Welcome to the Duplicate Bridge group!


In social bridge every hand gets played just once, and then it is gone. Quite obviously, the winners will be those who were dealt more Aces and Kings.

In duplicate the hands get duplicated and played many times, usually as many times as there are tables. Yes, the individual hands are preserved and moved from table to table.
So, if there are, say, 13 tables, all 52 players will play that hand: 13 will play the North cards, 13 the East,13 the South, and the remaining 13 players will play the West hands.
Each North/South pair competes against every other North/South pair.
Each East/West pair competes against every other East/West pair.
The scoring is in a different kind of points called Match Points. You get:
1 match point for every other pair you beat
1/2 of a match point for every pair you tie
0 match points for every pair that beats you.

Consider that hand again:
North's hand was: ♠ A 3 2 ♥ A 3 2 ♦ A 4 3 2 ♣ A Q J 2
South's, hand was: ♠ K Q J 4 ♥ K Q 4 ♦ K Q J ♣ 6 5 4

Let us suppose that the say that the ♣K is on the left, with West. This means that 13 tricks can be won if South finesses against the ♣K.

Here are some sample results:
One pair bid 7NT; did not finesse, and only took 12 tricks. Going down 1 vulnerable scored them -50. Getting the worst North/South score netted them zero match points.
5 North/South pairs bid only 3NT, finessed, and took 13 tricks, scoring +520. They each got: 1 MP for beating the previous pair, plus (4 x 0.5 = ) 2 MPs for tying the other 4 pairs, totalling 3 MPs.
The other 7 North/South pairs bid 6NT, finessed, and took all 13 tricks, scoring +1020. They each got 6 MPs for each of the previous 6 pairs they beat, plus (6 x 0.5 = ) 3 MPs for tying the other 6 pairs, totalling 9 MPs.

Put in some North/South scores below, one below the other, and click the button to calculate the Match Point scores
NS#
NS Score
Match Point Result
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13


The important thing to realize is that duplicate scoring eliminates entirely the factor of which pair is dealt more Aces and Kings: If everyone plays the same, then everyone gets an average score. Winning comes from playing better than the other people who played the same hand.

Some people find the duplicate players very serious and competitive. No need for anyone to get upset: Bridge is supposed to be fun! Play socially!

Come on over!


Search the internet for duplicate bridge, and you will find the clubs near you. The director of each club may be able to connect you with other players.
If you are in San Diego North County Coastal, find us here.

Warning: If you have not played in decades, you should know that bidding has improved to provide much higher accuracy. Details

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