Duplicate Pairs Scoring – 9 December 2010

I talk a lot about bidding, how to get to the best contract, how to stop the opponents finding their best spot; then how to try to make all the tricks you can in defence and as declarer so that you score best. But why? And what does that really mean, I hear you scream in unison. Ah well…here we go then:

A hand (board) will be played a number of times. You will score 2 Match Points for every pair you beat and 1 Match Point for every pair you equal. This means it doesn’t matter what the contract is. 1NT or 6NT attract the same number of Match Points depending on success or failure. They are equally important contracts – both as declarer and defenders. Let’s say a hand is played in 1NT four times. The score sheet might look like this:

NS ... EW .. Contract .. By .. N/S .. E/W .. MP .. MP
. 1 ..... 5 ....... 1NT= ...... N ..... 90 ..... ......... 3 ..... 3
. 2 ..... 6 ....... 1NT+1 .... N ..... 120 ..... ....... 6 ..... 0
. 3 ..... 7 ....... 1NT= ...... N ..... 90 ........ ...... 3 ..... 3
. 4 ..... 8 ....... 1NT-1 ..... N ............. .. 50 ..... 0 ..... 6

Pair 2 have the best N/S score by playing the hand well OR by pair 6 defending badly. Likewise pair 4 have gone to sleep OR pair 8 have defended exceptionally well.

If you substitute 6NT (NV) as the contract:

NS ... EW .. Contract .. By .. N/S .. E/W .. MP .. MP
. 1 ..... 5 ....... 6NT= ...... N ..... 990 ................ 3 ..... 3
. 2 ..... 6 ....... 6NT+1 .... N ..... 1020 .............. 6 ..... 0
. 3 ..... 7 ....... 6NT= ...... N ..... 990 ................ 3 ..... 3
. 4 ..... 8 ....... 6NT-1 ..... N ................ 50 .... . 0 ..... 6

note that the pair that make the overtrick still do best. In fact the crucial point is that the Match Point scoreline for the hand hasnt changed at all: pairs 2 & 8 still get tops!

Overtricks matter. Accurate defence matters. Single tricks one way or another matter. You need to get really stingy …

Hi ho, Silver…

Kit