Summary of Roman Bridge Rules
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Bridge in the first place should be a pleasant pastime! |
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Do not play
too long
Establish beforehand how many hours the
cession should last ! Do not
extend the set time by more than 15 minutes (not everyone finds it easy to
decline even though they may have had enough). Propose an earlier finish when
someone betrays signs of tiredness or irritation. If someone insists on
playing till the morning say „We can always finish tomorrow or even the
day after” |
Do not play too quickly
Establish the number of deals to play so that
there should not be more than about 6 deals per hour ! A quicker pace does
not allow time for concentration and reflection, for bridge is a very
difficult game requiring constant vigilance. And not
only the game itself is pleasurable! Commentaries and post mortems are half
the pleasure!! Examination of all the hands after the deals and a friendly
chat – these are the very essence of bridge and for less experienced
players almost indispensable! |
Shuffling, cutting, dealing
It is not important who does it and how he
does it as long as there is RANDOMNESS! Cutting
the pack, dealing one at a time, dealing in turn all that has no influence on
randomness of deals! It is just an unpleasent past relic for the avoidance
of cheating. |
Do not turn up
or mix up the played cards
Each player arranges his
played cards FACE UP by the side of the table from left to right. |
Apply Aurelian’s Restitution
In the original version of Roman Bridge
[ 2000 ] the play could be conducted with dummy sitting
„diagonally” to the declarer. It was a bad idea, though, since it
resulted in losing the alternation of plays – the factor making the
bridge play interesting (check that playing with a “diagonally”
situated dummy is like monotonous “hitting back the ball” between
two hands. Thus, in the present version [ 2006 ] a player becoming the dummy
has to change his seat to be in front of the declarer. (also the (uninteresting) subject
Sovereignty of the Table was deleted) |
How to calculate Income |
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How to calculate Cost
21 |
50 |
26 |
500 |
31 |
1000 |
36 |
1600 |
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The pair with a value of 21 or more HCP: A = 4
K = 3
Q = 2
J = 1 pays their opponents a
fee in accordance with the price scale shown left. |
22 |
100 |
27 |
600 |
32 |
1100 |
37 |
1800 |
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23 |
200 |
28 |
700 |
33 |
1200 |
38 |
2000 |
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24 |
300 |
29 |
800 |
34 |
1300 |
39 |
2200 |
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25 |
400 |
30 |
900 |
35 |
1400 |
40 |
2200 |
Gross Gain = Income – Cost
That
should be obvious. |
How to calculate Net Gain
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Net Gain = |
1000 × GrossGain |
When you change upper 1000 to
30, you get Net Gain in imps ! (not quite
exactly, yet ...) |
1000 + GrossGain |
Observe this law
If a player
loses points due to the breaking of rules by another player – |
If the error cannot easily be
corrected, play should continue till the end of that deal. |
The size of the
fine shall be determined by agreement of all four players. |
Under no circumstances should they
resort to the International Bridge Law. |
Cheats (and
their accusers) shall be thrown to the lions in the arena. |
If there are insufficient lions play
should cease and players disperse. |
Hesitations
Every player has the right to reflect quietly on the bidding sequence!
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Good manners
It is worthwhile to
acquaint oneself with a fragment from the novel by Edgar Allan Poe „The
Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841): |
Our player confines himself not at all;
nor, because the game is the object, does he reject deductions from things
external to the game. He examines the countenance of his partner, comparing
it carefully with that of each of his opponents. He considers the mode of
assorting the cards in each hand; often counting trump by trump, and honor by
honor, through the glances bestowed by their holders upon each. He notes
every variation of face as the play progresses, gathering a fund of thought
from the differences in the expression of certainty, of surprise, of triumph,
or of chagrin. From the manner of gathering up a trick he judges whether the
person taking it can make another in the suit. He recognises what is played
through feint, by the air with which it is thrown upon the table. A casual or
inadvertent word; the accidental dropping or turning of a card, with the
accompanying anxiety or carelessness in regard to its concealment; the
counting of the tricks, with the order of their arrangement; embarrassment,
hesitation, eagerness or trepidation — all afford, to his apparently
intuitive perception, indications of the true state of affairs. The first two
or three rounds having been played, he is in full possession of the contents
of each hand, and thenceforward puts down his cards with as absolute a
precision of purpose as if the rest of the party had turned outward the faces
of their own. |
A player
who intentionally makes such deductions, which have nothing to do with the
game of bridge, contests by cleverness rather than by ability, almost on the
borderline of cheating. He could just as well use instruments to measure
blood pressure, pulse or brain waves. In addition he forces the remaining
players to take clever countermeasures of their own (false facial
expressions, gesticulations, intonations etc.) which in effect turn the game
into parody, |
Do not be so
strict
Nothing terrible will happen if dummy sees
declarer’s hand. Let him not be bored! Nothing terrible will happen if dummy replaces
declarer or even if they play jointly ! Nothing terrible will happen if
players use cribs ! Why should they make mistakes?
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Shun bidding
conventions
There already
exist a plethora of conventions and systems... |
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