Duplicate Bridge

Duplicate bridge is the most widely used form of bridge used in tournament settings, and is also played in many bridge clubs. It is called "duplicate" because the same bridge hand is played multiple times, using boards to keep and pass each player's hand intact.

Like all other card games, the score in bridge depends on one's cards. To diminish this effect, and increase the element of skill, in duplicate bridge a player's score is not looked at on its own, but compared to that of others who played the same deals.

In duplicate bridge, a player normally plays with the same partner throughout an event. The two are known as a "pair". There are two exceptions: on team events with five or six members swapping partners for portions of the event, and in individual tournaments, in which players change partners for each round.

Duplicate bridge has the advantage of compensating for a run of bad luck. A pair which has received bad cards all night may still have the high score for the evening, so long as they play those cards better than the other pairs with the same cards.