Expected player behaviour

Bridge is a social game and simultaneously a competitive sport. Ethics at the table are an important part of making this a great game and a fair game, and are enshrined in the Laws of Bridge itself. To reflect this there are a number of standards that are expected from all players, new and experienced, at duplicate bridge clubs, including:

• Be courteous to partners, opponents and directors/other officials - whenever there is a stress point or an irregularity, there is always an appropriate path to follow (normally calling the Director) and it never involves any loss of courtesy.
• In pairs games, players meet many opponents for brief encounters. It is better to spend the available time to say hello to your opponents rather than doing excessive post-mortems of the latest hand - which rarely help build partnerships in any case.
• Partnership discussions are a art form in themselves. They are best handled away from the table, and from the constructive starting point of asking what could I have called or done so that my partner knew what he or she needed to know. Try questions like: "What would you have understood if I called x (or played y)?" rather than "Why didn' t you...?"
• It is a key and distinctive foundation of bridge that your opponents are entitled to know everything you know or can infer from your partner's bid or play - this means prealerting of unusual bidding systems or carding, full alerting of conventional bids and, if asked, providing full information to your opponents.
• It is another key foundation of bridge that communication between partners is limited to legal bids and actual card play - sighs and other expressions of exasperation, body mannerisms, voice inflexions, hesitations, side comments about the hand etc should all be avoided - moreover should partner lapse, the Laws of Bridge require you not to choose an option that this unauthorised information would suggest if there are other reasonable options available.
• Bridge is a timed game with many players playing different boards at the same time. Some boards require more thought than others, but do not waste time. Pairs should try to catch up time if they are behind. This includes claiming or conceding the remaining tricks when the outcome is clear.