(no subject)

[themidnightgirl]

Played in a bridge tournament on Friday night. Finished 4th out of 9, despite partner and I not having a very good evening. We were saved by the last board, in which we neither made a bid nor won a single trick. N/S 4H + 3 at our table, everyone else in 6H+1, +13 IMPS to the heroes. Skills of an artist!

Comments

[wildeabandon]

Hah :)

[emperor]

Flawless Victory!

[kht]

Is "well done" an appropriate response here? How many imps do you normally win? *confused*

[themidnightgirl]

Ah, OK, so. In Bridge (all sorts), you get points for bidding and making contracts (eg. bidding Four Hearts, meaning "10 of the 13 tricks with hearts as trumps"). In duplicate bridge (where more than one table plays each hand), that's then compared with all the other pairs that played the same hand in the same direction as you did.

There's two different ways of doing that comparison - MPs and IMPs, depending a bit on what sort of competition it is. In MPs, you get two points for every pair that you did better than, and one point for every pair that did the same, and it doesn't matter how _much_ better you did. In IMPs, your score is compared to the average score (discarding highest and lowest), and that's then converted to a number of IMPs, plus or minus, via a table that effectively means that small differences are magnified, and after you get past a certain point, the rewards get less and less. i.e. for a 20 "bridge" point difference, you get 1 IMP, for 50 - 2, for 100 - 3, but for 200 it's only 5, and for 2000 it's 19.

An example - 4 hearts by North/South, not vulnerable - everyone in the same contract, four tables played it. At tables 1 and 2, it made exactly, for +420 to N/S (In duplicate, because each hand is taken in isolation, you get a "Bonus" for bidding and making a game, in this case, 300 points, on top of the 30 per trick bid and made for a major). At table 3, it made with an overtrick, +450 for N/S. Table 4, however, they went 2 off, for -100 points.

The average for this hand (or "board") is 420 (discarding the +450 and -100, averaging the other two). Table 1 and 2, nobody gets any IMPs. At table 3, N/S get +1 imp (and East/West get -1 imp) because 450 - 420 is 30, which equates to 1 imp. Table 4, however, N/S get -11 Imps, and E/W get +11 Imps (-100 - 420 = 520, which is 11 imps).

Anything more than 10 Imps is a "big swing", as those are the hands that determine the outcome of IMPs matches and tournaments.

Bet you're glad you asked now :)

[kht]

Congratulations on your impish victory, and thanks for the explanation! but I am still confused... this game seems a bit like Mornington Crescent.

Bidding is like guessing how many hands you will win, and you get points if you guess right? Is a contract a bid where you lose points if you guess wrong? Do IMPs stand for Incomprehensible Meta-Points? Does "not vulnerable" mean that you can wear your impervious imp-proof armour to ward off the marauding imps? Do you actually get out your compass and check which way is North?