Duplicate Events

Duplicate events in Trickster Cards minimize the impact of random chance on results. By having every table in each round of an event play the same deals, the outcome is determined by who can play their cards better instead of which cards they were dealt.

Scoring

For each deal, players compare their score delta (their score minus their opponent’s score) to whoever is playing from the same seat at other tables. They earn 1 match point for anyone they outscore, and ½ a match point for those they tie. Players are then ranked by who earned the most total match points in the event.

Duration

The length of a duplicate event is determined by choosing roughly how many deals should be played (either ~15 for a short event or ~25 for a standard one). Trickster Cards automatically determines the number of rounds and number of deals per round based on the number of players in the event. For example, if you play ~25 deals with 16 players, you’ll get 7 rounds of 4 deals each – for a total of 28 deals in the event.

Seating Movements

Generally, events with 28 or fewer players are played as single-winner events, unless forced to be multi-winner. In single-winner events, players play from different seats each round. Seats are assigned so players (1) play against all opponents once and (2) get compared with all opponents for match points an equal number of times (or as close to it as possible if there are an odd number of tables).

In multi-winner events, players play from the same seat each round (and only compare against other pairs playing from the same seats). Seats are assigned so players play all opponents playing in the opposite direction once. The results will have two brackets, one for the NS pairs and another for the EW pairs.

Deals/Boards

Regardless of seating, deals are played simultaneously across all tables in an event (also known as a “barometer” event). This allows for partial event results to be displayed after each round.

Limits

Trickster Cards currently supports duplicate events for 2v2 games with “same partners all rounds.” This includes Duplicate Bridge along with all our games except Oh Hell.