How Greedy do You Need to Be?
By Mike Lawrence

South should play just like the rubber bridge player. Grab and run. The one thing South must not do is go down in three notrump. Chasing a one percent chance of making eleven tricks is not worth the dangers. South should take his plus score and pin his hopes on some pairs bidding six spades and going down. Plus 600 is worse than plus 680 or plus 1430, but it is better than minus 100.

Looking at all four hands, you can see that South has ten tricks off the top in spades and with spades dividing two-two, South can make eleven tricks, in spite of the bad diamond break. South draws trump and crossruffs clubs and hearts. Even if the queen of clubs did not come down, South is safe for eleven tricks by playing the ace and a diamond. West wins cheaply but must either cash his other diamond winner or give a sluff and a ruff. In either case, eleven tricks are easy.

Because the queen of clubs drops on the third club, South can actually make six spades by ruffing his heart, discarding one diamond on the jack of clubs, and playing a low diamond toward his hand. West wins the trick but is endplayed out of his other diamond trick.

Since South is virtually cold for eleven tricks in spades, South's chasing after a tenth trick in notrump is a case of giving away a lot for nothing. The result at the table was that South got three matchpoints out of twelve.

• One pair went down in six spades.
• One pair doubled four hearts and set them only three tricks.
• One pair failed to bid game.

If South tried to make four notrump, he would have gotten no matchpoints. Fight for matchpoints when there are some to be had.

RULE

If there are no matchpoints to be gained, take the ones you have and be content..