Aces on Bridge — Daily Columns

The Aces on Bridge: Sunday, 8 October, 2023


2 Comments

Iain ClimieOctober 8th, 2023 at 6:07 pm

Hi Bobby,

On Active Ethics query, should you always take (say) 5 to 10 seconds for any bid or pass (and longer after a stop / skip bid), especially double? There are negative inferences here even though partner should always try to discount these too

Regards,

Iain

bobbywolffOctober 11th, 2023 at 5:10 pm

Hi Iain,

Yes, right on both counts. In my not so humble opinion, it is well nigh impossible to be anywhere close to perfect all of the time. However, especially in the bridge world where most good players have learned to deal with each other on a more or less regular basis.
Just try to fit each bid into a certain time limit which befits as close as possible the average
length of time (from complete bust to very good hand).

The most difficult part of that above request is that every player (during the bidding) should (must) be ready to take over his (or her)responsibility immediately it is his turn to bid. No
one should ever be questioned for an occasional overlook, but somehow, at least when I was playing often, most of the respected players always seemed to fit that bill. Nothing more, nothing less, but my general take on it is that almost everyone who fits the above description is, at the least, pretty well known as to about the degree of his consistent cater to that simple doctrine.

IOW, everyone of those players would fit into being judged with most getting a firmly positive assessment, but a few needing improvement and just a couple in direct violation.

I hope the above has a positive reaction instead of one which has a long way to go.