by Tom Frank
Sometimes players do not understand how a duplicate bridge game is scored. Nowadays it all done by the computer, in past time, directors used to do this all by hand.
To start, how you and your partner do on a hand (board) is compared to all of the other partnerships playing the same hand as you did. To make the math easier, assume that a board is played 11 times. That means you and your partner play the board once, and 10 other pairs play the board.
The units that duplicate bridge uses in scoring boards are match points. On each board, your score is compared to the scores for all the other pairs. For each pair that your score is better, you get one matchpoint. For each pair that your score is the same, you get ½ of a matchpoint. So, in our example, since the board is played by you and 10 other pairs, if your score is better than everyone else’s score, you get 10 matchpoints for that board. This is the best you can do–you beat everyone. So you get a top board. On the summary/recap for this example, it will say a top on a board is 10. If a board is played 7 times, top is 6 since you can do better than the six other pairs who play it (you can’t do better than yourself).
That is a top board. It is slightly more complicated when you do not do better than everyone else. In our example, let’s say you and partner win the auction and declare 2S. And you make 8 tricks, that gives you a score of +110 (2*30 for spades + 50 part score bonus). Now look at the summary, of the ten other pairs playing your direction, 3 of them tried 3S, but went down 1, that gives them a score of -50 (assuming Non-Vul). They are -50, you are +110, so you beat those three pairs, 3 match points to you. 1 pair passed it out (all 4 players passed) for a score of 0. You beat them as well, 1 matchtpoint to you. 2 pairs were in 1NT, making 7 tricks for +90. You beat them as well, 2 more matchpoints. 1 pair did the same as you, bid and made 2S, so you tied them, ½ matchpoint to you. 1 pair bid and made 3C, also +110, so you tied them as well, ½ matchpoint to you. 1 pair played 1NT but made an overtrick (made 8 tricks) so +120 to them. They beat you so no matchpoints to you. Finally, 1 pair played 2S and made nine tricks (an overtrick), +140 to them, so they beat you as well. Adding it up, you beat 6 pairs (1*6 matchpoints) and tied 2 pairs (1/2*2 matchpoints) for a total of 7 matchpoints. Here it is in a table (you are pair 11):
|
Pair |
Contract |
Result |
Score |
Your Matchpoints |
|
1 |
2S |
-1 |
-50 |
1 |
|
2 |
2S |
-1 |
-50 |
1 |
|
3 |
2S |
-1 |
-50 |
1 |
|
4 |
Passout |
– |
0 |
1 |
|
5 |
1NT |
1 |
90 |
1 |
|
6 |
1NT |
1 |
90 |
1 |
|
7 |
2S |
2 |
110 |
½ |
|
8 |
3C |
3 |
110 |
½ |
|
9 |
1NT |
2 |
120 |
0 |
|
10 |
2S |
3 |
140 |
0 |
In this example, lets say you were sitting N/S for this board. Now look at the pairs sitting E/W. N/S #1 was -50, so whatever pair they played, was +50, this was the best score any E/W could have. And N/S#10 was +140, so their opponent was -140, the worst score for E/W. So when N/S gets a top board, their opponent gets a bottom board, and when a N/S pair gets a bottom board, their E/W opponent gets a top board.
The computer makes adjustments for sitouts. For example, if you play 15 boards, and another pair has a sitout and only play 12, then you could easily score more matchpoints since you have 3 more chances than they do. So the computer scales and extrapolates and so forth to remove this advantage.
When your game is over, and you are looking at the summary, and wondering why you had a top (or did not), did you make a overtrick when others did not, or missed an overtrick, or were you in the wrong suit (majors score more than minors, and NT scores more than the suits when you win the same amount of tricks.)
The directors who used to do this by hand, called it matchpointing the game. That term is sort of in the dustbin of time. I think it is a bit confusing that this is called matchpoints, and when you do well in a game, you win masterpoints. Took me a long time to understand the difference between matchpoints and masterpoints.