Good bidding judgment and great trick taking skills position you to consistently collect 55-58% of the matchpoints. To win consistently, you need to score better than 60%, That is difficult If your opponents play well against you,. You need your opponents to make mistakes at your table:

• play in the wrong contract
• fail to take all their tricks.

Top matchpoint players know how to put their opponents in difficult positions. When the opponents guess wrong, your score improves. Learn easy techniques to increase the likelihood your opponents make mistakes at your table.

Your opponents will try to steal auctions from you on boards where you deserve a positive score, maybe a game bonus or more. It is important to have a "no speeding zone" at your table. Your opponents will be more reluctant to try to steal from you if they fear you will double them for penalty.

It is common to lead your longest and strongest suit against notrump contracts. In their "Winning Notrump Leads" book, David Bird and Taf Anthias use simulations to assess which leads are most likely to be effective against different auctions. Their conclusions are effective and easy to use. Many of their conclusions will be new to you. We share some of their tips in this video review of their book.

Learn how to setup a bidding practice table on BBO and tell the dealing program what kind of hands you want to practice.

In the comments to this post, we will share instructions to practice auctions discussed in our video lessons.

Please leave a comment if you need a dealer script which isn't in the comments below.

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