Bridge Etiquette

Most of this article courtesy of Bridge Bum

Don't forget what your Mother taught you

It is always nice to sit down at a bridge table and play with friendly people. Etiquette is generally defined as conventional requirements as to social behavior. The popularity and universality of the game of bridge relies heavily upon the players being well-mannered and courteous. This attitude towards each and every player is expected and should be maintained at all times. Unfortunately, this is not the case. We are only humans with emotions and we can not be self-disciplined at all times under all circumstances.

We have all met those rude and obnoxious players in our bridge past. No one has ever escaped that certain look, that certain irony in the voice, that gesture which disturbs us emotionally and mentally. It is possible that we have been guilty of doing the same. Perhaps we let our emotions get the better of us, and we simply became rude and obnoxious. If we catch ourselves being less than polite, then that is the time to exercise self-discipline. Take a deep breath, go get ourselves a cup of free coffee, or excuse ourselves and make that trip to the bathroom.

Therefore, if we all make that special effort to be courteous to one and all, perhaps the game, the play and the atmosphere can become more enjoyable for one and all

Table Manners

When dummy lays her hand down, she will usually say, "Good luck, partner." Declarer, upon seeing her hand, will say, "Thank you, partner." In online bridge clubs, you will see these comments shortened to "glp" and "typ." This is just a simple exchange of courtesies intended to maintain partnership harmony. Very serious players dispense with these pleasantries because they prefer focusing 100% at the task at hand, which is OK. If you are into the habit of saying "good luck" and "thank you," though, be sure to do it on every deal, even if you want to strangle partner for his horrendous bidding. Partnerships start breaking down and making more errors when one player decides to be crass and not say "thank you" after his partner lays down an awful dummy. It's also important to not tip the defenders off about your bidding gone awry. If dummy says "good luck" and declarer sighs and shakes his head, the opponents can often make inferences about the deal, and defend better as a result.

At duplicate bridge, it is polite to greet each pair of opponents you face. You are not expected to exchange handshakes and huge grins, but bridge after all is a game and salutations are appropriate. At the end of a round, it is also common for either pair to say "thanks" or "good luck." Only at extremely high-level competitions would you not expect many pleasantries.

During the play of the hand, whether it is regular or tournament bridge, talk is usually kept to a minimum. Declarer can call for cards from dummy, and she, along with the defenders, may claim (to win a surefire, specific number of tricks) at any time. Aside from that, players normally do not chat until the hand is finished. Dummy especially should never say anything to assist declarer. The only thing dummy is allowed to do in tournament bridge is to ask partner if she is void when she fails to follow suit. Dummy is NOT allowed to make or suggest a claim.

When a hand is over, you can compliment any player who did something particularly well, either in the bidding or the play. If you are praising partner, be sure not to overdo it because this may be perceived as gloating (particularly if the opposition made a mistake). It is also considered proper manners to refrain from criticizing partner for some wrong action he took. Squabbling after a hand makes the game less fun for everyone at the table. It also delays the play of the next deal.

Tempo

In bridge, players are not allowed to vary the tempo of their bids and plays in an effort to mislead the opponents. Players should try making their bids and plays in an even tempo whenever possible. Of course, there are times when you have to stop and think about what your next action will be. To purposely pause when you have no problem, however, is wrong. This behavior, sometimes referred to as coffee housing, is highly discouraged in all bridge arenas.

It is also considered unethical in many situations to make a very fast bid or play, indicating that you have no problem at all. For instance, your partner opens 1NT, the next player overcalls 3 (weak), and you take less than a second to pass. Obviously your partner now knows that your hand is very weak, and he may be able to use that information to your side's advantage. This is why intentional pauses are used in tournament bridge. After a jump bid is made by a player's RHO (Right-Hand Opponent), that player is supposed to wait 10 seconds before making a call. We are not saying you must adopt this practice in social bridge, but you should be aware of the times when you should play without pausing, and when you should pause before playing.

There is one suit layout that a new player should be very careful with, and that is when he holds a queen in front of an AJ or KJ tenace in dummy. For example:

Dummy KJ543 Novice Q82

Declarer leads the six toward dummy. Raw novices will take some time to think about playing the queen in this situation. A more experienced novice, on the other hand, might play the two as fast as he can, to pretend he doesn't have any problem. The raw novice is allowed to stop and think about the play if he is genuinely unsure of what to do; the more experienced novice who 'shotguns' the two is being unethical because he is purposely varying his tempo in an attempt to deceive declarer. To repeat, tempo should never be used to try to mislead one's opponents.

Another suit layout that beginners should watch for:

Dummy KJ543 Novice 982

In this diagram we have swapped the nine and the queen. Again declarer leads the six. An unethical player will purposely pause before playing the two, in an attempt to pretend he has the queen. Be careful if you are a beginner and this situation arises. If it does, you are expected to follow suit smoothly. Even a slight break in tempo in a tournament may cause declarer to start screaming for the bridge cops. Whether or not declarer will be overreacting is not the issue. The point is to avoid any chance of a misinterpretation of your intentions. Lastly, there is the topic of tempo when making a bid or a discard. Occasionally a player will slowly and deliberately place a bidding card on the table, usually to make sure partner notices it's a conventional bid. Or, a defender might slowly and deliberately play a card to make sure partner notices a signal. This is not allowed. While bids and plays sometimes require thought, they should not be laid on the table in a way that emphasizes their meaning to partner.

Psyche Bids

Psychic bids, psychs, psyches...these are bids made in an attempt to achieve a good score by misleading the opponents into taking losing actions in the bidding and/or play. Usually, a psych is made on a very weak hand in an effort to convince the opponents they have less combined strength than they really do. On rare occasion, though, a player purposely underbids his hand hoping the opponents will overestimate their values, or double him in a later round of bidding.

Psychs are expressly allowed in contract bridge, with two conditions. One, a player cannot use conventional psychs as part of his bidding system; his partner must be totally oblivious to the fact that a psych has been made. Two, a player cannot psych more than once in a blue moon. Excessive psyching is frowned upon in social bridge, and disallowed in tournament play. Not only do psych bids have the tendency to irritate opponents, they can lead to unspoken bidding agreements between the psycher and his partner. For example, if you frequently open 1S with only four spades when your agreement with partner is that you promise five, partner will eventually recognize your tendencies, whereas different opponents never will. Consequently, partner can adjust his bidding accordingly, but opponents will always incorrectly assume you hold five spades. Such understandings between you and partner are unethical.

There are also situations that allow "free psychs" - psychs that pose little or no risk to the psycher. The most common free psych is any non-raise response to a preempt made with a hand containing three- or four-card support. For instance, you hold:

S987 H2 DAJ5 C965432 and the auction begins:

2Diamond* Pass ?

* Weak, showing six diamonds and 5-10 HCP

This is a free psych situation. Chances are you could psych 2H, 2S, 2NT, or even 3NT and get away with it. If you get doubled, or if partner raises your suit, you can always run back to diamonds. This is a common and easy psych to make, but it is rather sophomoric and you will rarely, if ever, see experts do it. However, because most players are not experts, you should always be suspicious when you hold a strong hand and hear something like:

2Diamond Pass 3NT*

* Supposedly strong and balanced

You should also be careful if you decide to make these types of free psychs yourself. As we have discussed earlier, frequent psychs will lead to unspoken agreements between a psycher and his partner. It is worth repeating that these types of agreements are forbidden.

Finally, if you decide to make a psych bid, be prepared to do a lot of apologizing to your partner if it blows up in your face. Much of the time, psychs turn out disastrously for the psyching player, and there are few blows to partnership morale heavier than a bad psych.

Falsecards

A falsecard is a card that is played in attempt to deceive one or more players at the table. Falsecards are not unethical. You can falsecard as much as you want, although prudence is invariably the golden rule for success. There are random falsecards novices make which sometimes help the opposition, and there are intelligent falsecards good players make that have a reasonable chance of succeeding. When in doubt, it's better to not falsecard at all. At least that way partner will never be misled into the losing action. Like a bad psych, a bad falsecard will upset him to no end.

The only type of falsecarding that is banned is purposeful falsecarding that a partnership has agreed to use in certain situations. For example, against notrump contracts, a player often leads the fourth-highest card of her longest suit. If she decides to make her opening lead from a suit such as A9753, and she and her partner have agreed to use fourth-highest leads, she would normally lead the 5. What she cannot do is tell her opponents that her side has agreed to fourth-highest leads, but then continually lead, say, her third-highest card. Obviously her partner is going to know what's going on after a while, whereas various declarers will always think her lead is fourth-best. This type of falsecarding is unethical.

Cheating

Cheating is obviously a serious offense in bridge. In tournament bridge it results in suspension or expulsion. The vast majority of players would never dream of cheating, but there are always a few people with enough loose marbles to try it. And unfortunately there are many ways to cheat. Players have been caught tilting their scoring pencils, tapping each other's feet and exchanging finger signals.

If you strongly suspect foul play in a tournament, you can approach the director after the event and present your evidence. Make sure you understand, however, that accusations and mere suggestions are an extremely serious business. Never accuse someone outright at the table of cheating. Doing so is considered one of the worst possible offenses in bridge. Even to simply imply someone is cheating is to start a heavy ball rolling that won't stop until you or the accused suffers profound embarrassment.

And remember: there is a big difference between those who are deliberately cheating to win an event, and those who don't know any better than to psych once too often or to hesitate at the wrong time. Both types of players should be reprimanded, but the difference in the weight of the accusations and the severity of the punishments is huge.

Calling The Director

At every duplicate bridge game, there is at least one trained referee known as the director. She is responsible for making sure play proceeds in a timely manner and for settling any problems that might arise. Whenever you are unsure of the proprieties or laws of bridge, you may tell the rest of the players at the table that you are going to call for the director. Then simply raise your hand in the air and say, "Director, please." The director will then come over to help straighten things out. When in doubt, ask the director! That is what she's there for.

Skip Bids

A skip bid occurs when a player makes a bid that skips a level of bidding. Jump overcalls, for instance, are skip bids, as are double raises and splinters. The problem with skip bids, however, is that they can have an adverse effect on the opponents' tempo. For example, imagine an auction that begins:

1Heart 3Spade ?

With a bad hand you would be tempted to just pass without a second's thought. If you happen to have a good hand, though, you need some time to think about what to bid. If you finally decide to pass, you will have (unlawfully) shown some values in your hand through the slowness of your pass. Now partner, depending on whether or not you made a slow or fast pass, may decide to take another bid.

There is no longer a rule for skip bids as to announcing your jump bid. The next player however, must then wait for 10 seconds before making his call, even if he has a lousy hand and has nothing to think about. The 10 second wait is supposed to prevent the unlawful conveyance of information by requiring players to make all their bids after the same time delay.

Do's and Don'ts
1NT Pass 3NT ?

99% of uncontested game auctions end with three passes, so no one expects you to pause here before passing.

1Spade Pass 2Club Pass
2Spade Pass 4Spade ?

Ditto.

Some examples of auctions where you are really expected to pause:

Pass Pass 2Heart ?

You are always expected to wait after a preempt.

1Diamond Dbl 3Diamond ?

Similarly, you are always expected to pause after a weak skip bid by your RHO.

Alerts

Alerts are required for all bids which diverge from a defined standard set of meanings. The use of an “ALERT” call by any player is, therefore, a method of drawing the Opponent's attention to the fact that a particular “Bid ”, “Double”, or “Pass” by one’s Partner has a conventional, special, or unusual significance, possibly unbeknown to the Opponents. On the ACBL Convention Card, the “ alertable ” conventions are in red, and the ones just requiring announcement are in blue.

The "Alert" is announced immediately after the conventional bid by one’s Partner, and before the original bidder ’s left - hand Opponent bids. It is triggered by the Partner of the conventional bidder either via a verbalization of the word “ ALERT ”, by the knocking on the table, or by the presentation of an “Alert” card when using bidding boxes during the bidding phase of the game.

No explanation of the meaning of the conventional bid is then given unless request ed by either Opponent, each in turn, and only at his/her turn to bid. If the explanation imparted by the bidder’s Partner is incorrect, it is improper for the bidder to correct the error perpetrated by his/her Partner, or to indicate in any manner that a mistake has been made at the time the misrepresentation occurs.

Subsequently, if the misinformation is extended by the team achieving the final contract, the misinformation must be corrected before the lead card is tabled. If the misinformation is given by a Defender, it may not be corrected during the play of the hand. In both instances, however, an adjustment to the board can be awarded by a tournament Director, at his/her discretion, if applicable, at the end of play of the hand.

Asking About an Alert
If you’re an opponent when an Alert is given and you’d like further information about the bid, wait until it’s your turn to bid and then ask in terms along the lines of:

To ask, “Is that weak? ” could be construed to imply that you have strength in the suit bid and are a little surprised to hear an opponent bid it. If partner takes that inference, that would constitute unauthorized information. So avoid asking in a way that might imply something about your holding in the suit. If the initial explanation is inadequate, you may ask for a further description.