Board (bridge)
Encyclopedia
In duplicate bridge
, a board is an item of equipment that holds one deal, or one deck of 52 cards distributed in four hands of 13 cards each. The design permits the entire deal of four hands to be passed, carried or stacked securely with the cards hidden from view. This is required for duplicate bridge tournaments, where the same deal is played several times and so the composition of each hand must be preserved during and after each play of each deal. First used in 1891, then called "trays", boards have evolved in shape, size and material to a rectangular shape such as that illustrated; most are now made of plastic, which has replaced metal (usually aluminium) and leather boards formerly used. Most designs include a slot or pocket to hold a paper travelling score sheet.
Each board is usually marked with the following information:
Colloquially, the term board may refer to one deal plus its bidding
and play
. ("Do you remember Board 1?")
When bridge is played online, there are no physical boards, nor physical cards, but the software emulates all of the features of duplicate boards and the unit of the game is commonly called a board.
typically contains 32 boards. (The actual number of boards used in a particular session depends on the type of tournament, the number of tables, and the choice of movement
used. Often some of the higher numbered boards (eg 28 to 32) are not required to be used.) The dealer and vulnerability markings for each board number are standardized in the laws of the game, utilizing all the possible permutation
s. The dealer is rotated clockwise in successively numbered boards. Four combinations of vulnerabilities also change, but they are also shifted circularly
after every 4 boards. Thus, a set of 16 boards has the following markings:
The scheme is repeated in the subsequent sets of 16 (i.e. boards 17-32, 33-48 etc).
s. At the beginning of a session, the cards are distributed to the pockets in one of several ways:
No matter how the boards are prepared, they are not shuffled again during the session, and the cards in all pockets are kept face down. Sometimes, at the end of a session or the beginning of a new session, a card or cards will be placed in the board face up. This indicates that the board has not yet been prepared for the new session.
Apart from the cards, in pairs tournaments and sometimes also in teams tournaments the board also carries a travelling sheet — a paper form where players enter their scores each time the board is played. The board may contain a dedicated pocket for the travelling sheet, or it can be placed in a slot underneath the board.
Duplicate bridge
Duplicate bridge is the most widely used variation of contract bridge in club and tournament play. It is called duplicate because the same bridge deal is played at each table and scoring is based on relative performance...
, a board is an item of equipment that holds one deal, or one deck of 52 cards distributed in four hands of 13 cards each. The design permits the entire deal of four hands to be passed, carried or stacked securely with the cards hidden from view. This is required for duplicate bridge tournaments, where the same deal is played several times and so the composition of each hand must be preserved during and after each play of each deal. First used in 1891, then called "trays", boards have evolved in shape, size and material to a rectangular shape such as that illustrated; most are now made of plastic, which has replaced metal (usually aluminium) and leather boards formerly used. Most designs include a slot or pocket to hold a paper travelling score sheet.
Each board is usually marked with the following information:
- Board number – (usually in the sequence '1' to '32') identifies the deal and helps to order the play of multiple deals;
- Compass directions – used to match the four hands to the four players at a table;
- Dealer – designates which player is the "dealer"; this designates the player who is to make the first call of the auction;
- Vulnerability – (often represented by color code: a "vulnerable" partnership is usually shown in red) designates which of the two partnerships are vulnerable: neither, North–South, West–East, or both.
Colloquially, the term board may refer to one deal plus its bidding
Bidding
Bidding is an offer of setting a price one is willing to pay for something. A price offer is called a bid. The term may be used in context of auctions, stock exchange, card games, or real estate transactions....
and play
Play (activity)
Play is a term employed in ethology and psychology to describe to a range of voluntary, intrinsically motivated activities normally associated with pleasure and enjoyment...
. ("Do you remember Board 1?")
When bridge is played online, there are no physical boards, nor physical cards, but the software emulates all of the features of duplicate boards and the unit of the game is commonly called a board.
Set of boards
A set of boards for duplicate bridgeDuplicate bridge
Duplicate bridge is the most widely used variation of contract bridge in club and tournament play. It is called duplicate because the same bridge deal is played at each table and scoring is based on relative performance...
typically contains 32 boards. (The actual number of boards used in a particular session depends on the type of tournament, the number of tables, and the choice of movement
Duplicate bridge movements
A duplicate bridge movement is a scheme used in a duplicate bridge tournament to arrange which competitors play which opponents when, and which boards they play. The arrangement has to satisfy a number of constraints which often conflict to some extent, and compromises may be required...
used. Often some of the higher numbered boards (eg 28 to 32) are not required to be used.) The dealer and vulnerability markings for each board number are standardized in the laws of the game, utilizing all the possible permutation
Permutation
In mathematics, the notion of permutation is used with several slightly different meanings, all related to the act of permuting objects or values. Informally, a permutation of a set of objects is an arrangement of those objects into a particular order...
s. The dealer is rotated clockwise in successively numbered boards. Four combinations of vulnerabilities also change, but they are also shifted circularly
Circular shift
In combinatorial mathematics, a circular shift is the operation of rearranging the entries in a tuple, either by moving the final entry to the first position, while shifting all other entries to the next position, or by performing the inverse operation...
after every 4 boards. Thus, a set of 16 boards has the following markings:
| Board | Dealer | Vul. | Board | Dealer | Vul. | Board | Dealer | Vul. | Board | Dealer | Vul. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | N | None | 5 | N | N-S | 9 | N | E-W | 13 | N | All | |||
| 2 | E | N-S | 6 | E | E-W | 10 | E | All | 14 | E | None | |||
| 3 | S | E-W | 7 | S | All | 11 | S | None | 15 | S | N-S | |||
| 4 | W | All | 8 | W | None | 12 | W | N-S | 16 | W | E-W |
The scheme is repeated in the subsequent sets of 16 (i.e. boards 17-32, 33-48 etc).
Pockets
A board contains four pockets, each designed to hold thirteen playing cardPlaying card
A playing card is a piece of specially prepared heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic, marked with distinguishing motifs and used as one of a set for playing card games...
s. At the beginning of a session, the cards are distributed to the pockets in one of several ways:
- Shuffle and play – before the start of play, someone removes the cards from all four pockets, shuffles them, deals them into four equal piles, and puts one pile into each pocket. It does not matter which player prepares which board. Often each table receives a number of boards and the players will prepare the different boards simultaneously.
- Predealt – the sponsoring agency has prearranged the cards in the boards, and the boards are given to the players "ready to play".
- Computer dealt – a number of boards are delivered to each table with the instruction to "sort into suits". A player takes each board and sorts the cards into suits and (usually) by rank, and places one suit face up in each pocket. Hand records are distributed to each table showing which cards are to be dealt to each hand. (Such hand records are usually prepared in advance by a computer programComputer programA computer program is a sequence of instructions written to perform a specified task with a computer. A computer requires programs to function, typically executing the program's instructions in a central processor. The program has an executable form that the computer can use directly to execute...
using a pseudorandom number generatorPseudorandom number generatorA pseudorandom number generator , also known as a deterministic random bit generator , is an algorithm for generating a sequence of numbers that approximates the properties of random numbers...
.) The players cooperate in dealing the cards according to the hand record and placing the correct cards in each pocket. Of course, these boards will be passed to another table and never be played by the players preparing them.
No matter how the boards are prepared, they are not shuffled again during the session, and the cards in all pockets are kept face down. Sometimes, at the end of a session or the beginning of a new session, a card or cards will be placed in the board face up. This indicates that the board has not yet been prepared for the new session.
Apart from the cards, in pairs tournaments and sometimes also in teams tournaments the board also carries a travelling sheet — a paper form where players enter their scores each time the board is played. The board may contain a dedicated pocket for the travelling sheet, or it can be placed in a slot underneath the board.
Play
Play of each board proceeds as follows:- The North player positions the board in the centre of the table (perhaps at the top of a stack of boards), making sure that it is correctly oriented so that each player's cards are nearest to him.
- Each player removes the cards from the pocket corresponding to their playing position at the table (i.e. North, East, West or South).
- Each player counts his cards before looking at any card face. The director is summoned if any player does not have exactly thirteen cards.
- The players look at their cards (without showing any card face to any other player at the table) and optionally arranges them in order (eg. by suits) according to personal preference.
- The player designated as the dealer on the board makes the first call.
- The bidding is completed and play proceeds.
- To play to a trick, each player shows a card face or places a card face up on the table in front of him. The cards are not mixed together as they are in rubber bridge trick collection.
- After four cards are played to a trick, each player turns his card face down and places it in a row in front of him, overlapping left to right. If that player's side won the trick, it is placed straight up (pointing towards one's partner); otherwise, it is laid sideways (facing your opponents), so that it is clear how many tricks each side has won at any time. If a player places the card the wrong way, his partner may point out the error.
- After the play, the number of tricks won by each side is agreed, and then each player gathers only his own cards, shuffles them and replaces them face down in the board pocket from which they came. The shuffle ensures that the next player can make no inference from the ordering of the cards in the pocket.
- The travelling scoresheet is removed from its slot, the score and other details for the board are written on the scoresheet by North and checked by East, and the scoresheet is then replaced in its pocket or slot in the board.