Customer Reviews

Imperial Duplicate Bridge Boards-Orange

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

These are standard duplicate bridge boards used in most duplicate bridge tournaments. They have various colors (some pretty ugly) to distinguish among multiple simultaneous sections (A, B, C, etc.). They do serve the purpose. However, they are neither nice nor very sturdy. They tend to split horizontally after few years of HEAVY use from constant pressure of placing and removing the cards, especially those swollen old ones. This, however, should not be a big concern, unless you are running a professional bridge club with daily games.

For small games or for use at home, there are much nicer boards out there, but one needs to make an effort to find them online (search for "aluminum duplicate boards" - we found ours on a Canadian web site canadianbridgesupplies, one can get them also on Vince Oddy's site). Metal boards last longer and they have felt backing to protect table finish from scratches. However, metal boards do not come in so many colors and are definitely much more expensive (be ready to pay $300+ for a set of 36). Try Etsy or ebay or craigslist for bargains. Vintage brands include J-R Official and FoxCraft Company (different design).

These boards can be enhanced by applying red self sticking inserts indicating one or both vulnerable direction(s) and visible when cards are taken out (sold separately). Some nicer boards already have red baked-on enamel inside, which is more durable.

For large bridge clubs one needs more than 32 boards, so you have to buy more than one set and renumber them starting with 33 - not very cost efficient. Occasionally you can get a set of 4 boards to complement your set of 32. Watch out though, not every 4-board set is equivalent, they run in cycles of 16 boards due to vulnerability combined with the dealer position. Some sites sell sets of 36 boards of the same kind (i.e., Imperial plastic). Beware that if you run two boards per round game the overall speed is much slower than the games with three or more boards per round. However, when you have N tables you would need Nx3 boards, thus for 13 tables even 36 board set would be insufficient. To expand the set of 36 boards to 40, you'd need boards 5-8 rather than 1-4.

BTW: Cards are not included. Make sure you buy standard bridge cards (2.25" x 3.5"), since their size is different from poker cards (which are 1/4" wider). Some casino issued cards are too small and easily fall out while flipping or carrying the boards. We just experienced this mess on a Princess cruise ship with their own brand cards.

Also, you need at least two designs of the card decks to alternate colors of consecutive boards to avoid mixing up cards from different boards/decks. More colors is better, as it makes boards more error proof (people often put cards back in a wrong board) and more cheating proof - players cannot keep/borrow a card from the previous board.

Added Aug. 18, 2011: Baron Barclay Bridge Supplies (the official store of American Contract Bridge League and Amazon Market vendor) actually carries two types of plastic boards (Imperial and New Generation) and sells them in separate batches by four (1-4, 5-8, etc.), in sets of 1-32, and in sets of 1-36. The New Generation Duplicate Boards have more colors available (12) and they lock when stacked only in the proper position, but they are more expensive. I do not understand why these options are not available here on Amazon (same vendor). Also, you may get some freebies when you order directly from Baron Barclay.

Bridge Buddy dot net is a competitor carrying yet different design of plastic boards (Easy Read), which can be opened to place or remove cards after/for shuffling.

Three stars for lower quality and lack of options in board counts and colors. If they offer only one count, it should be 36.