Fred Hamilton

Fred Hamilton (born 1936) is a professional American bridge player. Hamilton is a World Bridge Federation (WBF) World Grand Master and American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) Grand Life Master and inventor of the popular Hamilton convention used to compete over the opponent's 1NT opening bid.

Born and raised in East Lansing, Michigan, he is more recently from Encino, California. Hamilton has won two world championships, the 1976 Bermuda Bowl as a member of the North America team – beating Italy, with three Blue Team players, in the final – and the 1994 World Senior Pairs Championship with Hamish Bennett. He names Billy Eisenberg, Mark Lair, Mike Passell and Paul Soloway as "my favorite partners and good friends".

Awards

Herman Trophy (1) 1974

Wins

Bermuda Bowl (1) 1976 World Senior Pairs Championship (1) 1994 Cavendish Invitational Pairs (1) 1982 Leventritt Silver Ribbon Pairs (2) 2001, 2012 Grand National Teams (1) 1998 Truscott Senior Swiss Teams (4) 1998, 2003, 2008, 2013 Vanderbilt (1) 1977 Senior Knockout Teams (2) 1996, 1998 Chicago Mixed Board-a-Match (1) 1976 Reisinger (4) 1974, 1975, 1978, 1979 Spingold (1) 1979

Runners-up

Bermuda Bowl (1) 1977 Wernher Open Pairs (1) 1986 Grand National Teams (1) 1974 Truscott Senior Swiss Teams (2) 2004, 2005 Mitchell Board-a-Match Teams (1) 1980 Chicago Mixed Board-a-Match (1) 1967