Product Description

Bobby Wolff has been there and seen it all, and here he describes his own life and career in bridge with honesty and emotion. As a multiple world champion, and former president of both the ACBL and the World Bridge Federation, no one is better placed to discuss the big issues that face the game of bridge today. He can talk authoritatively about players cheating at the top levels of the game, destructive bidding systems, sponsorship, professional players, and all the other big issues that others are afraid to talk about. As always, he is prepared to tell it like it is and let the chips fall where they may.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #467889 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 287 pages

About the Author
Bobby Wolff (Las Vegas) is one of the all-time great American bridge players. He started winning world championships in the 1960s with the famous Dallas Aces. Since then he has accumulated 11 world titles, 10 silver and bronze medals in world play, and over 30 national titles. In 1994 Wolff was unanimously elected to the WBF Committee of Honour, and he is a member of the Bridge Hall of Fame. His 'Bridge with the Aces' column, which has been appearing for over 25 years, is syndicated by United Feature Syndicate in more than 130 newspapers worldwide.

Customer Reviews

justice, injustice, and bridge
This is indeed a sad tale: it reminds one of justice in a third-world country. Rather than the familiar model of blind justice with a sword and a set of scales, we have a model with both eyes open, a noose in one hand, and the other clinging to a pal she's drunkenly leaning against. Third world justice (and too much US justice) depends on who you know: right and wrong are irrelevant. Much of Lone Wolff is devoted to what might be loosely termed "irregularities", which covers the gamut from questionable ethical play, information gained through pauses, unholy arrangements to fiddle with scores, to downright deliberate cheating. This, for me, is the most interesting part: it brings me back to when I first read Truscott's startling "The Great Bridge Scandal". Other parts of the book deal autobiographically with Wolff's life, how he became a bridge player, etc--things that are not very different from what you might find in many autobiographical bridge works.

Much of the book ties in to what people believe and want to believe. I had a student who was a tournament bridge player: he was positive that the accusations against Reese and Shapiro had to be false. I loaned him Truscott's book, with its diagrams and photos: it was quite a disillusionment for him. Lone Wolff describes a plethora of similar cases. There are the teams who when they play each other agree beforehand to record, say, a 16-14 victory as 30-0, whoever wins. There are players who deliberately pause for effect when they have decent hands and then pass. There's one grotesque deal described where south opens, west pauses, hems and haws, so to speak with a good hand, north passes, and east, who has 6 points (2 queens, 2 jacks) overcalls 2 clubs on a 5-card suit to the queen. south passes, as does west, who has 13 points. An easy bid for east if you know your partner has a decent hand, and the final contract was 2 clubs. South appealed, and was slapped with an AWMW (appeal without merit warning)--for a frivolous appeal. But there's worse--much worse! Imagine a baseball game where, with the bases loaded in the 9th the batter strikes out on a 3-2 count. Or it certainly looks as if he swung and missed. The batter tells the umpire "That pitch was outside--I didn't mean to swing at it". The umpire agrees, and the swing-and-miss becomes ball 4 instead. Absurd? Assuredly. But perhaps only in baseball, not in tournament bridge. Wolff describes a cold 6 club contract by south (he was west). Declarer called for a low spade to be led from dummy, and went down. Some time after the deal was finished declarer called the director and said that what she intended to say was a low club from dummy (which would have made the contract). She won the appeal, and so the tournament result was changed from down 1 to 6 clubs bid and made.

There are too many caes like the above--too often decisions are based on who you are and who you know. Wolff describes situations where he had to rule against friends--some respected him for it, but others did not: they expected favorable rulings, not justice. So this is a good and interesting book, but a sad one. It's like reading about crooked NBA refs who throw games: you love the game, but hate the politics and deception.

A great inside look at bridge administration
Bobby Wolff not only shares insights into his life a one of the great bridge players but also as one of the most active bridge administrators of our time. He pulls no punches in sharing his perspectives on what he thinks works well and where improvement is possible, and gets very specific on past episodes which he considers foolish all the way to shameful.

Too Little Too Late
Bobby's ego aside, it is a decent re-cap of many well known incidents. Rather, why not share the dirt of the current incidents rampant in the ACBL at all levels? Tens of thousands of us have completely given up the game due to the unholy symbiotic relationship between the professionals, the directors, and the ACBL hierarchy. The late, great administrator, Robin McNab, predicted professionalism would kill American Tournament Bridge. It has.

Doubt me? Look at the numbers. When America's population was about one hundred fifty million people the ACBL had about two hundred thousand active playing members. Now with a population of three hundred million the ACBL boasts about twenty thousand active players. It doesn't take Ozzie's brilliant mind to run those numbers.

Blaming alternate entertainment options is a red herring. The problem truly is the unholy trilogy mentioned above. The day to day player, as well as the brilliant amateur are totally disgusted with the rampant cheating inherent to professionals and their favored treatment by all in control of the game.

One other question Bobby, why did you and Hammond and many others continue to play with known cheaters on your teams at the world level? Was it that terrible urge to "win at all costs" that you accuse other players of harboring, or was it simply that you can readily criticize other world class players much easier than your own teammates? Have you ever entertained the idea that maybe, just maybe, Mike Lawernce was too ethical to remain on "THE DALLAS ACES REDUX?"

If you are disgusted with the current situation as I am the book is a good read to verify your "gut" feeling of what has gone wrong. If you are a newer player and are interested in how it happened it is also a good read. If you are a flight A player or higher don't bother. It is simply a recap of well known incidents. Nothing that is happening now is remotely reported. Probably due to all the ACBL lawyers that are most of the problem.

And Bobby, there are those of us willing to give up the game due to the lack of ethics demonstrated at all levels rather than be a part of them. I too fought the good fight for many years. Everyone in the Western Conference (later WASUMI) watched my articles ETHICALLY SPEAKING {(circa 1982-1984)(limited distribution)} reappear some four years later in the world wide version of THE BULLITIN under the by line of ACTIVE ETHICS, nearly word for word. I think it was coincidence