Mechanics of duplicate bridge explained

AMANZIMTOTI Bridge Club opened on 4 January after the Christmas and New Year break.

New members are welcome.

An overview of the mechanics of duplicate bridge:

• 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 (in other words, 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 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 pair’s result with others who played the same hand. Bidding boxes are often used to facilitate the mechanics of bidding, and minimise the noise level.
• In duplicate bridge, a player normally plays with the same partner throughout an event, the two are known as a ‘pair’.

Interested and potential players are most welcome to contact Eric or Diane on 072-035-3586, 083-234-6877 or 031-903-2684 for more information. The Toti club plays on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons in Warner Beach.