Robert "Bobby", "Bob" Goldman (November 10, 1938 – May 16, 1999) was an American

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

player, teacher and writer. He won three

Bermuda Bowl The Bermuda Bowl is a biennial contract bridge world championship for national . It is contested every odd-numbered year under the auspices of the World Bridge Federation (WBF), alongside the Venice Cup (women), the d'Orsi Senior Bowl and the W ...

s (1970, 1971, 1979), Olympiad Mixed Teams 1972, and 20

North American Bridge Championships North American Bridge Championships (NABC) are three annual bridge tournaments sponsored by the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL). The "Spring", "Summer", and "Fall" NABCs are usually scheduled in March, July, and November for about eleven da ...

. He authored books on bridge, most notably ''Aces Scientific'' and ''Winners and Losers at the Bridge Table'', and

conventions Convention may refer to: * Convention (norm), a custom or tradition, a standard of presentation or conduct ** Treaty, an agreement in international law * Convention (meeting), meeting of a (usually large) group of individuals and/or companies in ...

including Kickback,

Exclusion Blackwood In the partnership card game contract bridge, the Blackwood convention is a bidding convention developed by Easley Blackwood in 1933 and still widely used in the modern game. Its purpose is to enable the partnership to explore its possession of ace ...

and Super Gerber (Redwood). He was from

Highland Village, Texas Highland Village is a city in Denton County, Texas, United States. It is a suburb of Dallas and Fort Worth, located on the south side of the far western branch of Lewisville Lake. As of the 2020 United States census the city's population was 1 ...

. Goldman first played

duplicate bridge Duplicate bridge is a variation of contract bridge where the same set of bridge deals (i.e. the distribution of the 52 cards among the four hands) are played by different competitors, and scoring is based on relative performance. In this way, eve ...

in 1957 while studying at

Drexel University Drexel University is a private research university with its main campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Drexel's undergraduate school was founded in 1891 by Anthony J. Drexel, a financier and philanthropist. Founded as Drexel Institute of Ar ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. He began teaching six months later and taught "a modest number of classes" until he joined the

Dallas Aces The Dallas Aces (initially the U.S. Aces, later simply the Aces) were the world's first professional bridge team, organized in 1968 by Dallas businessman Ira Corn. Corn was determined to return bridge supremacy to America after the domination of t ...

team in 1968. His early partners with the Aces were Michael Lawrence and

Billy Eisenberg William Eisenberg (born September 5, 1937The 1st World Mind Sports Games
. ...

; the team won Bermuda Bowls in 1970 and 1971. About that time he began "teaching heavily—15 department classes a week" and some private lessons. His favorite partner was

Paul Soloway Paul Soloway (October 10, 1941 – November 5, 2007) was a world champion American bridge player. He won the Bermuda Bowl world team championship five times and won 30 North American Bridge Championships "national"-level events. Soloway was induc ...

, with whom he played more than two decades. Goldman was an

American Contract Bridge League The American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) is a governing body for contract bridge in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Bermuda. It is the largest such organization in North America having the stated mission ''"to promote, grow and sustain t ...

(ACBL) Grand Life Master with more than 25,000

masterpoints Masterpoints or master points are points awarded by bridge organizations to individuals for success in competitive bridge tournaments run under their auspices. Generally, recipients must be members in good standing of the issuing organization. At t ...

and a

World Bridge Federation The World Bridge Federation (WBF) is the international governing body of contract bridge. The WBF is responsible for world championship competitions, most of which are conducted at a few multi-event meets on a four-year cycle. The most prestigiou ...

(WBF) World Grand Master. He was active in ACBL administration, participating in its Competition and Conventions Committee, Committee for an Open and Improved ACBL, and Women's Forum. On the former committee he contributed to shaping the ACBL alert procedure,

convention card In contract bridge and particularly in duplicate bridge a convention card is a summary of the conventions and treatments that a particular pair is using. The Laws of Duplicate Bridge specify that "Each partnership has a duty to make available its ...

, ethics and appeals process, and smoking ban. Goldman died of a heart attack in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County wi ...

, at the age of 60.

Works

;Books * ''Aces Scientific'' (Inglewood, CA: Max Hardy, 1978) * ''Winners and Losers at the Bridge Table'', illustrated by Mary Grace (Hardy, 1979) ;Pamphlets * ''Doubles'' (Louisville, KY: Devyn Press, 1981), Championship Bridge no. 23 * ''Slam Bidding is Fun'' (Goldman, 198?) – "The 500 hands were randomly dealt by computer."; created and programmed by Bobby Goldman

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 1999

Wins

(3) 1970, 1971, 1979 * Olympiad Mixed Teams (1) 1972 *

(20) **

Vanderbilt Vanderbilt may refer to: People *Vanderbilt (surname) *Vanderbilt family Places In the United States: * Vanderbilt, California, a former gold-mining town *Vanderbilt, Michigan, a village *Vanderbilt, Nevada, a ghost town * Vanderbilt Mansion Nat ...

(5) 1971, 1973, 1978, 1997, 1998 **

Spingold The Spingold national bridge championship is held at the summer American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC). The Spingold is a knock-out team event that attracts the top contract bridge players in the world. T ...

(5) 1969, 1978, 1983, 1986, 1988 **

Reisinger The Reisinger national bridge championship is held at the fall American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC). The Reisinger is a board-a-match event. History The event is contested for the Reisinger Trophy ( ...

(3) 1970, 1976, 1980 ** Open Board-a-Match Teams (1) 1993 ** Men's Board-a-Match Teams (1) 1968 ** North American Swiss Teams (1) 1998 **

Jacoby Open Swiss Teams The Jacoby Open Swiss Teams national bridge championship is held at the spring American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC). The Jacoby Open Swiss Teams is a four session Swiss Teams event with two qualifying ...

(1) 1991 ** North American Men's Swiss Teams (1) 1989 ** Life Master Pairs (1) 1968 ** Life Master Men's Pairs (1) 1964 * United States Bridge Championships (6) ** Open Team Trials (6) 1969, 1971, 1973, 1979 (Jan), 1984, 1995 * Other notable wins: ** Cavendish Invitational Teams (1) 1994 ** Pan American Invitational Open Teams (1) 1977 ** Pan American Invitational Open Pairs (1) 1977

Runners-up

(2) 1973, 1974 * World Open Team Olympiad (1) 1972 *

(17) **

(3) 1966, 1970, 1976 **

(4) 1970, 1990, 1994, 1996 **

(5) 1968, 1986, 1990, 1993, 1994 **

Grand National Teams The Grand National Teams (GNT) North American bridge championship is held at the summer American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC). The Grand National Teams is a team knockout event. The event is broken into ...

(1) 1998 ** Open Board-a-Match Teams (1) 1995 ** Men's Board-a-Match Teams (2) 1969, 1984 **

Blue Ribbon Pairs The Edgar Kaplan Blue Ribbon Pairs (or simply the Blue Ribbon Pairs) is a national bridge championship held at the fall American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC). The event is restricted to those that have wo ...

(1) 1968 * United States Bridge Championships (2) ** Open Team Trials (1) 1973 ** Open Pair Trials (1) 1968 * Other notable 2nd places: ** Forbo-Krommenie International Teams (2) 1993, 1998 ** Sunday Times Invitational Pairs (1) 1990

References

External links

* – with video interview * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Goldman, Bobby 1938 births 1999 deaths American contract bridge players Bermuda Bowl players Contract bridge writers Drexel University alumni People from Denton County, Texas Place of birth missing