We all play bridge because we love it. Help make the game fun for everyone by observing the few simple proprieties that make bridge fair and enjoyable.
The list of ethics below is a derivation of our Behaviour Guidelines.
Be competitive and kind
- Be pleasant toward your opponents and your partner. Welcome new opponents to your table.
- Don’t conduct lengthy post-mortems until after the match or (ideally) the session.
- Don’t stare at opponents, their cards, or where in their hand they play a card from.
- If you think an experienced opponent may have done something inappropriate, speak privately to the director or official recorder.
- Slow players – please keep pace as best as you can. Don’t be afraid to claim when declaring if it’s clear to do so.
Make all beginners feel welcome
- Make a special effort to fully explain your bidding, considering that less-experienced players may not know what “Bergen Raises” or “Texas Transfers” are.
- When claiming as declarer, clearly state your line of play. If your opponents either disagree with or do not understand your claim, call the director.
- If your opponents are not yet familiar with the bridge code of behaviour, kindly explain or refer them to this webpage.
Tell the opponents what they need to know about your system
- Provide your opponents with two fully-completed system cards.
- Tell your opponents with your main system agreements and any ‘pre-alerts’ at the beginning of each match.
- Announce 1C and 1NT openings, and alert all non-natural bids.
No trickery, no tip-offs
- Avoid revealing mannerisms, and ignore any information received from partner’s hesitations or mannerisms.
- Don’t deceive the opponents by hesitations or mannerisms.
- Don’t make comments as dummy. Dummy is not allowed to indicate which hand the lead of the next trick should come from.
- If they spot an infraction, the must wait until the end of the hand before speaking. The only thing Dummy can say during the play is ‘no more (insert suit here), partner?”
Correct any wrong explanations of bids as soon as you can
- If your pair becomes the declaring side, you must give the correct explanation before the opponents make their opening lead.
- If your pair becomes the defending side, if attention is brought to the misinformation, apologise to the opponents and provide them with correct explanation at the end of the play of the hand. Call the director if your opponents may have been disadvantaged by your side’s wrong explanation – that’s why he’s there!
Hesitations are completely legal in bridge
- You are allowed to think! But if you do take a long time for you to take an action, it reveals that you had other choices.
- If your partner hesitates, you can still take any action you wish as long as it’s justified by the hand you hold and overall context of the bridge situation.
- If an opponent hesitates, you are allowed to glean information from that hesitation as much as you like, though it’s often best to just focus on the game itself.