A bridge contest is often advertised as “
stratified
” but many players do not know exactly what that means. Stratification simply means that at the end of the game, your score is compared with the scores of the other pairs with a similar masterpoint holding to yours for purposes of awarding masterpoints (those pairs are said to be in the same “
strat
”).
In an
OPEN
game (one big game for everybody) the
C
strat
is usually limited to only those pairs who have fewer than 750 masterpoints. The
B strat
is composed of pairs
who have fewer than 2000 masterpoints. The
A
strat
is unlimited and open to everyone.
Notice that those in the C strat are also members of the B and A strat and those in the B strat are also members of the A strat
(but not the
C strat
since they have more than 750).
Because the
C
pairs
are members of all three strats, they have 3 chances to win masterpoints!! The
B pairs
have two chances to win points. The
A pairs
only have one chance.
One other thing to remember is that if a pair is composed of two players who qualify for different strats (say, one player has 300 MP and the other has 1200 MP), the pair is
usually ranked in the higher strat. In the example just given, the pair would be in the
B
stat
. (for special events, such as STaC, the masterpoint average of the pair may be used)
Notice that everyone plays against everyone else regardless of which strat they are in.
A pairs
play against
B and C pairs
as well as other
A pairs
. The director tries makes sure that about half of the
A pairs
are playing North/South and half of them are playing East/West. The same goes for the
B pairs
and
C
pairs
. This is called “
balancing the field
.” That way the
C pairs
play against half of the
B pairs
and half of the
A pairs
. This is true for a Mitchell movement - where North-South are stationary. In a Howell movement the field is usually 'self-balancing' (unless there are multiple stationary pairs).
At the end of the game when all the scores are in, the computer ranks the
A strat
first (remember that everyone is in the
A strat
). After that, it goes back and ranks all those in the
B
strat
(again, remember that the
C
pairs are also in the
B strat
). Finally, it goes back and then ranks the
C
strat
. So it is possible for a pair to be first in
A
, first in
B
, and first in
C
. Any game can be stratified.
Whenever the CBC runs any limited game (there is an upper limit for players based on their masterpoint holding) The Director will divide the field into 3 strats. Thus, the strat you fall in will vary depending on the game masterpoint limit. In a 0-300 game, the three strats are usually as follows:
Strat A
is everyone playing in the game.
Strat B
is limited to those holding fewer than 100 MP’s and
Strat C
is limited to those with fewer than 50 MP’s. Don’t forget, though, that everyone in the
C strat
is automatically qualified to win overall in all three strats - and
Strat B
is qualified to win in the two upper strats - just like in the OPEN game..
The masterpoint awards are always higher in the
A strat
than in the
B and C strats
since, in theory, that competition is stronger. The awards in the
B strat
are lower than in the
A strat
but higher than in the
C strat
.
