GWINNETT SENIOR GAMES

RULES OF BRIDGE

DELMAR GARDENS VENUE

(Revised November 9, 2011)

A-PARTICIPATION

A1. Entries are by team pairs of two persons. Ensure that your entry lists the name of your partner.

A2. In the event that a planned partner is unable to attend, another person may be substituted if they are already registered for the senior games in any other category/game. As this may occur with more than one pair, it is possible that by attending the event without a partner, that you can be paired with another bridge player on the day of the event; however, we cannot guarantee a partner will be available.

A3.Maximum entries are 20 pairs sitting North-South and 20 pairs sitting East-West (20 tables in play)

B-MEDALS

B1. Medals will be awarded to the first, second, and third place pairs sitting North-South and to the first, second, and third place pairs sitting East-West

B2. Both members of a winning team pair will receive a medal

B3. Twelve medals in total will be awarded

C-BIDDING

C1. Bidding boxes will be used if available.

C2. If someone at the table is not available to provide instruction on the use of the boxes, please ask the Director for assistance. (Basically, place your right thumb on the tab of the bid you wish to make and push it and all of the cards behind it back about one-half inch. Then, grabbing that entire batch of bidding cards between your right thumb and other fingers, pull all of those cards out and lay them on the table in front of you so that the other players may read the bid. Any subsequent bids should be placed on top of all other bids to allow all previous bids to still be seen.)

C3. Each pair must have at least one completed convention card showing the basics of their bidding systems. Convention cards will be available at the event. If asked by an opposing player at their turn to bid what any previous bids might have meant by your team, you should provide a reasonable and complete description of what your partner’s bid meant to you. Rather than using a convention name, such as “That’s unusual no-trump,” you should state the meaning in simpler terms such as, “My partner is five-five or better in the minors.”

C4. “Psychic” bids may not be used during this event. A psychic bid is any call that deliberately and grossly misstates either honor strength or suit length. A bid is not psychic if the strength of the hand is within a queen (2 points) of the agreed or announced strength and if the bid of a suit or of no trump is of ample length. It is also not a psych bid if the suit length varies by no more than one card of that announced or agreed and there are ample high card values for the bid. Pairs using psychic bids will be penalized a 1-board penalty for each infraction.

D-PLAY

D1. Players sitting North-South will remain in their assigned seats for the duration of play. Persons unfamiliar with duplicate bridge scoring should consider sitting East-West. However, preference for sitting North-South will be given to those with health problems or disabilities that would make moving after each round difficult. Please contact the event coordinator if special seating is required.

D2. Players sitting East-West will move after each round of play as instructed by the Director. Generally, the East-West pairs will move next to the next highest numbered table (i.e., team 3 will move to Table 4 at the end of the first round).

D3. Typically, 3 or 4 boards (hands) will be played each round at a table before moving to the next round of play. The number of boards played each round depends on the number of persons playing in the game.

D4. Only the Director will move the boards in play from one round to the next from one table to another.

D5. Each hand played should take about 8 minutes. An excessively slow player or pair of players creates a problem for the entire game, thus maintaining the pace of the other players is important. The last hand in play on a round may not be started if the Director calls for no additional hands to be played. A late play, a penalty, or an adjusted score may be imposed as instructed by the Director. Do not move to the next round of play until the Director calls for the move.

D6. A lunch will be served at the midpoint of play.

D7. Calling the Director is a normal part of the game whenever any confusion may exist. Please raise your hand and call, “Director,” when you require help, assistance, or clarification. Reasons for calling the Director include instances of exposed cards, leads out of turn, bids out of turn, insufficient bids, revokes, and claims that are not clearly described. Do not trust your opponents, regardless of their apparent expertise, to provide the correct solution to such errors. Call the Director!

D8. At the conclusion of a hand, everyone should leave their cards faced down until everyone at the table agrees to the number of tricks made or down. On at least half of the hands someone will have a card turned wrong. Waiting a few seconds will save more time than it will waste. During the play (after the lead to the next trick) only the Declarer is allowed to call attention to another player having their card(s) turned wrong. When making a claim, don’t say, “I have the rest,” or “I’ll give you one.” Say, “I’m making a claim, and here’s how I will play out the hand.” Then quickly explain what you will do. If you do not note that a trump is out, then it is assumed that you did not know a trump was out, and a trump winner may be awarded to the other side if at all reasonable (especially if you did not say, “I will cross rough high,” or something as clear).

E-SCORING

E1. The player sitting North is responsible for ensuring that the correct boards are in play, that the boards are positioned in the correct direction, and that the correct pair of players have seated themselves at the table.

E2. The North player is responsible for completing a traveling score card at the conclusion of each hand of cards using ACBL (American Contract Bridge League) duplicate scoring methods. The East or West player is responsible for ensuring the correctness of the score entered by North and initialing the score on the line to the far right of their score. Errors in the scoring (including tricks made or down, declarer, game bonus, etc.) that cannot be easily discerned by the Director at the end of the day will be made in favor of North-South. To avoid errors, we encourage the East (or West) player to read the scoring data out loud (but not loud enough to be heard at the next table) to all of the players at the table when East (or West) verifies the score. Bring any apparent scoring errors to the attention of the Director when they are detected.

E3. You may not compare scores at breaks or at lunch with other pairs without being subject to a penalty.

Terry Manning, Director (770) 564-8822

temanning@aol.com