What every number on SmartTable means, in plain words, with a short video for each measure.
Every measure on SmartTable starts from one question: how did your result compare with everyone else who played the same cards?
Cross-IMP: how your result stacks up against everyone else who played the same board.
On this board, you bid 6♦, got doubled, and made it: +1540. Great! But how good was it, really?
That depends on what everyone else did with the same cards. Here are eleven other tables that played this board. Some sacrificed in 6♠ doubled, some let the opponents make 5♠, and one bid a grand slam that went down.
We compare your +1540 with each of those tables, one at a time, and turn every difference into IMPs.
Then we take the average. The eleven swings add up to +163. Divide by 11, and you get +14.8. That's your Cross-IMP on this board.
Positive means you beat the field on that board. Negative means the field did better. And every other SmartTable measure starts from this one number.
Your result on a board against everyone else who played it in your direction.
Your score is compared with every other table in the field, one at a time, and each difference is turned into IMPs. The average of those swings is your Cross-IMP on that board. Positive means you beat the field, negative means the field did better.
Relative Cross-IMP: your result, adjusted for how strong your opponents were.
Cross-IMP compares you with the field, but it doesn't care who you were actually playing against. On this board, your opponents bid 6NT and made it. Most of the field did the same, so your Cross-IMP is only −0.2.
Now, these opponents averaged +0.6 IMPs per board across the whole event. That's one of the strongest teams in the room.
Relative Cross-IMP simply adds the two together. −0.2, plus 0.6, gives you +0.4.
So against strong opponents, a small loss can still be a good result. And against weak ones, a small win might not be.
Cross-IMP, adjusted for how strong your opponents were.
Your Cross-IMP on the board plus your opponents’ own average Cross-IMP over the event. A small loss against one of the strongest pairs in the room can still be a good result, and a small win against a weak pair may not be.
Your final score mixes the contract, the opening lead and the play. To judge the auction alone, we take the play out of the picture with a double-dummy solver: the result if all four hands were visible and everyone played perfectly from that point on.
Bidding Value: judging your auction on its own, before anyone plays a card.
Your final score mixes three things: the contract you bid, the opening lead, and how the cards were played. To judge just the auction, we take the play out of the picture.
Here's how. We ask a double-dummy solver: if all four hands were visible, and everyone played perfectly from here on, how many tricks would this contract take?
Before Lead swaps every table's result, yours and the whole field's, for that perfect-play result right after the auction. On this board, you bid 6♥. With perfect defence, it goes one down: −100. Most of the field stopped in game, worth +650.
Compare that with the field, the usual Cross-IMP way, and your auction is worth −9.6 IMPs. On paper, your slam was a bad bet.
After Lead does the same thing, one step later: right after each table's actual opening lead. Your opponents led a spade, and that gave the slam its twelfth trick: +1430. Your value jumps to +9.2.
And Actual is plain Cross-IMP: bidding, lead and play, exactly as they happened. Here it's +6.8, partly because one table collected +2000 from 5♠ doubled.
So, Before Lead judges the auction. After Lead adds the opening lead. And Actual adds the play. The gaps between them show you where your IMPs came from.
How good your contract was, before anyone played a card.
Every table’s result, yours and the whole field’s, is replaced by the perfect-play result right after the auction, then compared the Cross-IMP way. That is pure contract selection.
The same, one step later: the contract plus the actual opening lead.
Every table’s result is replaced by the perfect-play result right after that table’s real opening lead. The gap to Before Lead shows what the lead gave or took away.
Nothing replaced: bidding, lead and play exactly as they happened.
This is plain Cross-IMP. The gaps between Before Lead, After Lead and Actual show where your IMPs came from.
How well you played the hand once the opening lead was on the table. Only the boards you declared yourself count, not your partner’s.
Declaring: how well you played the hand once the opening lead was on the table.
You're declaring 6♠. After the opening lead, a double-dummy solver says perfect play takes 12 tricks, worth +1430. And you took all 12.
Potential Declaring IMPs compares your result with your own perfect-play ceiling. +1430 against +1430: nothing was left on the table, so it's zero.
But zero doesn't tell you how hard that was. Declaring Value compares you with real declarers instead. Not the whole field, just your peers: tables in the same contract, with the same doubling, and the same double-dummy tricks after their own opening lead. Everyone else is left out.
Here, ten tables are your peers. Six made the slam like you did, and four went down. So your Declaring Value on this board is +6.8. With no peers at all, SmartTable shows Potential Declaring IMPs instead.
Potential Declaring IMPs asks: did you take everything that was there? Declaring Value asks: did you do as well as others with the same problem?
You against declarers who had exactly the same problem.
Your real result against your peers’ real results: tables in the same contract, with the same doubling, and the same number of double-dummy tricks after their own opening lead. Everyone else is left out. If a board has no peers, Potential Declaring IMPs is shown instead.
Did you take everything that was there after the lead?
Your result against your own perfect-play ceiling after the real opening lead. It is about your own execution, not a comparison with other players. In a matchpoint event it is shown as a percentage (Potential Declaring %).
What your opening lead was really worth, in theory and in practice.
Opening Lead: what your lead was really worth.
Back to that 6♥ slam, now from the other side of the table. The opponents are in 6♥, and you're on lead. Before the lead, perfect play gives declarer only 11 tricks: one down.
You lead ♠3. From then on, we let both sides play double dummy, perfectly, so the only thing that changes is your lead. After it, declarer takes 12 tricks. Your lead turned +100 into −1430. Lost Opening Lead IMPs is −17.
Opening Lead Value looks at what happened in practice. Your peers are the defenders in the field who led against the same final contract, 6♥. Tables in a different contract, or doubled, are left out.
Three of your four peers also led a spade, and the slam made at all of them. Only one led a club, and beat it. So your Opening Lead Value is −4.3.
Lost Opening Lead IMPs judges your lead against perfect play. Opening Lead Value judges it against your peers: real players on lead against the same contract.
Your lead against the other players on lead against the same contract.
Your real result against the real results of the defenders in the field who led against the same final contract on the board. Tables in a different contract are left out.
What your lead cost against the best possible lead.
The perfect-play result right after the auction compared with the perfect-play result right after your actual lead. It isolates the lead card from the bidding before it and the play after it. Negative means the lead gave something away.
Leads that gave declarer a gift, and whether declarer took it.
A non-optimal lead is one that gave up value against the best lead. Punished means the result, lead and play included, ended below what the best lead would have held declarer to.
How the whole defence went, the opening lead included, on every board you defended.
Defending: how the whole defence went, opening lead included.
Another slam. The opponents bid 6♠. With perfect defence from the very first card, declarer takes only 11 tricks, and goes one down.
At your table, though, declarer made all 12. 6♠ made, vulnerable: −1430 for your side.
Missed Opportunities compares what actually happened with that perfect defence: −1430 instead of +100. That's 17 IMPs the defence left behind somewhere, the lead included.
Defending Value compares you with your peers: the pairs in the field who defended the same final contract on this board. Unlike Declaring Value, it doesn't matter which lead they chose, because the lead is part of the defence.
But beating this slam was hard. Only one of your ten peers did it, with a diamond lead. So your Defending Value is just −1.7: you lost to perfect defence, not to the field. With no one else in the same contract, SmartTable shows Potential Defending IMPs instead.
Missed Opportunities measures your defence against perfect play. Defending Value measures it against your peers.
Your defence against the pairs who defended the same contract.
Your real result against the pairs in the field who defended the same final contract on the board. Unlike Declaring Value, their lead does not have to match yours, because the lead is part of the defence. If no one else defended the same contract, Potential Defending IMPs is shown instead.
What the defence left behind against perfect defence.
Your result against the perfect-defence result from the very first card. Negative means the defence, lead included, fell short somewhere. Missed Defending Opportunities lists those boards, and Lead Optimal? shows whether the lead was part of it.
The labels you can filter by.
Declared, Defended or Passed out.
Declared means you or your partner played the contract, Defended means the opponents did, Passed out means nobody bid.
Your exact role on the board.
Declarer, Dummy, Opening leader or Defender.
Partscore, Game, Small slam or Grand slam.
By the level and the denomination of the final contract.
Seen from your side, not North-South or East-West.
Favourable means the opponents were vulnerable and you were not; Unfavourable is the other way round.
Me, Partner, LHO or RHO.
Which seat, seen from you, made the first call that was not a pass.
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