The Play of Ten Random Hands
	Index of Lessons

In these lessons, we have assumed that you are playing bridge socially- not in a tournament. Tournament bridge uses a different scoring method than does social bridge (also known as "rubber bridge"). You can buy preprinted score pads if you want, but any piece of scratch paper will do.

To begin with, draw a horizontal line a couple of inches wide and then a vertical line, bisecting the horizontal one, and extending a couple of inches above and below the horizontal line. Up at the top, to the left of the vertical line, write the word "We" and to the right of the vertical line write "They". Then give one player this score pad; he will keep score and he and his partner will be the "We" and the opposing team will be the "They".

At left, you can see a sample preprinted score pad. It has actually three sets of what we just drew and, up at the top, a place to keep track of each individual's total score. We'll get to that area in a moment. Each We/They set of columns is used to score a single rubber. A "rubber" in bridge is either two or three games. To win a rubber, one team has to win two games. If that team wins two games in a row, then the rubber has only the two games. If one team wins the first game, and the other team wins the second, then the third game will decide who wins the rubber.

In each of these "We/They" sections, we will use the terms "above the line" and "below the line". These terms refer to where points won are placed- either above that horizontal line or below it. Game points are put below the line and bonus points are put above it. Let's turn our attention to game points first.

Points Awarded for Games  

You should remember from previous lessons that a team can bid game (or a partscore) in Notrump, Spades, Hearts, Diamonds or Clubs. When a team is successful in making a game or a partscore that they bid, they are awarded game points.

Either team may contract to take from 1 to 7 tricks (plus a "book" of six tricks) in the suit of their choice or in Notrump. (Remember that if you bid 1 Notrump, for example, you are actually contracting to take 7 tricks; if you bid 4 Spades, you are contracting to take 10 tricks and so on.)

When you are successful in taking at least as many tricks as you contracted for, you are awarded game points according to the point schedule at left. You will recall that, once you and your partner bid a contract, one or the other of your opponents may call "Double", which basically says that the opposing team does not think you can make your contract, and is willing to accord you extra points if you do in exchange for heavier penalties if you don't. And, though it does not happen frequently, you or your teammate have the right to then call "Redouble", which in effect says that indeed you do think you can make your contract, and are quite willing to increase both the points awarded you if you do make the contract and the penalties if you don't. The schedule at left shows how many points you get in each of these situations.

For example, let's say you bid and make 2 . Hearts is a major suit, and so the schedule shows that you get 30 game points for each trick you bid, so you get 60 points altogether. If you bid and make 3 , you get 40 game points for the first of the three tricks you bid and 30 points each for the other two, for a total of 100 game points.

As you can see, the number of game points you win when you are doubled or when you redouble are, logically, doubled and redoubled. So if you bid that same 3  and are doubled, you get a total of 200 game points (80+60+60) if you make it. You will get 400 game points if you redouble and make your contract.

Whenever you win game points, these are put "below the line" on the scorepad. On that scorepad, whenever We or They accumulate 100 points or more "below the line", another horizontal line is drawn across the score sheet. This horizontal line should have a little arrow at one end- pointing to the left if "We" accumulated the 100 points or to the right of "They" accumulated them. That team is said to have one one "game" in the rubber of two or three. For example, if We bid and made 3  (undoubled), then you would put 100 points below the line on the We side and, because this is 100 points or more, another horizontal line would be drawn and the players would begin working on the second game that rubber.

You do not have to get these 100+ points all at once; We could bid and make 2  and get 60 points below the line and then, on the next hand, bid and make 2 , getting another 60 points. Then, since they would have a total of 120 points, which is 100+, another horizontal line would be drawn.

Points Awarded for Winning a Rubber  

As we have said, the first team to win two games in a row (two horizontal lines are drawn) or to win two out of three games (three horizontal lines are drawn- two pointing one way and one pointing the other) gets a "rubber bonus". This bonus is 700 points for two games in a row, or 500 points for two out of three. These points are put "above the line". After they are awarded, the rubber is over, and the next rubber begins in the next We/They set of columns.

In social bridge, the players change partners at the end of each rubber, using whatever selection mechanism they wish. For the third rubber, each person will play with the person they have not yet played with. If you play more than three rubbers at a time, just repeat the team assignments from the first three games.

At the end of the first rubber, use that section of the scorepad at the top. Write down the names of all four players in the leftmost column. Then, in the next column to the right, put the total points won by each person (adding up all the points above and below the line for the team on which that person played in the rubber) on the line beside his name. Do this for each subsequent rubber. At the end of the evening, add the points across; the person with the most points may be called the winner.

Points Awarded for Making Overtricks  

When you bid and make a contract, you may actually take more tricks than you contracted for. You get extra points for these tricks, too.

These overtrick points are affected by a team's "vulnerability"; what does this mean? Basically, if a team has won a game in a rubber, that team is "vulnerable". Certain points they earn and penalties they may incur are increased. This was an effort to "help" the team that had not yet won a game. If "We" win the first game in a rubber, then the "We" team is vulnerable. If the "They" team win the second game in the rubber, then team is vulnerable, too.

When a team makes one or more overtricks, then they are awarded additional points according to the schedule at left. These points go "above the line". For example, if you bid 2  and take 9 tricks (one overtrick) then you get an additional 30 points above the line. If you are doubled and make that same overtrick, then you get 200 points if your team is vulnerable and 100 points if you are not. (The reason for this is to ensure that players that double know that they'd better be pretty sure they can defeat you!

Bonus Points for Slam  

Bonuses are awarded for all slam contracts (bids of 6 or 7) that are made. A small slam (a bid of 6) will get the team an additional 500 points if it is not vulnerable, or 750 if they are. A grand slam (a bid of 7) will get the team an additional 1000 points if it is not vulnerable and 1500 points if it is. These points all go above the line.

Bonus Points for Doubled or Redoubled Contracts Made  

If a team is doubled and makes their contract (with or without overtricks) they get an additional 50 points above the line. (These points are often referred to as points awarded "for the insult" of being doubled.) If that team redoubles and makes their contract, then they get 100 points instead.

Penalty Points for Defeated Contracts  

Some of the largest point awards come when a team fails to make the contract that they have bid. (This means that you should be careful in your bidding, and not make a bid unless you are pretty sure you can make it.) When a contract is defeated, penalty points are awarded to the defending side. The value of the penalty depends on the number of undertricks, whether the declaring side is vulnerable or not vulnerable and whether the contract was undoubled, doubled or redoubled.

Don't worry if this chart seems complicated- it is. (Even expert players in tournaments carry around little cards that tell them the total penalties so they don't have to use this chart to figure them out.) First, you will notice that if you are not doubled, it is simply 50 points for every undertrick when not vulnerable, and 100 points for every undertrick when vulnerable.

An undertrick, of course, is a trick that you fail to make. If you bid 3 of a suit (9 tricks) but only take 7 tricks, then you have two undertricks. The lingo says you are "down 2" in this situation.

Let's say you were not vulnerable and not doubled. Your total penalty is 50 points per undertrick or 100 points. If you were vulnerable and doubled, then your penalty is 200 for the first undertrick and 300 for the second for a total of 500 penalty points. These penalty points are awarded to the other side, and they go above the line for that side.

(It is amusing to imagine a situation where a team mis-bid when vulnerable and bid a grand slam, which was doubled by the opposing team and, inexplicably, redoubled- again by mistake. If the declarer did not take a single trick and was down 13, what would the penalty be? Well, the total penalty would be 400 for the first undertrick, 600 each for the next two and 600 each for the other ten. The total penalty would be 400 + (12*600) or a total of 7600 points. I do not know if this has ever actually happened in a tournament, which is the only time that results are recorded officially, but I wouldn't be surprised.)

Honor Bonuses  

At the conclusion of the play of a hand, any player who originally held four or five of the top cards (A-K-Q-J-10) in the trump suit gets honor points. The team this player is on gets 100 points if they held four of the top five, or 150 points if they held all five.

At the conclusion of the play of a hand that was played in Notrump, any player who originally held all four aces gets 150 points for his team.

	The Play of Ten Random Hands
	Index of Lessons