However, as mentioned earlier, the preference is not so pronounced as that over a minor:

	J 10 5
	10 3 2
	K Q 10 9 7
	K J
A Q 7		9 8 6 3 2
9 6 5		A 8
8 4		J 6 5
A 10 8 6 5		9 4 2
	K 4
	K Q J 7 4
	A 3 2
	Q 7 3

This hand came up in a Vanderbilt Knockout, one pair playing it in three no without even mentioning hearts, the other pair in four hearts. You can see that, as the cards lie, three no will make while four hearts will not. However, that doesn't prove too much. For it takes a bit of bad luck (the spade hook being off) to doom four hearts, and considerably more good luck (the spade suit being blocked and unbalanced) to make three no possible. Indeed, I would hazard the guess that if you shuffled and dealt out the E-W cards 20 or 30 times, four hearts would prove makable considerably more often than three no. But who can tell how the cards will lie during the bidding?

One last hand. This will produce an overtrick in either 3 no or four hearts, so both contracts are safe. But to the matchpoint player, that extra trick furnished by a ruff -- and thus extra 20 points on the score -- becomes important.

	J 6 5
	Q 7 6 2
	A J
	Q 9 6 3
K Q 9 7		10 4
8 4 3		K 5
Q 9 7 6		5 4 3 2
K 8		J 7 5 4 2
	A 8 3 2
	A J 10 9
	K 10 8
	A 10

Against four hearts, West can't attack spades profitably, so declarer can take the diamond hook with impunity. Even if it loses, he'll still get the full value off his ace and king. Since the finesse is on, the most likely way to take it, declarer always has in no trump four hearts, three diamonds, two clubs and a spade for 10. In hearts, declarer can take the same finesses, only now he can sluff a spade on the long diamond, and after three rounds of trump, he will cash the ace of clubs, then establish the queen. Subsequently, after cashing the ace of spades, and losing a spade, he will ruff a spade in dummy, cash the queen of clubs and ruff a club in the closed hand. That's not two extra tricks in the trump contract, since the fourth heart would have been a winner in no trump, but it is one extra trick, which translates into 20 more points, a rather inconsequential difference in any scoring but matchpoints, where it can easily cost the no trumpers a significant number of matchpoints, depending on the size of the field.