Memphis Spring NABC
The Memphis Spring NABC has concluded and it was a pleasure to attend and compete. I was impressed by the sportsmanship and courteous table demeanor of the opponents I faced.
On a personal note, I’ve always held Bob Hamman in the highest regard. A truly magnificent bridge player, he holds the top ranking in the World Bridge Federation in Open Playing Points. Yet, despite his achievements, he still takes the time to mentor and answer questions from up-and-coming players.
​Bob went through a challenging health period during COVID-19, so it was especially gratifying to see him back at the table – competing at the highest level and winning a national championship with partner Neil Chambers, Schenectady, New York. You read about them and even see them in the NABC report in May Scorecard issue page 9.
Bob said, “We had a lot of luck going down the stretch. Unlike chess, where one only crunches the numbers, bridge combines number-crunching with experience and a healthy dose of luck.”
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A Good Habit
Speaking of table manners, I’d like to highlight one valuable bridge habit that every player should consider adopting. Law 16B1 – Extraneous information from partner states:
“Any extraneous information from partner that might suggest a call or play is unauthorized. This includes remarks, questions, replies to questions, unexpected alerts or failures to alert, unmistakable hesitation, unwonted speed, special emphasis, tone, gesture, movement or mannerism.”
Imagine your left hand opponent opens the bidding with 3♥. Almost instantly, your partner places the Pass card on the table. Now, contrast that with a scenario where your partner takes a full 60 seconds, thinking carefully, before eventually passing. What has happened here? In the first case, your partner has unintentionally signaled to the table that they hold a weak hand. In the second, the hesitation suggests they were close to making a bid. Either way, this creates an ethical dilemma – placing a significant burden on you not to let the speed of the pass influence your decision.
The proper way to handle this situation is to pause for about 10 seconds before making your call – whether it’s a pass or another bid. In the past, it was standard for a player making a jump bid like 3♥ to announce, “Skip bid, please wait.” While that requirement has since been removed, the principle remains: one should still take a brief pause, as if the announcement had been made, to help maintain ethical consistency and avoid giving unauthorized information through tempo.
D16 Board Business
The board of directors approved a change in the D16 Unit Goodwill Awards procedure. Previously, awards were presented at the Houston Lone Star Regional. However, since many recipients were unable to attend and receive their awards in person, the board voted to have the awards chair send the awards to the respective unit presidents, who will present them at an appropriate local unit event.
“Champions keep playing until they get it right.” –Billie Jean King
Neil Chambers and Bob Hamman