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I understand how duplicate bridge works, but I'm still missing one small conceptual part of the scoring, being the outcome when a deal is passed out. Is the score for that hand just assumed to be 0 for both sides, making it identical to a hand that happened to have a 0 score?
What happens if some tables play the hand and score highly where others just don't play it since they all passed? Are certain measure taken in the creation of the hands to avoid deals that are likely to be passed out?
I understand how duplicate bridge works, but I'm still missing one small conceptual part of the scoring, being the outcome when a deal is passed out. Is the score for that hand just assumed to be 0 for both sides
Yes. Why would there be an exception? Passing out the hand is a perfectly valid way to play it.
making it identical to a hand that happened to have a 0 score?
There are no other ways to have a 0 (raw) score.
What happens if some tables play the hand and score highly where others just don't play it since they all passed?
The usual rules for converting score to matchpoints (or team IMPs, if you use those) apply.
Are certain measure taken in the creation of the hands to avoid deals that are likely to be passed out?
No. It's not a TD's responsibility to speculate on how a hand is likely to be played before play occurs.
In tournaments, certainly, a passed hand is treated like any other; both pairs get a zero score. But in some (NB not all) of those clubs where the hands are dealt at the first table rather than set up by the TD, it is the convention to re-deal a hand that is passed out the first time, on the grounds that it's likely to be passed out every time, and so give everybody the same score. Of course, this alters the play at subsequent tables: before you pass out, you have to consider that somebody at the first table did bid on one of these hands. So it's only used in friendly club evenings.
(FWIW, I am opposed to this variant: I reckon on a small but reliable bonus from simply passing bad hands, and letting the rival pairs go down after trying out their gadgets)
If a hand is passed out, every team that passes it out gets a 0 raw score. These players will also get the same matchpoint score as other teams sitting in the same seats (East-West, or North-South) with a 0 score.
There is the likelihood that SOME pair(s) will play out the deal. Then they will get a higher or lower matchpoint score than average, depending on high they do relative to 0.
In reality a passed out deal on the first round should not be reshuffled and redealt. The reason it is done is that people pay table-money to play in a tournament and want to play the requisite number of boards with card-play as well as bidding.
Therefore people feel "ripped off" if a board gets passed out.
In a duplicate pairs contest, a board that is passed out will score 0 for both sides and will therefore you will beat any pairs going minus with your cards and lose to any going plus. If the scoring is match-points, this will determine where you are placed in the field, just as with any other board.
I disagree with all the above comments. Duplicate Bridge is all about bidding and achieving the best possible result from a hand. There are situations where passing (not playing a hand) is more prudent than risking a bid and going down. So, therefore, a passed out hand in my club gets a marginally higher score than zero. On the traveler, we record 1 point in both the north/south and east/west score. The matchpoints will then indicate that a "1 score" beats a "0 score". I know this is not the way it is done in competition but it works for us.
