How to Score at Matchpoints

Question: We would love to know how on earth the scoring works. Sometimes we get a percentage even when we do not play but defend...what is that about?
Answer: Your percentage on the board is basically the number of pairs you beat on the board divided by the total number of pairs that you could possibly beat.

So if there are a total of 9 N/S pairs that played the board the total number of pairs you can beat is 8. (You are one of those 9 pairs and you can't beat yourself.) Simply count up the number of pairs that you scored more points than. Maybe that answer is 5. On that one board you got more points than 5 other pairs. (It doesn't matter if you play the hand or if you defend the hand. At the end you either get positive points or negative points.) So your score on that board is 5/8=63%.

Still don't get it? Let's head back to a much simpler time...

You young whippersnappers that are taking up the game nowadays have your score magically appear to you each round through the wonders of a computer. Back when I was a kid we had to do this stuff manually. We had these little pieces of paper we called "travellers" that we had to fill out with a pencil or pen. (Yes, we had to write! It was good for us. We practiced our penmanship.)

Okay, enough about the good old days. It is just easier how to explain how the scoring works using the good old fashioned traveller.

Here is an example of what a blank traveller looks like:

N/S Pair	E/W Pair	Contract	By	Result	N/S Score	E/W Score	N/S Matchpoints	E/W Matchpoints
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

Room for the pair numbers, room for the contract, the result, the points, everything you could possibly need. Sometimes we even had a section to write down what the lead was. That was good.

But it was a bit of work for us. We now had to fill in all this information manually.

The N/S Pair was already filled in for everyone. Let's say this is the traveller for Board 1. Each board gets its own traveller. Board 1 in a normal movement is played by N/S Pair 1 and E/W Pair 1. Say on this board N played in 2♠ and took 8 tricks. They would get 110 points for this. Here is how the first line of the traveller would look:

N/S Pair	E/W Pair	Contract	By	Result	N/S Score	E/W Score	N/S Matchpoints	E/W Matchpoints
1	1	2S	N	M	110

North would fill in the traveller and then hand it over to the E/W pair for confirmation. Once they nodded their approval the slip would be folded up and put into the board so it could travel along from table to table.

Soon the round would be over and things would have to change. In a normal duplicate movement the people get older and the boards get younger. That means that the E/W pairs would all move up to a higher table. N/S pairs stay at the same table in a normal movement. So if the E/W pairs are moving up to table 2 obviously the boards can't also go to table 2. Then the E/W pair would just play the same boards over and over again. The boards get younger. That means they go to the table lower in number. However table 1 is the lowest numbered table. From table 1 the boards go the the highest table. In this example there are 9 tables in play. The boards go to table 9.

Since we are following this board 1 we will see what happens in round 2. At table 9 the N/S pair is 9 and the E/W pair should be 8. The first round they started at table 8 and the next round they were supposed to move to a higher table. Table 9. So round 2 N/S pair 9 should play against E/W pair 8 and they will be playing board 1. On this board N was pretty aggressive and bid 4♠. The opponents got off to a bad lead and allowed N to make the contract. That means that N/S get 420 points. Here is how that line was filled out.

N/S Pair	E/W Pair	Contract	By	Result	N/S Score	E/W Score	N/S Matchpoints	E/W Matchpoints
9	8	4S	N	M	420

Following the board again to the third round. Here S miscounted their hand and didn't open the bidding. No one else could. The board was passed out. Here's how that looks.

N/S Pair	E/W Pair	Contract	By	Result	N/S Score	E/W Score	N/S Matchpoints	E/W Matchpoints
8	6	Pass

Note that in duplicate if a hand is passed out you are not allowed to redeal the hand. Even in the first round. ESPECIALLY in any other round.

So the board continues on and at the end you get something like this:

N/S Pair	E/W Pair	Contract	By	Result	N/S Score	E/W Score	N/S Matchpoints	E/W Matchpoints
1	1	2S	N	M	110
2	3	2H	W	2		110
3	5	2S	N	3	140
4	7	4S	N	-2		100
5	9	3S	N	+2	200
6	2	3S	N	-1		50
7	4	3H*	W	-2	300
8	6	Pass
9	8	4S	N	M	420
10
11
12

To be fair it wasn't always that nice looking. Sometimes the pair numbers were wrong. Sometimes the score would be put in the wrong column. Directors in the olden days had to notice and correct all these problems manually.

Now let's get to the scoring.

Matchpoint scoring reminds me of the bear in the woods joke. Here's the joke: Two men are walking along in the woods. Suddenly they come upon a bear. One of the men immediately takes off running. The other man screams after him, "What are you doing buddy?! You can't outrun a bear!" His friend screams back, "I don't HAVE to outrun the bear -- I just have to outrun YOU!"

Perfect! This is matchpoints. You do NOT have to bid correctly, you do NOT have to play the hand correctly, you do NOT have to make your contract, you do NOT have to outrun the bear. But you DO have to outrun your friends. You DO have to do better than the other players who played the same hand you did. So if you are down 3 in your contract this might not be bad. Maybe everyone else is down 4. If you fail to bid a slam but take 12 tricks maybe this isn't bad. Maybe no one else even bid the game. Who knows?

At matchpoints you don't get points for the result you got on the board. You get your points (called matchpoints) for the number of pairs you beat (or outrun) on the board. So for every pair you beat on the board you get 1 matchpoint. For every pair you tie on the board you get half a matchpoint. Matchpoints are what you want. In this game since the board was played 9 times the highest award given to the N/S pairs for each board would be 8 matchpoints. The most number of pairs they can beat is 8. (Only nine pairs in total and they can't beat themselves!) Same with the E/W pairs. The best the E/W pairs can get is 8 matchpoints. But that is just on the one board. Normally at least 24 boards are played. The N/S have a winner their way and the E/W have a winner their way. They get scored separately.

So back to the traveller.

N/S pair 9 did the best. They were the ones bidding and making 4♠. So in the N/S Matchpoints column the director would put an 8. This tells everyone they beat 8 other pairs. Count them up to see.

N/S Pair	E/W Pair	Contract	By	Result	N/S Score	E/W Score	N/S Matchpoints	E/W Matchpoints
1	1	2S	N	M	110
2	3	2H	W	2		110
3	5	2S	N	3	140
4	7	4S	N	-2		100
5	9	3S	N	+2	200
6	2	3S	N	-1		50
7	4	3H*	W	-2	300
8	6	Pass
9	8	4S	N	M	420		8
10
11
12

N/S pair 7 did the next best. They managed to double (that's what that star is beside the 3H contract) E/W in ♥ and put it down 2 for 300 points their way. They get 7 matchpoints for that.

So you see here it doesn't matter that N/S didn't get to play the hand. They just defended. But they did well to double the contract and put the contract down two tricks.

Filling in the traveller for the N/S Pairs you would get this:

N/S Pair	E/W Pair	Contract	By	Result	N/S Score	E/W Score	N/S Matchpoints	E/W Matchpoints
1	1	2S	N	M	110		4
2	3	2H	W	2		110	0
3	5	2S	N	3	140		5
4	7	4S	N	-2		100	1
5	9	3S	N	+2	200		6
6	2	3S	N	-1		50	2
7	4	3H*	W	-2	300		7
8	6	Pass					3
9	8	4S	N	M	420		8
10
11
12

This is fairly straightforward when N/S get the points. But when it comes to a passed out board or E/W points it's a little more challenging to understand. So let's look at that more closely.

On the board that was passed out N/S didn't get any points BUT they also did not give their opponents any points. Three N/S pairs gave E/W points because they either bid too high or let E/W play in ♥ making.

So the N/S pair that passed out the board beat 3 other pairs. They get a 3.

The N/S pair that went down 1 didn't get a good result but they still beat 2 other pairs. Another N/S pair went down 2 and yet another let their opponents play in 2♥ making. This N/S pair get a 2 for beating these 2 pairs.

The N/S pair that went down 2 didn't get a good result but they still beat the pair that let their opponents play in 2♥ making. This N/S pair get a 1 for beating that pair.

Finally the N/S pair that allowed W to play in 2♥ making gets a zero. They gave more points to their opponents than any other N/S pair.

Once that scoring is done you need to score on the E/W side. Now you look at things from the E/W point of view.

Here it is easy to tell that the E/W pair that played in 2♥ making should get an 8. They got more points than any other E/W pair. Most E/W pairs let N/S play in ♠.

So let's fill in the traveller with the E/W results also.

N/S Pair	E/W Pair	Contract	By	Result	N/S Score	E/W Score	N/S Matchpoints	E/W Matchpoints
1	1	2S	N	M	110		4	4
2	3	2H	W	2		110	0	8
3	5	2S	N	3	140		5	3
4	7	4S	N	-2		100	1	7
5	9	3S	N	+2	200		6	2
6	2	3S	N	-1		50	2	6
7	4	3H*	W	-2	300		7	1
8	6	Pass					3	5
9	8	4S	N	M	420		8	0
10
11
12

I'd like to tell you that the director used to slave away calculating the E/W results also but they didn't. The matchpoints for N/S and E/W will always add up to the total matchpoints available on the board. So once you've done the matchpoints for N/S just take 8 (the total matchpoints available on each board) and subtract the N/S matchpoints to get the matchpoint scores for E/W.

At the end of the game the director would add up all your matchpoints from all your boards and give you a result. The pair with the highest number of matchpoints would win. The best score you could possible get is equal to the number of boards times the maximum number of matchpoints available on each board. So say I played 9 rounds with 3 boards played each round (9x3=27 boards played) and the matchpoint top was 8 just like in this example. My best result possible would be 27x8 which is 216. So say we took all my matchpoints from each of the boards I played and they added up to 124. My percentage is then 124/216=57.4%.

The directors had to do all this manually. They would have to calculate the scores for each individual board and each pair and then add up the results for all the pairs. Then do a percentage for each pair. It was quite a bit of math. But you can understand how it kept them entertained. Nowadays all that work is done by the computer. This is why sometimes you need to keep them entertained with director calls every now and again.

As for the percentage needed to win the game that depends. I remember everyone getting excited when I was a newer player because I had a game that scored over 70%. I was used to marks at school and a 72% in math was a pretty bad result for me so I was pretty unimpressed. However bridge is different. A 70% game is rare. Even a 60% game is very good. You tend to win with high 50's. But everything is relative. I've come second with a 70% game because someone else had a 72% game. I've won games with 53.7% because most others ranged from about 47 to 53%. You really just have to do better than anyone else.

As for the board percentage it works the same way.
If a top on the board is 8 and you beat 6 other pairs you get 75% on that board. 6/8=75%.
If a top on the board is 5 and you beat 3 other pairs you get 60% on that board. 3/5=60%.
If a top on the board is 7 and you beat all 7 pairs you get 100% on that board. 7/7=100%.
If a top on the board is 4 and you didn't get more points than anyone else you get 0% on that board. 0/4=0%.