Toti Bridge back in full swing

THE Toti Bridge Club is back in full swing and has many events lined up for 2014, starting with a teams of four tournament starting on Wednesday, 12 February.
Teams is an amazing event where two pairs link up to form a team and play just one-on-one against another team.
However, the main events in the year are based on duplicate pairs, which as all bridge players will know, is the only way to play bridge. So what makes duplicate bridge so interesting, varied, frustrating, compelling and most important – keeps players coming back for more?
Duplicate bridge is the most widely used variation of contract bridge in club and tournament play.
It is called duplicate because the same bridge deal (i.e. the specific arrangement of the 52 cards into the four hands) is played at each table and scoring is based on relative performance. In this way, every hand, whether strong or weak, is played in competition with others playing the identical cards, and the element of skill is heightened while that of chance is reduced.
Duplicate bridge stands in contrast to rubber bridge where each hand is freshly dealt and where scores may be more affected by chance and ‘pot luck’ in the short run.
Bridge boards, simple four-way card holders, are used to enable each player’s hand to be passed intact to the next table that must play the deal, and final scores are calculated by comparing each pairs result with others who played the same hand.
This in essence can mean that you can lose your contract and still get a top score.
Bidding boxes are often used to facilitate the mechanics of bidding, prevent inadvertent passing of information, and minimise the noise level.
So, there you have it, a simple overview of the frustrating game of duplicate bridge – and once you have played this game there is no going back to any other format – i.e. rubber bridge.
Toti Bridge Club results:
On Tuesday, 14 January: First E and D Smith 62.5%, second R Dickens and V Hazell 59.3%.
On Wednesday, 15 January: First B Venter and S Utterly 64.2%, second J Daly and R Brown 62.0%.
On Tuesday, 21 January: First E and D Smith and C Morris and J Bender 60.2%.
On Wednesday, 22 January: First E and D Smith 61.1%, S McDonald-Watson and D Pegg 58.8%.
Ana has started bridge lessons this year so if any SUN readers want to challenge themselves in 2014 call Ana and learn how fantastic bridge can be. Call Ana on 031-916-7484.
Toti club welcomes visitors, they can call Ana on 031-916-7484 or Eric on 031-903-2684 or 072-035-3586.
Sessions commence on both Tuesday and Wednesday at 12.45pm.