Hal Sims was born in Selma, Alabama on November 8, 1886 and was one of America's greatest pre-1935 players.

While he was a member of the U.S. Army Corp in 1917 he met and married the divorced Dorothy Rice an aviator and a bridge player made famous by her famous and feared psychics.

After the First World War, Hal devoted himself completely to playful and sporting passions in which without too many exceptions, he always excelled: tennis, backgammon, golf, billiards and, of course, bridge.

At the time of the Auction he was part of the legendary Knickerbocker Whist Club Team with Sidney Lenz and, subsequently, he was sponsor and captain of the famous Four Horseman team (with Oswald Jacoby, David Burnstine and Willard S. Karn) with whom, from 1931 to 1933, he won practically everything.

His club "The Deal Club" which he founded in Deal, New Jersey was, between 1930 and 1935, the headquarters of the leading experts of the time and a forge from which many good players emerged.

Between 1930 and 1932 he won 7 national titles including two Vanderbilts and one Spingold.

Hal, who stood out for his almost 2 meters of stature and for his 150Kg. of weight, together with his wife Dorothy elaborated a complex declarative system with which he challenged the legendary Ely Culbertson in 1935 on the length of 150 rubber in what was called the Battle of the Giants, only to be defeated.

After this defeat, Hal devoted most of his energy to golf by playing bridge only occasionally, although he is believed to have won more than half of the tournaments he had participated in!

Hal died on February 26, 1949 of a heart attack while playing a hand of bridge in Cuba in the Havana Country Club where, with his wife, it was customary for him to spend the winter in the last years of his life.

The ACBL in 1997 elected him to the Hall of Fame.