Robert David HammanThe 1st World Mind Sports Games. info.2008wmsg.chinaqiyuan.com (born August 6, 1938"Mr. Bridge" . Paul Barka. Texas Monthly, May 2010. 6 pages.) is an American professional bridge player. He is considered to be one of the greatest bridge players of all time. He is from Dallas, Texas.

Hamman and Bobby Wolff played as partners for nearly three decades on teams that challenged for major trophies in North America and often for world championships. Representing the United States (from about 1980, previously North America) they won eight world championships for national teams, the 1988 World Team Olympiad and seven Bermuda Bowls spanning 1970 to 1995. For the last they were members of Nick Nickell's professional team, where Hamman remained a fixture through the current two-year cycle and won three more Bermuda Bowls in partnership with Paul Soloway and Zia Mahmood.

Beginning 2012/2013, Nickell has replaced Bob Hamman and Zia Mahmood with Bobby Levin–Steve Weinstein.Levin-Weinstein Joining Nickell in 2012 (2011-07-05). Bridge Winners. Retrieved 2011-07-15. A new pairing for Hamman with Bart Bramley was announced in JulyHamman Joins New Team for Next Cycle (2011-07-22). Bridge Winners. Retrieved 2011-07-23. but never secured, according to a November report that Hamman will play with Justin Lall.Justin Lall to Play With Bob Hamman (2011-11-27). Bridge Winners. Retrieved 2011-11-27. Justin was a silver medalist in the 2011 Bermuda Bowl. 40th World Team Championship. 2011. Retrieved 2011-11-29. and is the son of Hemant Lall, Hamman's partner in 2007.. 38th World Team Championship. 2007. Retrieved 2011-11-29.

Bob Hamman is known to promote young talent. He played with Finn Kolesnik and Jacob Freeman playing the NABC with them.

Bob Hamman also played with a very young player 13-year old World Champion from India Anshul Bhatt and had great things to say about the young man saying in humor “Well done. I am glad that my opponents are not as tough as Anshul.”. Bhatt also quoted Bob Hamman in his TED talk "Bridge-A Game for Life".

Bridge career Hamman first qualified for a world championship in the open category by winning the American Contract Bridge League international trials in 1963, for the 1964 World Team Olympiad. That was a "pairs trial" from which the winning pair and two of the three runners-up would be selected as a 6-person team.

Dallas businessman Ira Corn established the first full-time professional team in 1968, the Dallas Aces, later simply Aces. Hamman joined in 1969, as the sixth player, and established a partnership with Billy Eisenberg. Following the retirement of Italy's Blue team, they won the 1970 Bermuda Bowl as North America representative and repeated in 1971 as defending champion. He has won 12 world championships and 50 North American championships. Hamman and Brent Manley wrote his autobiography At the Table: My Life and Times, published in 1994 (). He was inducted into the ACBL Hall of Fame in 1999; a version of his citation that reports 23,219 s to March 2001 also reads:

"One of the world's greatest players, ranks #1 among WBF [World Bridge Federation] Grand Masters, also ranks 1st in world performance over past 10 years. Member ACBL Hall of Fame. Has been highest ranked player in the world since 1985.""Robert D. Hamman". Hall of Fame. ACBL. [Internally dated March 2001]. Archived 2007-06-01. Retrieved 2011-07-24.

Hamman's most unusual accomplishment may be eight wins in the ACBL's most important pair championships (Blue Ribbon Pairs, Life Master Pairs and Men's Pairs) with eight different partners. He won the World Open Pairs once, with Bobby Wolff in 1974, and he was second in 1994 with Michael Rosenberg.

Probably his most popular and emotional win, other than the 1970 Bermuda Bowl, was the annual Vanderbilt Trophy, the oldest open teams event in North America, in 2000. Despite myriad other wins, Hamman had not won the Vanderbilt since 1973. His partner Paul Soloway was severely ill, commuting between the tournament site and the hospital, and literally came out of his sickbed to play the final quarter of the quarterfinal match; they won that session by 34 IMPs to win the match by 1. On the final board, Hamman and Soloway had a bidding misunderstanding to reach a very poor 6H contract, but their opponents could not work out declarer's hand due to the unusual auction, and the contract made, providing the margin of victory.

Hamman's Law is the maxim, "If you have a choice of reasonable bids and one of them is 3NT, then bid it."English Bridge, June 2006, p. 19.

Prize coverage business Hamman founded SCA Promotions in 1986. The company offers a form of insurance where they cover the prize money for large competitions, initially focusing on hole-in-one prizes in golf.Lifetime achievement award press release In 2015, SCA was able to retrieve money from Lance Armstrong that had been paid to cover prize money.Lance Armstrong settles with Bob Hamman bridgwinners.com

He was portrayed by Dustin Hoffman in the 2015 film The Program, dealing with Lance Armstrong's career and downfall.

Bridge accomplishments

Honors ACBL Hall of Fame, 1999"Induction by Year" . Hall of Fame. ACBL. Retrieved 2014-12-16. ACBL Honorary Member of the Year 1991

Awards ACBL Player of the Year 1990, 1993, 2006 Fishbein Trophy 1969, 1983 Herman Trophy 1978, 1988, 1993 Precision Award (Best Defended Hand of the Year) 1986, 1993

Wins Bermuda Bowl (10) 1970, 1971, 1977, 1983, 1985, 1987, 1995, 2000, 2003, 2009 World Open Team Olympiad (1) 1988 World Open Pairs (1) 1974 d'Orsi Senior Bowl World Zonal Team Championship (1) 2015 World Senior Team Championship (1) 2016 North American Bridge Championships (54) Vanderbilt (6) 1964, 1966, 1971, 1973, 2000, 2003 Spingold (15) 1969, 1979, 1982, 1983, 1989, 1990, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2004, 2006, 2007 Chicago (now Reisinger) (1) 1962 Reisinger (11) 1970, 1978, 1979, 1988, 1993, 1994, 1995, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2009 Grand National Teams (4) 1975, 1977, 1986, 2006 Open Board-a-Match Teams (2) 2008, 2019 Men's Board-a-Match Teams (1) 1988 Jacoby Open Swiss Teams (3) 1990, 2006, 2009 Master Mixed Teams (1) 1987 Blue Ribbon Pairs (4) 1964, 1986, 1991, 1993 Life Master Pairs (3) 1980, 1983, 1992 Platinum Pairs (1) 2012 Senior Knockout Teams (1) (2016) Men's Pairs (1) 1986 United States Bridge Championships (18) Open Team Trials (17) 1969, 1971, 1973, 1977, 1979 (Dec), 1982, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1992, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2012 Open Pair Trials (1) 1963 Other notable wins: Buffett Cup (4) 2006, 2010, 2012, 2019 Cavendish Invitational Pairs (1) 1998

Runners-up Bermuda Bowl (6) 1966, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1997, 2005 World Open Team Olympiad (4) 1964, 1972, 1980, 1992 World Open Pairs (1) 1994 World Mixed Pairs (2) 1986, 1994 North American Bridge Championships (19) Vanderbilt (5) 1968, 1970, 1981, 1996, 2002 Spingold (1) 1970 Reisinger (1) 1968 Open Board-a-Match Teams (2) 1998, 1999 Men's Board-a-Match Teams (4) 1969, 1980, 1984, 1989 Jacoby Open Swiss Teams (1) 1992 Life Master Men's Pairs (2) 1980, 1981 Open Pairs (1) 1988 Open Pairs I (1) 1999 Men's Pairs (1) 1985 United States Bridge Championships (3) Open Team Trials (2) 1979 (Jan), 1997 Open Pair Trials (1) 1965 Other notable 2nd places: Buffett Cup (1) 2008 Forbo-Krommenie Nations Cup (1) 1997 Cavendish Invitational Teams (1) 1997 Sunday Times–Macallan Invitational Pairs (1) 1992 Pamp World Par Contest (1) 1990

Publications

Notes

References

Further reading

External links – with video interviews

Bob Hamman at Bridge Winners