[helene_t]

You don't need to be sure that they go down. You are allowed to gamble a bit. Doublung is dangerous but sometimes passing is more dangerous.

[mikl_plkcc]

I have realised another major problem.

I have bid a contract, e.g. 3NT. The dummy comes down. I count the tricks the contract seems hopeless. I then start cashing all the winners in a hope that the opponents will misdefense. Sometimes it will work, but most of the times I will end up down 2 or down 3, when the best (or most straightforward) line of play will get me down 1. Then I lost a lot especially when vulnerable (and that will get me a 0 in matchpoints).

Or I'm trying a line of play which relies on a certain card held by a certain opponent, but their play suggests otherwise. Then I continued to play the original line of play and get down 2 or worse, while it would be down 1 on the best line of play, and get a 0 at matchpoint again.

For example, I bid 3NT without 25 HCP hoping that a certain suit will run. Unfortunately, I failed to run the suit. I ended up down 4 as I already took all the winners before I tried to run the suit (I couldn't afford to lose the lead before running it if I wanted to make the contract as I had weakness in another suit) but, if I didn't attempt to run the suit, I could probably held the contract to down 1.

[smerriman]

If you're playing IMPs, taking an unlikely line to make a contract is usually correct, because the gain if it works dwarfs the loss if it doesn't. There are situations where the chance of making is too low compared to how much you lose if you try, but they're pretty rare.

Matchpoints is an entirely different game. Whether or not you make the contract is irrelevant; your goal is solely to score better than other tables. So you'd never play for an unlikely lie of the cards if it would lead to a 0.

[helene_t]

mikl_plkcc, on 2025-March-16, 15:47, said:

I have realised another major problem.

To be honest, most of your problems are the kind of problems which decent players still have after decades of practice. Maybe this is just a very strong club and getting -20 IMPs on an average club night is what most players would be happy with?

[mikl_plkcc]

I played matchpoints at another club yesterday and got an extremely poor result, with lots of 0 including stretching to 3NT and getting down 2 or worse for multiple times, doubling their contract then misdefended (I forgot to count a certain suit and discarded the setting trick at the critical point), etc.

I doubled twice yesterday. One was when they stopped at 2, I balanced and pushed them to 4, I doubled and they got 9 tricks, but the DD was 7 tricks and other tables got 7 or 8 tricks only in the same suit, the other was they suggested weak bidding with no game contract, we pushed them from 2 to 4, DD was 9 tricks and every other table got 9, but I misdefended and let them got 10.

And my expectation this year, after having a break from the game for multiple years, is just to get to the break even point (50.00% MP or 0.00 IMP) in a typical English club.