[jillybean]

Stanza

AI Overview
In duplicate bridge, a "stanza" refers to a set of rounds played with the same board and opponents. It's a way to structure a duplicate bridge session, especially with a large number of tables, dividing the play into smaller, manageable portions. For example, a session might be divided into two stanzas, with players moving between tables within each stanza.

Could someone please explain the use and benefits of this?

[smerriman]

Everyone plays the first half of the boards, then you have a break for lunch where you can chat freely about the hands, before playing the second half.

[pescetom]

I'm puzzled about how this nonsense was even seeded: a group of lines in a poem has no possible coincidence with bridge and Italian bridge players would use 'sala' rather than 'stanza' to identify a room, whether physical or virtual.

[smerriman]

pescetom, on 2025-July-26, 14:49, said:

I'm puzzled about how this nonsense was even seeded: a group of lines in a poem has no possible coincidence with bridge and Italian bridge players would use 'sala' rather than 'stanza' to identify a room, whether physical or virtual.

Stanza has a sporting definition (period / interval into which a sports event is divided).

Used in a bridge context on Wikipedia at least.

[pescetom]

smerriman, on 2025-July-26, 15:15, said:

Stanza has a sporting definition (period / interval into which a sports event is divided).

Used in a bridge context on Wikipedia at least.

So you weren't kidding after all, it's a lunch break movement.
I never heard of this, mea culpa.
Unheard of over here, maybe a US thing.

[jillybean]

Do they actually use Stanza in US/ACBL ?

[mycroft]

I have a two-stanza movement for 3.5 tables. All it does is trade a 4-board sitout for 2 2-board ones, but it's an option. Boards 1-14 go out and are played, then taken off and 15-28 are put out and played.

There are (rare) movements that run in stanzas (I've never run them, but I've seen them). The intent is "all-play-all, where that requires more than a reasonable number of boards without a break". I think there are a few in Groner, and definitely some in Jannersten.

Some movements are "stanza-like", where there is a (director-performed) large change of boards, but not necessarily with a full replacement. The Double-Weave for instance; halfway through, the boards rotate halfway across the room. I have a 6-table team movement where the first 4 rounds are done with pre-duplicated boards, and for the last round, we take the boards off 4-6 and have 1-3 share their boards with the table 3 up (shuffle, unless you have 3 copies made of 31-35; which isn't hard to do if you *know* you're running a 5x5 by round 1).

But if you see "stanza" in a movement file description, it is a movement where, somewhere in the movement, a whole bunch of boards come off and a whole bunch of boards come in.