Overtricks are important in duplicate bridge but so is making our contract. On this hand we have to decide whether to play safe by ducking the first round of clubs or are we going to try and win every trick we possibly can.
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Hi everyone, North has made a pre-empt. 3♣ shows a six or seven card suit and less than an opening hand. So there's no guarantee that we're going to make game here, despite our 17 high card points. But, playing duplicate pairs I'm going to be a little bit greedy and try 3NT.
♦Q lead, oh well, well, well. So North has a seven card club suit, I've got two, we are missing four clubs.
If the club suit breaks 2-2, then I can simply win the ♦A or ♦K, play ♣A, ♣K, and run the club suit. So away we go, ace, king, whoops, that's not so good.
So there's still a club outstanding, and when I regain the lead, I've got no entries to get back to the North hand.
So let's give that another shot, I'm still going to be greedy, but perhaps a little bit more cautious when it comes to the play. So here I'll win the ♦A or ♦K, and it's true that if the club suit breaks 2-2 we can make seven club tricks. But if the club suit breaks 3-1, then I need to duck the first round of clubs.
Now there's only two clubs remaining, so I can win the ace of hearts here, and play ace of clubs, king of clubs, and run the club suit.
So the choice is, do you think it's wise to play safe here, or do you want to play greedy and go for all the tricks you can possibly make? It's not quite clear playing duplicate bridge what the right answer is to this, overtricks count for a lot!