The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-02-26
BY VIM. E. MCKINNEY

Secretary American Bridge League
 With the season of tournaments in full swing, the writer has received many inquiries from bridge players 1 throughout the country wondering how bridge tournaments are con- ducted and asking how the expert can be expected to win if he holds poor cards.
 All bridge tournaments are con- ducted in duplicate form and are known as duplicate bridge tourna- ments. There is a separate code of laws for duplicate brdige, but in the main they do not differ from the rubber game.
 In a duplicate tournament the players select their own partners and are assigned to a position and a table. The sections generally run from seven to nine tables. An equal number of duplicate trays are dis tributed to each table. In each tray there are four pockets, each pocket containing 13 cards. The players take the cards from the pocket, shuttle them, deal them out into four hands.
 The bidding and play is the same then as in rubber bridge except that cards are not played in the center oL lIc LdUI0 UuL dIS Pldy Cu OiCCtiy In front of the player playing the card. The cards are poin ed towards the trick winner. At he end of the hand, the score is determined and each player gathers up the 13 cards and places them in the pocket of the tray directly in front of him. The cards are never redealth during the session.
 At the end of a round of, say, three or four deals. the move is called and the East and West play CTS move, one table at time. to- wards the last table-the boards moving in the opposite direction. At the start of the second round the new players extract the hands from the pockets, bid and play them the same as described above and deter mine their score. These scores are sent in to a scorekeeper who posts them on a large recap sheet. By comparison of all the scores made on each hand. the winner of the contest is determined.
 In championship events they do not even play total points: e. g. if you made 500 points on one hand and went down 400 points on the next hand, you would not have net total of 100 points. Each board is a match in itself and has no relation to any other board. If you were playing in a timetable section and your plus 500 score was the best score made by anyone on that board, you would receive top score and would be awarded one match point for each score that your score bet tered. In this case you would re- ceive eight match points. The pair with the greatest number of match points is declared the winner.
 Duplicate bridge brings out sacrifice bidding: e. g. we will say on board No. North and South bid for game in no trump. If 1t were al auction they could make game with 30 aces which would give them plus score of 1855 and would give you 2 minus score of 1S5. It might be more profitable for you to bid four hearts or four spades and 1T you could manage to only go down two tricks with simple honors, you would only be minus ITO points on that hand. and therefore you would nave a better score than any other par that allowed their opponents 70 make game in no trump for score of 1855.
 Ton can we'll realize the neces- sity of getting into the right suit becoming quite problem Tn duplicate bridge: e. 2. In auction YOU might find a hand that would make either four shades or TOUT hearts. We will say that both had simple honors. Playing the hand at hearts, you would be plus 1S7. while if you played II at spades you would be plus 19l' All of these little things go tn maKe dunIicate bridge very interesting.
 Replay bridge. while in the true sense of the word a memory game. makes a, very interesting contest TOT the home. and Tn q later article thf writer will .dcscrihe his type of con est
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