, we held a combined 13 high card points and successfully stole the board for -50. For an average. grrrrr

edit: I guess this doesn't really have much to do with matchpoints. Still annoying though.

[keylime]

MPs at times, causes its infuriating madness. How does 3NT play in the field?

[awm]

I think the finesse is actually better play. You lose to exactly stiff king offside, but you gain Kxx onside, and the skewed spade break and increased likelihood of singleton lead when holding trump control mean this is close to break-even just in terms of making the contract. Plus you get over trick from Kx onside, which may matter at MP.

[BunnyGo]

awm, on 2012-July-11, 12:54, said:

I think the finesse is actually better play. You lose to exactly stiff king offside, but you gain Kxx onside, and the skewed spade break and increased likelihood of singleton lead when holding trump control mean this is close to break-even just in terms of making the contract. Plus you get over trick from Kx onside, which may matter at MP.

I agree. There's more to it than just that. Since we expect a bunch of the field to be in NT, we're playing against that. If the finesse is offside, then we'll still beat everyone in 2 or 3 NT by going down less than they. There's little cost taking the finesse. We only lose to other people in 5D who think to play the drop and it works--and they had to have the spade lead too.

[awm]

I don't know why you'd expect the field to be in notrump. You have a 5/5 hand in the north, a ten-card diamond fit, and only 22 hcp so 3NT is not a big consideration.

I'd expect the field to be split between diamond partial and diamond game (the percentages depending on how strong the field is) with maybe a few outliers trying 4♠ or perhaps defending a round suit contract (maybe doubled) depending on opponents' cards. I'd be surprised to see any significant number of people in notrump.

[billw55]

awm, on 2012-July-11, 19:19, said:

I don't know why you'd expect the field to be in notrump. You have a 5/5 hand in the north, a ten-card diamond fit, and only 22 hcp so 3NT is not a big consideration.

I'd expect the field to be split between diamond partial and diamond game (the percentages depending on how strong the field is) with maybe a few outliers trying 4♠ or perhaps defending a round suit contract (maybe doubled) depending on opponents' cards. I'd be surprised to see any significant number of people in notrump.

I think maybe one or two pairs were in NT. I wasn't expecting it for everyone, just recognizing it as a possibility to pick up a matchpoint or two. Some people get carried away with the "NT is better than a minor at MP" thing.

I didn't consider overtricks because I believed that +600 would already be a pretty good score. In this much at least, I turned out to be right.

[ggwhiz]

Matchpoint fixes can be way too funny and I've had my share.

Like the Li'l ole ladies that bid 1♠ - 2♠ float on 18 opposite 15, making 5 for a goose egg.

White vs. Red I once overcalled 2♣ and lho made a negative double with 6-6 in the unbids, float, down 1. Another goose egg against slam their way down 1.

He became a buddy though when he bought me a beer for that one after the game.