How Much Is Each Bridge Contract Worth in Duplicate Scoring?

How to Read the Scoring Chart

Bridge scoring looks intimidating at first, but it rests on a simple idea: you score for what you bid and make, and you are penalised for what you fail. Everything else is detail layered on top of that principle. Work through the tables once with a real contract in mind and the structure quickly becomes clear.

Step one: the trick score

Start with the value of the contract itself. Count only the tricks you contracted for: that is, the tricks above six (the “book”). A contract of 4♠ is for ten tricks, six of book plus four; those four spade tricks score 30 each, for 120 trick points. A contract of 3NT scores 40 for the first trick and 30 for each of the other two, totalling 100. Notice that 100 is the magic number: any contract worth 100 or more trick points is a game, which is why 3NT, 4♥, 4♠, 5♣ and 5♦ are the game contracts and a major-suit or notrump game is so much easier to reach than a minor-suit one.

Step two: add the bonus

Next, add the appropriate bonus from table 2. If your trick score reached game, you collect 300 not vulnerable or 500 vulnerable. If it did not: a partscore such as 2♥ for 60: you collect just 50. Slams add a further large bonus on top of the game bonus, which is why bidding and making a slam is so rewarding: 6♠ making is 180 in tricks, plus the 500 game bonus, plus a 500 small-slam bonus, for 980 not vulnerable. Vulnerability roughly doubles the stakes, raising both the rewards for success and the cost of failure.

Step three: overtricks, doubles and penalties

Overtricks: tricks beyond the contract: score at the rate in table 3, modest when undoubled but substantial when doubled and vulnerable. When a contract is doubled, the trick score itself doubles (which can push a doubled partscore up to game), and making it earns a 50-point “insult” bonus. The flip side is table 4: when a contract fails, the defenders score penalty points per undertrick, rising steeply when the contract was doubled and vulnerable. This is the arithmetic behind the sacrifice: sometimes deliberately going down in a doubled contract costs fewer points than letting the opponents make their game.

Duplicate, matchpoints and IMPs

The figures here are the raw scores used in duplicate bridge. How those raw scores are then compared depends on the event. In matchpoint pairs scoring, you are ranked against every other pair who played the same board, so small differences: an extra overtrick, choosing notrump over a minor: can matter as much as a game swing. In team events scored by IMPs (International Match Points), raw score differences are converted to a compressed scale, so bidding vulnerable games and avoiding big penalties matters most. Either way, the raw score from these tables is the starting point. For the bidding judgement that decides which contracts to aim for, see our bridge bidding guide and slam bidding; to learn the mechanics of play and scoring from scratch, start with bridge scoring explained.

IMP Scoring: The Team Game Scale

In team events, raw score differences are converted to International Match Points (IMPs) using a fixed scale. The IMP scale compresses large point differences and emphasises bidding games and slams over chasing overtricks. Here is the conversion table every team player should know.

What the IMP scale means in practice

The IMP scale rewards getting the key decisions right rather than squeezing out overtricks. A vulnerable game swing (say 620 vs −100) is a 720-point difference worth 12 IMPs, a major swing. An overtrick in a part-score (say 140 vs 110) is only 30 points, worth 1 IMP. This is why experienced team players will often take a safe line in a slam rather than try for an extra trick, and why bidding a thin but makeable game is so important in teams even when you would pass it in matchpoints.

IMPs also change how you defend. Letting through a doubled contract that costs 800 when you could have made 620 the other way is a 1420-point difference, worth 16 IMPs. That kind of catastrophe focuses the mind on safe defence rather than trying for the set.

Matchpoints: How Your Raw Score Becomes a Result

In a pairs event (the most common club format), raw scores are converted to matchpoints after the session. For each board, your North-South score is ranked against every other North-South score on that same board. The pair with the best result receives a top, the pair with the worst receives a bottom, and everyone else is ranked in between.

The most common formula: if N pairs play the board, the top is 2(N−1). If eight pairs play Board 5 and you score better than six of them, you receive 12 match points out of a maximum of 14. Your final percentage for the session is your total match points divided by the maximum possible.

Why matchpoints change your strategy

In matchpoints, every board carries equal weight. Whether you win a board by 10 points or by 200 points, you receive the same top score. This means chasing overtricks is rational when the contract is safe, and that bidding a risky game which most pairs will also reach gets you average anyway whether it makes or not. The goal is to beat the other pairs holding your cards, not simply to make your contract.

Understanding this distinction is one of the things that separates experienced duplicate players from those coming over from rubber bridge. In rubber bridge, making your contract is the goal; an overtrick is a bonus. In matchpoints, one extra trick can be the difference between a top and an average.

For a deeper comparison of the two formats, see Rubber Bridge vs Duplicate Bridge.

Worked Scoring Examples

The tables above are reference tools, but scoring clicks into place fastest when you work through real hands. Here are three common situations with the arithmetic shown.