The Mechanics and Equipment of Duplicate Play
What makes duplicate different from rubber bridge, and the minimal equipment a new club needs to run a game.
Duplicate bridge differs from rubber or party bridge so that identical deals can be played at several tables, letting players' relative skill be compared. This article covers the basic mechanics and the equipment a new club needs. See Mechanics for Duplicate Clubs with Small Games.
How a deal is handled#
Each deal is stored in a board (tray) with four pockets, one per player, each holding that player's 13 cards. Decks are shuffled and dealt once at the start; the hands are then kept intact and passed from table to table so every table plays the identical cards.
During play the cards are not gathered into tricks in the center. Each player keeps their own 13 cards, laying them in a row in front of them in the order played — pointed lengthwise toward partner for tricks won and toward the opponents for tricks lost. At the end it is easy to count tricks; the cards then go back in their pockets ready for the next table.
Each board shows a number, an arrow marking which way it sits on the table, the dealer (first bidder), and the vulnerability. Every board is scored as a separate unit — there are no rubbers, no partscore carryover, and honors do not count.
Equipment#
The main item is a set of duplicate boards with a deck in each. A full set is 36 boards, but a newly formed group will find 20 to 22 boards per session convenient at the start and can grow later.
Only two scoring forms are needed: a pad of traveling scores and a pad of recap sheets. Numbered table cards can be bought or improvised on plain cards. Nothing more is needed to run a Mitchell game; guide cards for more complex movements (Howell, Three-Quarter) can be purchased when the club is ready.