American Bridge Association vs. ACBL

[Shugart23]

I am going to my first ABA club game tomorrow night. Does anyone know if ABA rules have more or less bidding restrictions than ACBL ? I'm hopeful that ABA is a lot more open to innovation.

[Vampyr]

I think that the ABA are more of a social bridge organisation, and bidding innovations will not be welcome. But I could be wrong.

[barmar]

They have a web site www.ababridge.org. I'm looking around to see if they have regulations posted.

[Vampyr]

They have a web site www.ababridge.org. I'm looking around to see if they have regulations posted.

 

I looked once, and didn't find anything.

[MrAce]

I also could not find much about their regulations or restrictions.

ABA is mostly African American membership organisation as far as I know as oppose to ACBL where you can rarely see African American players. I never asked why that is but when see this topic I made some search on the net and found this. It maybe off topic perhaps so I will just put it in spoiler.

 

 

ABA or the American Bridge Association. It was a different time and a different era in the history of the United States. This national organization was founded in 1932 to encourage duplicate bridge among African-American players. The ABA holds two annual National tournaments, a Spring National since 1968, and a Summer National since 1934. There are open, mixed, men's and women's pairs, an individual and team championships for open, mixed, men's and women's teams. The top event is the knockout teams. In the early days of contract bridge, African-Americans were excluded from most major toournaments. In 1932, a group of African-American tennis players at Buckroe Beach, Virginia, decided to foster and promote duplicate bridge among African-Americans. They established a national organization and made contact with other similar groups around the country. The final result was the founding of the American Bridge Association by Dr. M.E. DuBissette, who was president from 1932 to 1935.

 

The American Bridge Association, Inc. is one of the oldest bridge organizations in the United States. 1997 marked the 64th year of advocating bridge competitions and continuing the important ABA tradition of providing service to the community.Founded in 1932 at Buckroe Beach, Virginia, the ABA held its first national tournament there in 1933. The founders were fun-loving and competitive African Americans whose previous efforts to play tournament bridge were frustrated by the overt racial discrimination of the time.

 

Today, many ABA members join and play with other bridge groups nationally and internationally. But, ABA'ers remember their origins and, while playing bridge for fun, provide a continuous flow of financial and human resources to address current social concerns. Funds raised from scholarship and benefit games assist deserving students and a variety of charitable organizations.

 

The ABA is governed by a President and an Executive Board elected by the membership. The President appoints a Tournament Authority that oversees the conduct of games.

 

Historical Excerpts

The American Bridge Association was conceived by American Tennis Association (ATA) participants. The ATA Nationals were played in Hampton, Virginia in August of 1932. Ted Thompson and Eyric Satch were the finalists. At the conclusion of the tennis tournament, a group of bridge enthusiasts suggested a duplicate bridge match that night as a method of relaxation after the strenuous week of tennis.

The duplicate boards or trays were described as "an ugly black wooden box with letters on them ("N-S, E-W) and an arrow pointing North." On this night, the arrow was pointing toward the Atlantic Ocean and the east position toward the Chesapeake River. The director told the group that the arrow might arbitrarily be placed in any direction.

Our late President Emeritus, Victor R. Daly, was present, but not a participant. He protested the placing of the arrow in any position. He finally acquiesced. It is interesting to learn that our Vic had a voice in ABA from its embryonic period.

The names of some of those who participated in this match and are responsible for the organization of the ABA are: Dr. John L. McGriff, Portsmouth, Virginia, Drs. E.L. and L.L. Downing, Roanoke, Virginia, Dr. Furlong, Fayetteville, North Carolina, and Dr. W.E. DuBisette, Endfield, North Carolina, who later moved to New York and became the first president of the American Bridge Association.

 

This group, with others, is responsible for the creation and organization of the ABA, and the sponsoring of the first national bridge tournament at Buckroe Beach, Virginia.

In 1936, the ABA merged with the Eastern Bridge League, a group of New York City clubs headed by Morgan S. Jensen. Under the leadership of Dr. E.T. Belsaw, the president of the ABA from 1936 to 1949, the ABA continued to grow with new members. A masterpoint system was established for rating players, and the quarterly ABA Bulletin, the publication for the ABA, edited by W.R. Tatem from 1944 to 1953, was published. Succeeding editors were Clarence Farmer from 1953 to 1970, Bobbye Caldwell from 1970 to 1976, Wilma Snell from 1977 to 1978, and Dr. William Furr who accepted the responsibility in 1982.

 

As time went by, it became clear to the organizing bodies governing the game of bridge that the situation at that time was rather absurd, and official recognition of the African-American participation in tournaments came about in 1952. In this year Robert Gill proposed an amendment by which each unit became the sole judge of membership qualifications in its territory. This amendment was voted on and passed.

 

However, federal legislation decreed that African-Americans not be permitted to stay in certain hotels, but the ACBL in 1964 stipulated that every ACBL member held the right to participate in any national tournament, no matter where it was held. The last obstacle to ACBL membership for African-Americans was removed in 1967 when the ACBL included in its by-laws that no person shall be denied membership because of race, color, or creed.

 

Under the presidency of Victor R. Daly, from 1949 to 1964, negotiations leading to the establishment of mutual respect between the ACBL and the ABA were successful. The result of these negotiations was that many ABA members also became ACBL members. Among these many players, Marion Wildy in 1956 became the first African-American Life Master, and the first ABA Life Master to attain also ACBL Life Master was Leo Benson in 1962.

 

The ABA is divided presently into eight Sections: The Eastern Section, The Southern Section, The Midwest Section, The Great Lakes Section, The Western Section, The Southwestern Section, The Northwestern Section, and the Mid-Atlantic Section.

 

 

Please check out their Website at the URL posted at the top of this web page to discover more about the American Bridge Association. When you drop by, please leave a message in their Guest Book, and let them know that you stopped to visit. The reader will also find a list of the National Officers and Executive Committee members with current email addresses below.

 

 

http://www.bridgeguys.com/sec/glossary/a/abahistory.html

[Bbradley62]

An old friend who played in both organizations told me (admittedly two decades ago) that ABA players tend to play with more basic bidding than ACBL, but they seem to play cards better than average ACBL club players, both as declarer and on defense.

[Shugart23]

I will let you know on Saturday

[Shugart23]

I went to my first ABA game last night and it will not be my last. I am now a card carrying member. 8 table Mitchell and all the players were as good or better than most of ACBL club games that I have been to. One couple, besides us, played precision. It was an all African American crowd until we showed up. We were made to feel very welcome. They have a social 45 minutes prior to the game and food is available, but once the game started you might as well have been in ACBL game.

 

It appears to me, any bidding system might be allowed, but this is not yet clear. Certainly anything ACBL allows is allowed in ABA. So there is my report. We had a fabulous time and recommend you try an ABA game near you,sometime yourself

[barmar]

I went to my first ABA game last night and it will not be my last. I am now a card carrying member. 8 table Mitchell and all the players were as good or better than most of ACBL club games that I have been to. One couple, besides us, played precision. It was an all African American crowd until we showed up. We were made to feel very welcome. They have a social 45 minutes prior to the game and food is available, but once the game started you might as well have been in ACBL game.

Not sure why you'd expect anything else. Bridge is bridge.

It appears to me, any bidding system might be allowed, but this is not yet clear. Certainly anything ACBL allows is allowed in ABA. So there is my report. We had a fabulous time and recommend you try an ABA game near you,sometime yourself

In my experience, the atmosphere at club games is mostly dependent on the clientele, not the umbrella organization.

[Shugart23]

Yes, Honestly am hoping they (umbrella organization) will allow more freedom with bidding than the ACBL....eg multi-2D et al.....Inquiry is being made

[barmar]

Yes, Honestly am hoping they (umbrella organization) will allow more freedom with bidding than the ACBL....eg multi-2D et al.....Inquiry is being made

In the ACBL, clubs have full autonomy over the bidding systems they allow. I expect it's similar in the ABA. The umbrella organization's regulations only apply at tournaments.

[Shugart23]

In the ACBL, clubs have full autonomy over the bidding systems they allow. I expect it's similar in the ABA. The umbrella organization's regulations only apply at tournaments.

 

Is that true ? Could a club disallow Precision or could a pair that wants to use precision insist that they have that right because of the GCC ?

 

But I digress.....In the ACBL tournaments that I play in, there are a lot of conventions that I would like to use but cannot, for no rational reason that I can think of. Therefore it has not been worth the time and effort to learn them and use them effectively.

 

I am hoping the umbrella organization ABA is more open to innovation than the umbrella organizatrion ACBL

[mycroft]

Is that true ? Could a club disallow Precision or could a pair that wants to use precision insist that they have that right because of the GCC ?

Absolutely - my club disallowed Precision (and any other system based on a strong 1 bid) on invitational nights. If the clientele wanted it, I'd do it. When my partner and I went to a (very social) bridge club, we told the TD we played K/S, was that okay? I've certainly heard of EHAA being "requested against" in clubs (or, you know, in the National Mixed Pairs :-).

 

Clubs in the ACBL are semi-autonomous; there are limits they can't (officially) cross, like allow conventions not even on the SuperChart; and for games that are scored by the ACBL outside the limits of the club, they must allow GCC. If the GCC isn't what a particular club goes by, I would expect that to be obvious to the guest. Certainly in the University club I used to run, the fact that "anything goes" (if it wasn't SuperChart legal, I didn't want to hear about it), but with the option of effectively "no fear" pairs (usually the ones still taking the Club Series lessons) was pretty well known.

[PW150]

I am going to my first ABA club game tomorrow night. Does anyone know if ABA rules have more or less bidding restrictions than ACBL ? I'm hopeful that ABA is a lot more open to innovation.

 

I am a member of the ABA, and I'm curious to know about your experience back in April.