We all should understand stratification. It's used in most ACBL games, and allows for three sets of winners.

Each of the three strats is a group of pairs with similar levels of experience, as measured by their Masterpoints. Players in the "A" strat can ONLY win Masterpoints by beating other pairs in their own strat. Players in the "B" strat can win Masterpoints by beating other B pairs and by beating A pairs. Players in the "C" strat can win Masterpoints by beating C pairs, and by beating B pairs, and by beating A pairs.

Its like 3 games in one, but the C Pairs play in all 3 games at once, B Pairs play in 2, and A Pairs in only 1. 

Theoretically, "A" pairs gain nothing by beating people in a lower strat. "B" pairs gain nothing by beating people in the "C" strat. "C" pairs gain something by beating people in A, B, or C strats.

Newcomers sometimes don't "get" who they are competing against in Duplicate Bridge, but it is important to always keep in mind when bidding and playing a hand. You must remember that you are not competing against the people sitting at your table! (This is true whether or not the game is stratified.) In a stratified game, all you have to do is play the cards you get better than others with your experience level do, even if just by a little bit.

Why should we always keep this in mind? One obvious reason is the actual score you get for a hand. Let's say you don't think you can make any more than you have already bid and your opponents have outbid you -- should you bid one more? Think what other people holding your cards will do, remembering that you do not have to "make it" to get a good score. If you go down one and score minus 50, and you think others with your skill level will let the opponents play it and score -110, you win! You could even go down 2 tricks for minus 100 and still win. (Note that this is why people hate the minors -- they don't score very well. You can play 4 diamonds extremely well and score 130, while somebody else is playing one less trick in hearts poorly scoring 140, and beat you. Those 10 points make all the difference.)

The other reason is the way a Matchpoint game is scored as a whole. If you beat every pair at your experience level by a mere 10 points, you get a "top" in your strat. On the other hand, if you go down really bad, say minus 1100, on one board, it's not as much a disaster as it seems -- you'll get a "bottom" whether it's by 10 points or 1100 points, and one bad board will not cost you "the match."

So if you do these things better than others at your skill level, you're going to win in a stratified game just as you would in a separate game. Unfortunately, the Recap, printed at the club and shown on The Daily Recap, combines all the winners together and shows the A winners first. So C winners won't often be at the top of the list, but they won anyway. But once in a while, a C pair beats everybody, and it feels very good! You win 3 times in one game and the extra masterpoints to go along with it.