ACBL 2000 - A Player's
Guide to Tournament Play
in the 21st Century

Introduction: The American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) sponsors three North American Bridge Championships (NABCs) and sanctions more than 100 Regional and 900 Sectional Tournaments annually. The purpose of this pamphlet is to summarize the rules and regulations that govern these tournaments. In some cases the reader will be referred to other sources for additional details. Questions, comments and suggestions about the content of these pages should be sent to Peter Mollemet of the ACBL Tournament Department. We hope that contestants in ACBL competition will become more aware of both their options and obligations when entering any ACBL event

Last Update: April 21, 2000

Table of Contents:

1. The Tournament Director
2. Eligibility
3. Participation
4. Deportment
5. Conventions
6. Alert System
7. ACBL Convention Cards
8. Slow Play
9. Appeals of Tournament Director Ruling
10. Bid-Box Rules
11. Stop Card Use
12. Score Correction Period
13. Other Important Information
14. Frequently Asked Questions

1. The Tournament Director: All Tournament Directors (TD's) are employees of the ACBL and are trained in all aspects of tournament direction. The Director-in-Charge (DIC) and his/her staff, after consultation with the tournament sponsor, are responsible for conducting the tournament according to ACBL regulations with sponsor input on all optional matters. Therefore, any questions or concerns, should normally be directed to a TD who will address your problem.

When attention is drawn to any irregularity at the bridge table, the TD must be summoned immediately. Ideally, this call will be in a calm tone of voice, "Director, please."  Failure to summon the director at once may jeopardize the rights of the players.

2. Eligibility: Many, if not most, events are restricted by some combination of masterpoint level, gender and/or age. In general, membership in the ACBL is not a prerequisite for participation. However, non-members are required to check with the director-in-charge before entering any event which has a masterpoint restriction. After discussion the DIC will inform the player(s) of what events they are eligible for. ACBL members should also check with a Tournament Director in cases where he/she is close to any of the masterpoint limits. The TD will check the data base in use at the tournament to verify eligibility.

Non-members will normally be charged more to play in an event than members. A person can avoid this surcharge by becoming an "instant" member of the ACBL. The nominal membership fee is quickly offset by the savings in entry-fees for even an infrequent tournament participant. The Bridge Bulletin which is published monthly and other additional benefits make ACBL membership a true bargain. You can become an "instant member"  at this tournament and receive your player number on-the-spot. From that point on, any masterpoints you earn will be automatically recorded to your account. Ask any Tournament Director for an application.

3. Participation: When a player, pair or team enters an event they are expected to play for the duration of that event or until they fail to qualify for the next level of play. At the end of a matchpoint session or at the conclusion of any round of a team game, players may be excused from further play as long as the movement isn't adversely effected. Emergency situations will be dealt with on an individual basis, as per the conditions of contest of the event.

Most team events are open to teams of four, five or six players ( The "Compact KO" event, a knockout which lasts only two sessions, and a one session Board-A-Match team (BAM) do not allow more than four members. Playing requirements for each team member to maintain eligibility and receive masterpoint awards depend on the type of team game and the duration of the event. Players are urged to consult the conditions of contest for the event or request the information from a tournament director.

A player may play and earn masterpoints in as many sessions of bridge as possible while not entered in a concurrent or overlapping event, except that:

1. Players on teams with more than four members or teams with byes may play in concurrent one-session events only. For this purpose a Continuous Pairs event is considered a one-session event.
2. The players noted in number one above may be credited with masterpoints only from the event in which they earn the larger number of masterpoints (the overall points from a continuous pairs event included).

4. Deportment: While it is recognized that bridge, especially tournament bridge, is a very competitive endeavor for some, all players are expected to maintain proper decorum throughout. The ACBL Board of Directors and Management are committed to improving player behavior at all times. The ACBL "Zero Tolerance Policy" outlines what is expected of all players during ACBL sanctioned tournaments as well as in the playing area before and after each session.

The ultimate purpose of this Zero-Tolerance policy toward improper behavior is to create a much more pleasant atmosphere at our tournaments. We are attempting to eradicate unacceptable behavior in order to make the game of bridge more enjoyable for all. Below are some examples of commendable behavior, which, while not required, will significantly contribute to the improved atmosphere:

• Being a good 'host' or 'guest' at the table.
• Greeting others in a friendly manner.
• Praising the bidding and/or play of the opponents.
• Having two legibly completed convention cards readily available to the opponents (this one is a regulation, not just a nicety!)

• Badgering, rudeness, insinuations, intimidation, profanity, threats, or violence.
• Negative comments concerning opponents' or partner's play or bidding.
• Constant and gratuitous lessons and analyses at the table.
• Loud and disruptive arguing with a director's ruling.

If a player at the table behaves in an unacceptable manner, the director should be called immediately. Annoying behavior, embarrassing remarks, or any other conduct which might interfere with the enjoyment of the game is specifically prohibited by Law. The tournament director has the authority to assess disciplinary penalties.

If it is established that there was unacceptable behavior, an immediate quarter board disciplinary penalty (3 IMP in team games) may be assigned to all offenders. This may involve any one or all four players at the table irrespective of who initiated the unacceptable behavior.

5. Conventions: The "Laws of Duplicate Contract Bridge" define a convention as:

1. A call, that by partnership agreement, conveys a meaning other than willingness to play in the denomination named (or in the last denomination named), or high-card strength or length (three cards or more) there. However, an agreement as to length or strength does not make a call a convention.

2. Defender's play that serves to convey a meaning by agreement rather than inference.

Law 40 of the same book allows sponsoring organizations to regulate the use of bidding or play conventions.

The ACBL regulates the use of conventions by publishing a list of "allowable conventions" for any given event. This usually takes the form of assigning one of three convention charts to each event: "General Convention Chart" (GCC), "Mid-Chart" (MC) or "SuperChart" (SC). Since the governing convention chart is event-specific, please check with a tournament director to see which applies to the event you are playing. Playing an "unauthorized " convention may result in an adjusted score or penalty being assigned. In order for you to play any particular convention, you must be able to find it on the appropriate convention chart. The convention chart also lists calls which are specifically prohibited (e.g. psyching artificial opening bids).

When playing in any MC or SC event, it is the responsibility of any pair playing a convention not authorized under the general convention chart to provide to the opponent, in writing, a description of and a "suggested defense"  for that convention. The description and defense are required to be full and complete. The opponents may use your suggested defense, and refer to it during the auction and play, or use their own methods. The ACBL publishes a pamphlet of suggested defenses to some common methods permitted by the MC and SC. These may be obtained from the ACBL Sales Department, if not available at the tournament, or by downloading from the ACBL Web Page. The defenses in the pamphlet may be used to satisfy the preceding regulation.

6. The Alert System: Concealed Partnership Understandings Prohibited

Law 40 also states "A player may not make a call or play based on a special partnership understanding unless an opposing pair may reasonably be expected to understand its meaning, or unless his side discloses the use of such call or play in accordance with the regulations of the sponsoring organization."  The ACBL requires players to Alert opponents of bids which carry unusual messages for their partnership.

The objective of the Alert system is for both pairs at the table to have equal access to all information contained in any auction. In order to meet this goal, all players must understand and practice the principles of full disclosure and active ethics. Ethical bridge players will recognize the obligation to give complete explanations. They will accept the fact that any such information is entirely for the benefit of the opponents and may not be used to assist their own partnership.

Bridge is not a game of secret messages; the auction belongs to everyone at the table. Remember that the opponents are entitled to know the agreed meaning of all calls. The bidding side has an obligation to disclose its agreements according to the procedures established by ACBL. When asked, the bidding side must give a full explanation of the agreement. Stating the common or popular name of the convention is not sufficient. The opponents need not ask exactly the "right" question. Any request for information should be the trigger. Opponents need only indicate the desire for information -- all relevant disclosures should be given automatically. The proper way to ask for information is "Please Explain".

A player who remembers that a call requires an Alert but cannot remember the meaning must still Alert. In all Alert situations, tournament directors have been directed to rule with the spirit of the Alert procedure in mind and not simply by the letter of the law. Players who, by experience or expertise, recognize that their opponents have neglected to Alert a special agreement will be expected to protect themselves.

Adjustments for violations are not automatic. There must have been damage, and an adjustment will be made only when the Alert violation was a direct cause of the damage. Note also that an opponent who actually knows or suspects what is happening, even though not properly informed, may not be entitled to redress if he or she chooses to proceed without clarifying the situation.

When an Alert is given, ASK!, do not ASSUME. A complete description of the ACBL Alert procedures can be found in the "Alert" pamphlet, available from the ACBL Sales Department, at most tournaments and on the ACBL Web Page. At the conclusion of the auction, if declarer or dummy is aware that partner has given misinformation to the opponents, he is required by law to correct the misinformation before the opening lead is made. Failure to do so may result in a procedural penalty as well as a score adjustment.

A defender must announce the misinformation to his opponents at the conclusion of the play of the hand and the director should be summoned.

7. The ACBL CONVENTION CARD: As stated above, each member of a partnership MUST have a completely filled out convention card, identical to his/her partner's card, available for the opponents. These cards must accurately reflect the partnership agreements currently in effect. Generally, the color "red" on the convention card indicates that the agreement must be Alerted but the Alert pamphlet is the final authority in cases of disputes on the Alertability of any conventional call. Similarly, the color blue on the convention card indicates a call requiring an "Announcement."

Players should review their own convention cards before the start of the session to make sure that they are current on the agreements with this particular partner. In cases of misinformation vs. misbids, it is the responsibility of the bidding side to prove beyond reasonable doubt that a misbid was made rather than misinformation given. The convention card and previous auctions are the most obvious ways to resolve any disagreements concerning misbid vs misinformation.

Copies of the ACBL convention cards can be obtained at any tournament or through the ACBL Sales Department.

8. Slow Play: Players are normally allowed approximately 7.5 minutes to bid and play each bridge hand. Thus a round is called every 15 minutes when playing two boards per round and every 21 or 22 minutes for three board rounds. For longer segments additional time is added. Failure to finish on time can do a great deal to chase players away from the game and is extremely distressing to waiting players. Bridge is a timed event. If a pair takes more than their share of the allotted time for each round, they are inconveniencing their fellow competitors as well as gaining an unfair advantage over them. When a pair has fallen behind it is incumbent on them to make up the time lost as quickly as possible whether at fault or not. All players are expected to make a concerted effort to catch up when they have fallen behind, regardless of the reason for their lateness. All players are expected to develop this habit.

!!   REMEMBER: SLOW PLAY IS SUBJECT TO PENALTY, and the penalties are well earned when slow pairs disrupt the normal progression of the game.

11. The Stop Card: Players should protect their rights and those of their opponents by using the stop card prior to making any bid that skips one or more levels of bidding. Use of the stop card is optional, but highly recommended. Players who choose to use the stop card must use it whenever they jump the level of bidding.

Proper procedure is to place the stop card so that LHO sees it (the skip bidder is responsible for gaining LHO's attention). The skip bid is made. The stop card is then replaced in the bidding box. NOTE: If a player forgets to replace the stop card there is no penalty. It is each player's responsibility to maintain appropriate tempo, a pause of approximately ten seconds, after a skip bid whether or not the opponent has used the stop card or announced a skip bid.

If the stop card is placed on the table and a skip bid is not made, the director may judge that the bid card was played inadvertently or not. If the judgment is that the card was played after a "slip of the mind" therefore with intent, then the situation is an Unauthorized Information (Law 16) situation, not an insufficient bid.

12. Score Correction Period: Score correction periods for player or director errors in tabulating the scores, are event specific. Please consult the conditions of contest for the event you are playing in or check with a tournament director. In pair events the score correction period for player errors expires at the completion of the session following the one in which the error occurred.

For director errors the correction period, generally, expires 24 hours after the completion of the event or 30 minutes after the completion of the last event of the tournament, whichever is earlier. For qualifying events the score correction period for both player and director errors expires one hour before the announced starting time of the first final session.

13. Other Important Information:

1. EVENTS - Descriptions and definitions of tournament events and event nomenclature.
2. MASTERPOINT AWARDS - A complete description of the ACBL masterpoint recognition program.
3. ACBL ALERT PROCEDURE - The prose ACBL Alert Procedure as well as the summary in chart form.
4. ACBL CONVENTION CHARTS - The current General Convention Chart, Mid-Chart and SuperChart are available.
5. DEFENSES - Defenses to artificial preempts permitted by the Mid-Chart and SuperChart.
6. ACBL CONVENTION CARD - and a Convention Card editor to complete and/or print an ACBL convention card.
7. FAT FREE CONVENTION CARD - A simplified ACBL Convention Card.
8. GENERAL CONDITIONS OF CONTEST - General conditions for types of events. There may be specific conditions of contest for an event which will take precedence where there is a difference.
   • Pair Events
   • Swiss Teams
   • Knockout Teams
   • Board-A-Match Teams

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ's):

1. What are the differences between stratified, flighted and stratiflighted events?

Most ACBL events are restricted by the masterpoint holdings of the participants. A typical flighted event might have 3 flights: A: Unlimited, B: 0 - 1000 and C: 0 - 300 masterpoints. In a flighted event players only play against other pairs or teams in the same flight. You may enter any flight for which you are eligible. The potential masterpoint award and competition level increase as you move to higher flights.

In a stratified event all participants play directly against all other pairs or teams with masterpoint awards given for each strat of the event. Since all players are competing, head-to-head against each other, players are eligible to earn masterpoints in their own stratification level as well as any higher strats. Unlike the flighted events, where players might want to play in a higher stratification, players should always sign up for the lowest strat for which they are eligible in a stratified event. This maximizes potential masterpoint awards (including pigmentation) and the competition is the same regardless of which strat they sign up for.

Stratiflighted events have several flights and are stratified within these flights. Players should choose which flight they want to play in as if the event was flighted and then sign up for their lowest eligible strat within that flight. For these events flight or strat eligibility is determined by the masterpoint holding of that player of the partnership or team with the highest number of masterpoints.

2. What is a Bracketed KO?

Bracketed KO's are probably the most popular events at most tournaments. Some players play KO's because the masterpoint awards are greatest for these events and some like playing in KO's against other teams with relatively the same bridge acumen as their own. Brackets for these events are determined by the average masterpoint holding of each team. Depending on the number of teams entered in the event, brackets are then constructed putting the top teams in the first bracket, the next teams in the second bracket, etc.

Usually this method results in forming brackets where most teams within a bracket are relatively equal in terms of experience and ability. The larger the entry the more this is true. The Bracketed KO is usually a four session event with masterpoints for winning any match and overall awards (gold points at regionally rated events) for surviving two sessions. Additionally, whenever a bracket is "full", 8 or 16 teams in the bracket, a playoff may be held. This means that all second round losers, may play another match for overall awards.

3. I wanted to play in a one session side game and was put in the Continuous Pairs. What is that?

Perhaps the most inappropriately named event on the tournament schedule, the continuous pairs is really a one session pair game with a potential bonus for players who play more than one session over the course of the event. Each individual session is normally run as a stratified pair game with overall and session awards for each strat.

Players buy entries for each session as pairs; they may play with different partners in different sessions; they may play as many sessions as they wish. Players compete for the "bonus" overalls (not stratified) as individuals. The overall score for each is the sum of the percentage scores of his two best sessions. The two best scores may be achieved with different partners. At Regionals, flight A section tops become gold points for players who play more than one session in the event. Bonus overall awards at Regionals are also gold.


You must play in two sessions in the same continuous pairs event to be eligible for the bonus overall awards. Since most tournaments have more than one continuous pairs event, check the schedule carefully. In general, you should play in a two session championship event whenever possible rather than a continuous pairs for maximum masterpoint "exposure."

4. Where can I obtain additional information or have other questions answered?

The ACBL web site is an excellent source of additional information if you have access to the Internet. Questions may also be directed to the ACBL Tournament Department via phone, email or fax. At tournaments, any tournament director should be able to answer your question. The ACBLscore computer program's "Tech Files" are also an excellent source.