When you start playing duplicate, it is often difficult to know what you should and shouldn't do. The following piece from Bid Boldly, Play Safe by Rixi Markus (first published in 1966) seems to go a long way towards explaining the various rules - they are not complicated, but if you know them you will be able to relax and enjoy your bridge far more. The list originally had ten points but John Pain has modified it to take account of such modern inventions as stop and alert cards and bidding boxes. |
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| 1. | Don't look at partner or your opponents during the bidding or the play of the hand. |
| 2. | When you are dummy, keep silent; don't touch any of your cards unless your partner names it and don't look at your opponents' hands. |
| 3. | Don't say anything about a hand while it is being bid or played. |
| 4. | Avoid looking at any other player's hand, no matter how carelessly he exposes it. |
| 5. | Using bidding boxes, make every call in the same smooth way, and take as long to make a simple bid as you need to make a difficult one. Don't let your hand hover over the box. |
| 6. | When you alert your partner's call make sure your opponents see the alert card. |
| 7. | When you use the STOP card, leave it on the table while you count to 10.Don't forget to pick it up when you get to 10. |
| 8. | At the end of the auction leave the bidding cards on the table until the opening lead has been faced. |
| 9. | When your partner takes longer than usual to pass don't make any positive bid unless it is more than justified by your own holding. |
| 10. | When you are defending, take the same length of time over the play of each card. |
| 11. | When your partner takes a long time to double an opponent's contract, don't remove the double unless your reason for doing so would have been demonstrably compelling even if partner had doubled immediately with evident glee! |
| 12. | Don't expect an inexperienced player or opponent to observe all these rules but be particularly punctilious about refraining from taking advantage of his lapses. |
| 13. | If you are not good at making a quick assessment of your hand, say so before you pick up your cards and then take your time. If you find yourself taking longer than usual to decide not to make an opening bid, pretend you didn't realise it was your turn! |
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