“There are no Game Bonuses at Matchpoints”

By Stan Dub

Many time world champion Jeff Meckstroth made that comment a few years ago in the ACBL Bulletin, when describing his response to a bidding question. Of course, he was not speaking literally, since we all know you do get 300 or 500 extra points for bidding a game at matchpoints, same as IMPs. He meant that the form of scoring at matchpoints discourages taking risks to bid close games.

If you bid a vulnerable 4 spades at IMPs and your opponents play in 3 spades, you gain 10 IMPs if both tables make 4, but you only lose 6 IMPs if both tables make only 9 tricks. This 10-6 risk to reward ratio justifies the risk of bidding a vulnerable game with as little as a 35% chance of success, assuming you are not likely to get doubled. However, at matchpoints the additional risk of trying for a close game is typically not rewarded by the form of scoring. Assume a hand is played 13 times and 6 pairs bid 4 spades and the other 7 pairs bid only 3 spades. Assume 2 pairs from each group make 10 tricks while the rest make only 9 tricks. On those facts the scores would get translated to matchpoints as follows:

Score: Matchpoints:

+420 11.5

+170 9.5

+140 6

-50 1.5

The pairs bidding 4 spades scored either 11.5 or 1.5, while the pairs bidding 3 spades scored either 9.5 or 6. In this example, where only 4 of 13 pairs succeeded in taking 10 tricks, the pairs bidding 4 spades received an average score of 4.83, while the pairs bidding only 3 spades received an average score of 7.0. The pairs who bid and made 4 spades risked losing 10 matchpoints if they failed, yet stood to gain only 2 matchpoints if they succeeded!

Successful players know these odds, and bid accordingly.

Let’s look at some hands, and see how to apply this.

(1) KQ963, K53,AQ74,4

(2) KQ963,J53,AQ74,4

In each case you are Dealer, vulnerable, and the opponents are silent. Playing 2/1 gf, you open 1S, partner bids 1NT (forcing), and you bid 2D. In each case partner now bids 3S, showing only 3 trumps but about 10-11 points. What is your bid at IMPs or matchpoints?

With hand (1) you should bid 4S at either form of scoring. You should have at least a 50% chance of making 10 tricks opposite most typical dummies. With hand (2) you should pass at matchpoints, but it would not be unreasonable to try 4S at IMPs.

Here are some possible hands for responder:

(A) J74,AT96,K8,Q74

(B) JT4,A976,63,KQ86

(D) A74,QT76,K8,Q74

(E) 742,AQ76,JT,KJ53

With hand (1) you are a favorite to make 10 tricks with any of these dummies. With hand (2) I calculate your chances of success with these dummies at around the following percentages: (A) 51%, (B) 40%, (C) 34%, (D) 55%, (E) 25%. (Note: some of these percentages are mere guesses because different defenses could produce various outcomes with identical layouts). If you could analyze the likelihood of making 10 tricks on the bidding, you’d want to bid 4 spades at IMPs on hands A, B and D (C would not be terrible), but not on hand E. You might want to be in 4 spades at matchpoints on hand D (hand A would be OK, too), but otherwise not.

Next time you’re deciding whether to bid a game, remember Meckstroth’s comment that “there are no game bonuses at matchpoints”!