Return to my Bridge pages
Go to my home page
© Copyright 2002, Jim Loy
Bridge is the most ethical of all games, including gentlemanly games like chess and tennis. In bridge, you have to penalize yourself rather than take benefit from any violation of the rules. There are no secret bids; the opponents must be informed of any subtle meanings that may be taken as partnership agreements. You don't make gestures to pass information or to pretend to pass information. If you lie (bluff), you must lie to your partner as well as to your opponents.
Well, you can and must sometimes take extra time (huddle) on a difficult decision. Your opponents may guess why you are taking so long; but your partner must not. Partner must pretend that you did not pause, and must never take advantage of that information. In fact, partner must bend over backward to prevent even the appearance of cheating. In a book, Omar Sharif admitted to using partner's pause in order to deduce something about his hand, and then finding out that partner had paused for some other unrelated reason. He suffered a bidding disaster, otherwise he should have been assessed a penalty.
My partner passed after a long pause. Naturally, I can assume that partner almost had the values to bid on. I too am just short of a biddable hand. I should pass, missing the possible part score of two near-opening hands. And what if I had a borderline hand that I would be tempted to bid anyway. I should pass, as I must not appear to use the unauthorized information of partner's pause.
Well, in the above paragraph, my partner passed unauthorized information. In response, I passed false information, by passing when I might very well have bid. My opponents now have reason to complain, even though I have been very very ethical. Or do they? If they deduced the possible connection between my partner's delay and my pass, then everything may be alright. Nevertheless, the auction did not go as it should have. And there may be penalties later. It is something of a paradox that being ethical may cause further ethical problems.
What if I pause because of some outside reason, like the fact that a long lost friend of mine just walked in the door? I should then explain my pause, "I have no problem, an old friend just walked in the door." Otherwise, my opponents have reason to complain, because of the false inferences they may have gotten from my pause, and there may be penalties assessed. As long as any remark that I make is true, my opponents make inferences at their own risk.