Situation A

This set of typical situations has been assembled primarily for the benefit and interest of those who, whilst considering themselves as “amateur TDs”, find themselves organising and directing duplicate bridge competitions in their clubs. They perform competently and take an interest in directing matters but they have no wish to enrol on any course or to seek formal qualifications.

We are indebted to Mike Shine and some long established members of the Hatfield Heath Bridge Club who drew attention to this matter. They became interested in a set of 40 Table Situations published on the EBU Website (www.ebu.co.uk/lawsandethics) but were disappointed to find that the solutions were only available to Qualified Club TDs. The EBU has explained, quite reasonably, that the problems were designed for the more experienced who were preparing for the County TD Qualification.

This set of situations is more straightforward and concentrates upon the “Book Rulings” rather than “Judgement Rulings”. The problems should be readily comprehensible to competent club players but most have a “sting in the tail” so that the more experienced could find them challenging. They might of course have reservations about the proffered solutions. If so, please contact

gerald.everitt@tiscali.co.uk

garykconrad@btinternet.com

The reader is advised to have to hand a copy of “The Laws of Duplicate Contract Bridge 1997” to which reference is made in the recommended answers. The layout of the Law Book is logical but it often does not appear so when trying to find a relevant Law quickly. We all know, for example, that “Dummy cannot revoke” but “where does it say so?” Those who have worked their ways through these situations should at least know the way around the Law Book

When faced at the table with situations such as these, you will often instinctively know what you ought to do. You will probably be right and the Law Book will probably support you. It has been revised many times (latest 1987 & 1997) to eliminate imperfections and uncertainties at all levels of competitions. Trust your instinct but check with the Book afterwards.

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Situation 1 Missing Card Return to Index

Towards the end of play, it is found that one player has three cards whilst the rest have four. A diligent search is made for the missing card. What do you do in the following cases?

Case 1 It is found at the previous table.

Case 2 It is found on the floor, face upwards.

Case 3 It is found on the floor face downwards.

Case 4 There is an extra card in the played cards.

Case 5 It cannot be found.

Answer 1

Case 1 Restore the card to the deficient hand, (Law 14B)

if exposed it becomes a penalty card (Law 50)

Case 2 Restore the card to the deficient hand as a penalty card

Case 3 Restore the card to the deficient hand.

Case 4 Restore the card from the played cards (Law 67B2)

Case 5 Substitute a new pack . (Law 14B2)

A restored card is deemed to have belonged continuously to the hand.

Failure to have played it might constitute a revoke (Law 14B3).

Note Recreating a deal when a card is completely lost is not easy. Inserting just one card from another pack is not advisable as a permanent solution. The apparently missing card might have been misplaced into another hand. As the players are not allowed to see the cards that have been played they cannot assist in introducing the new pack. With a playing TD a single card may have to be inserted temporarily and a new pack created after the hand has been played. (A relevant note of trivia: The temporarily added card need not have a back of the same colour or design. This is not a requirement of Law 1 in Duplicate Bridge. It is in Rubber Bridge).

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Situation 2 Exposed Card Return to Index

East accidentally drops the seven of diamonds on the table and the TD requires it to be left there as a minor penalty card. The penalties are not great. It must be played before any other small card of the same suit and West is not subject to any direct lead-penalties.

When South, the declarer, draws trumps, West wins the 2^nd round. Being alert, he notices that East played the eight of trumps followed by the six of trumps (Trump Peter) showing that he holds a third trump and is looking for a ruff.

West can see that he and Dummy have many clubs and diamonds between them. Is he allowed to lead a club?

Answer 2

Law 50C rules that the presence of a minor penalty card does not impose any direct lead penalty upon West, but information gained from seeing it is unauthorised and could restrict West’s action.

Leading a club or a diamond are logical alternatives. The exposed diamond shows that there is no ruff available in that suit and indicates a club lead. As this is unauthorised information he is debarred from doing so at this turn.

But if he can win the next trick with a diamond, West is no longer in receipt of unauthorised information and so the embargo on a club lead would have been removed.

Now, as a final variant, suppose East does not play the exposed seven of diamonds but substitutes an honour card as he is entitled to do (Law 50 C). The seven of diamonds remains on the table and the ban on a club lead would remain.

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Situation 3 Contested Claim Return to Index

North Dummy

S K Q J 10

West East

S 5 4 S A 6

H 3 2 H

D D 3

C C 2

South Declarer

H A 6

D A

C A

Lead is in Dummy and Declarer is in a NT contract. The declarer says “I’ll give you the ace of spades” but this is contested. How do you rule?

Answer 3

See Note C Contested Claim (a simple summary)

In this situation, there is the obvious line of play where East wins the first trick and then has to concede three spades or three aces to the declarer.

But if East ducks the first trick, it would be illogical for South not to discard H 6. But on the next trick he has to discard one of his aces. It would not be illogical to discard A C followed by the A D when he has to find another discard thus losing all three tricks. It is too late for South to claim that he knew East did not have a heart (i.e. a card of the heart suit). As this is not an illogical line of play, the TD awards one trick to the declarer and three tricks to the defence.

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Situation 4 Contested Claim Return to Index

North Dummy

S irrelevant

West East

S S irrelevant

H Q J 10 9 H

D K 8 D

C C

South Declarer

D A Q J 10 9

C J

Declarer, on lead in a club contract, claims “the diamonds are good, the rest are mine”. When challenged, he adds “Of course I will draw any outstanding trump!” How do you rule?

Answer 4

See Note C Contested Claim (a simple summary)

It is too late for the claim about drawing trumps to have any effect upon the adjudication whether or not it goes in his favour. The lines of action are

a) Declarer cashes J C and then wins a diamond next or at the end. (2 to declarer)

b) Declarer wins A D and then concedes a diamond. (5 to declarer).

c) West, bravely or foolishly, discards the 8 D on the J C and then wins the rest when Declarer plays a small diamond. (1 to declarer).

d) As in c) West discards the 8 D on the J C but Declarer cashes A D first.

(6 to declarer)

The definition of “normal” in the footnote to Law 69 is relevant. The TD would probably select a) as being the least advantageous of the normal lines of play and award the declarer only two tricks.

The footnote about normal refers primarily to the play of the claimant but could, perhaps, relate to the play of the opponents.

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Situation 5 Contested Claim Return to Index

North Dummy

S 5 4 3 2

West East

S S 9 8 7 6

H Q 6 H

D K D

C 7 C

South Declarer

S A

H K

D Q

C K

Declarer on lead in a NT contract claims the remaining tricks. How do you rule?

Answer 5

See Note C Contested Claim (a simple summary)

As the declarer believes all his cards are winners he might play them in any order. The following order could be considered normal and is the least advantageous to the claimant.

Win K H Lose Q D Discard K C on Q H Lose to 7 C

The TD should award 3 tricks to the defence

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Situation 6 Contested Claim Return to Index

North Dummy

D 4

C 10 5

West East

S S

H 7 H 2

D Q D 3

C A C 3

South Declarer

H 5

D K J

Case a) Declarer leads D 4 from dummy and claims the rest?

Case b) Declarer leads D 4 to his D K and claims the rest?

Case c) Declarer leads D 4 from dummy, West says “I’ will take the ace of clubs”.

How do you rule?

Answer 6

See Note C Contested Claim (a simple summary)

Case a) After finesse, declarer loses all. (No tricks to declarer)

Case b) Plays K D, J D and loses 5 H (2 tricks to declarer)

or Plays KD then loses 5 H & A C (1 trick to declarer)

As neither is illogical for a player believing all are winners, award only 1 trick to declarer

Case c) This is treated as a concession by West, so a normal line of play least advantageous to him is chosen. Declarer wins K D, J D and 5 H (3 tricks to declarer)

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Situation 7 Correction of Inadvertency during the Auction Return to Index

Dr North is dealer and bids one heart. Miss East is just making her bid when Dr North is summoned hastily to a club member who has collapsed at the far end of the room. All is well and he returns after ten minutes or so. There is a review of the auction and he sees the bid of one spade by Miss East for the first time. He objects as that was what he intended to bid. Now what?

Answer 7

Law 25A applies and Dr North is allowed to substitute his intended call “one spade” for his actual call of “one heart” because he tried to do so without pause for thought. He was thinking very intensely during the ten minutes that he was dealing with his patient but it has been held that it is only thoughts about Bridge that matters for this purpose. If during his absence, his partner had unwisely made a call then it would have been too late for Dr North to change his call.

If the room had to be abandoned for several hours, say because of a bomb alert, the TD would probably not allow a Law 25A correction but then he would probably cancel the hands in play at all the tables.

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Situation 8 Correction of Inadvertency during the Auction Return to Index

“Until his partner makes a call, it is no offence for a player to substitute his intended call for an inadvertent call but only if he does so, or attempts to do so, without pause for thought”

Is this statement correct?

Answer 8

Not quite! Study the wording of Law 25A. A player may substitute his intended call without penalty but technically he has still offended. The difference is relevant if the next player has made a call over the original call and then wishes to change it. For the technical offender and his partner information from both withdrawn calls is unauthorised. (Law16C2) but is authorised for the non-offenders.

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Situation 9 Correction of Inadvertency during the Auction Return to Index

South the dealer bids one NT and as the opponents look towards North for an announcement, he quickly says “Oh, I didn’t mean that” and replaces it with one club. Do you allow this change?

Answer 9

Law 25A requires the call made to be inadvertent. You have to decide whether or not the One NT bid was a “slip of the hand” and South inadvertently pulled out the 1NT card four places away. Or was it more likely that there was some confusion in his mind between opening “one NT” or “one club followed by a one NT rebid”?

If you consider the first unlikely then you rule that the one NT bid stands and the one Club statement of intent conveyed unauthorised information.

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Situation 10 Correcting a revoke Return to Index

North Dummy

S A J 10 9

West East

S Q 7 6 S 5 4 3

H H

D D

C 3 C 4

South Declarer

S K 8

C K 8

The J S is led from Dummy. Declarer plays K C but realises he has revoked when West plays the Q S. He is obliged to correct the revoke by substituting the K S and West substitutes the 8 S for the queen.

1 Declarer now leads a small and finesses the 10 S. Is this permitted?

2 Otherwise he does not lead a spade and plays on the other suits (not shown). The TD suspects that planning the very clever squeeze against one of the opponents was helped by declarer’s knowledge of the position of the queen of spades. The TD is uncertain because he isn’t very good at squeeze play. What should he do?

Answer 10

1 South’s knowledge of the whereabouts of the queen of spades is unauthorised (Law 16C2). In playing spades, he has a choice of playing the ace of spades or finessing the jack of spades. As the second is indicated by the unauthorised information he must play the ace.

2 Where the penalty is clear the TD applies it whether or not he thinks it appropriate (Law 12B). But where the sequence is more complicated he may have to rely upon Law 72B1. This is carefully worded so that the TD is not required to decide whether the action was deliberate just whether the transgressor could have known that the irregularity was likely to damage the opponents. Without investigating more deeply he could award an adjusted score. This sequence was once named the “Alcatraz Coup”.

An alleged offender often claims “Of course I didn’t know, otherwise I would not have done it”. The TD should interpret “could have known” as “there was sufficient information available at that time for a diligent thinker to have forseen etc……” In contrast, the offender could not have known about a good or bad break of the cards that only came to light later.

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Situation 11 Correcting a revoke Return to Index

North Dummy

S 7 6 4

H 4 3

D 7 3 2

C A K Q 5 2

West East

S J 9 8 S Q J 10 5

H A J 8 5 2 H Q 9 6

D J 4 D 10 9 8 6

C 9 8 7 C 10 6

South Declarer

S A K 3 2

H K 10 7

D A K Q 5

C 4 3

South, the Declarer in 3 NT is relieved to win the opening lead of the five of hearts with the king of hearts and is now assured of his contract. He cannot risk a safety play for one overtrick in clubs so when the jack of clubs does not fall, claims his nine top tricks.

East does not notice the jack of clubs hidden among his spades. Not realising that he had revoked, he shuffles his cards as he is always being urged to do by the TD and returns them to the board.

Case 1 If at some time he had realised that he had revoked is he obliged to confess?

Case 2 During the discussion before the next hand, the cards are (illegally) taken from the board and the revoke is revealed. How does the TD rule?

Case 3 Otherwise, examining the hand record sheets the following day, the irregularity is then detected. Is there any redress?

Answer 11

Case 1 Probably not. See Law 72B3

Case 2 There is still time for the TD to assess a penalty for the established revoke. (Law 64B4 &64B5) and for him to note the improper viewing of the cards.

Case 3 Probably not

Most clubs do set the Correction Period for Appeals (Law92B) and for the Correction of Scores (Law 79C) at several days in place of the 30 minutes of tournament play. During this time the TD could be asked to rule upon the revoke but he would probably be obliged to rule it out of time.

Correspondents have suggested that adjusting the score would be acceptable in a friendly club. A TD should be very wary of setting a precedent and should forsee the time when he could not intervene in what would appear to be a very similar case. Acrimony can arise when players feel thay their opponents have not extended the usual generosity.

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Situation 12 Wrong Boards / Wrong Players Return to Index

What does the TD do in the following situations?

Case1 Play has finished before it is discovered that the board from the previous table has been played rather than one from the relay. Would it matter if the error had been discovered just after the auction had started?

Case 2 A wrong board is played but the error is not discovered until play has finished. One pair has played it earlier in a Howell Movement in a different direction.

Case 3 The board is correct but one pair has played it erroneously in a previous round.

Case 4 After the auction has started the correct EW pair arrives

Answer 12

Case 1 If the play of a board has been completed and none of the four players has previously played the board then the result is allowed to stand (Law 15A1) but a 10% penalty is imposed upon each pair to redress the overall balance. (See Note below).

Though not authorised by law, if a pair has started an auction with a wrong board, they will still be penalised later so they might as well complete the auction and play the board. It would be impractical to apply the procedure of Law 15C twice to the two later encounters.

Cases 2 & 3 This later score is cancelled (Law 15 A2).

Case 4 If the auction has just started then it might be possible to recover, when only one pair is in the wrong place. Law 15C describes how a second auction can be held with the other correct pair. But if this auction does not start with the same sequence of calls the board is cancelled. In contrast to a restart after a missing card has been found (Law 13), the players are not asked if they wish to continue in this way. It would be unacceptable for a player to try and achieve the same affect by making an outrageously different bid. A penalty could be imposed (Law 74A2).

Note: The following example indicates how the scores are adjusted.

NS6 is scheduled to play Board 13 against EW5 but erroneously plays Board 15. In consequence the later encounters NS6 v EW4 and NS12 v EW 5 have to be abandoned. The innocent pairs EW4 and NS12 are each awarded 60%. This is shown conveniently on the score sheet as

NS12 v EW4 60% : 60%

NS6 v EW5 actual score

To compensate the other pairs playing this board, NS6 and EW5 are also each penalised 10%.

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Situation 13 Wrong Hand Return to Index

South is declarer in four hearts. He calls the TD as he objects to the opening lead of the ace of hearts by West. He holds it in his own hand! How does the TD rule?

Answer 13

Clearly West or South has taken a hand from a different board. As the normal play of the board is impossible the TD awards an Artificial Score (Law 12C1). This would normally be average minus (40%) to the transgressor and and otherwise average-plus (60%).

If a pair has yet to play the board from which the hand was wrongly taken, the TD would have to decide upon the status of the exposed ace of hearts applying Law 16 or (stretching a point) Law 24.

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Situation 14 Out-of-rotation bid condoned Return to Index

South is dealer but East bids One Club (out of rotation). The auction continues without comment. The apparent full auction is

E 1 C S 1 D W 1 S N Pass

E 1 NT S Pass W 2 C N Pass

E Pass S Pass

Who is the Declarer? When asked, South tells the TD that he did not see the 1 C by East. He knew he was the dealer and was concentrating upon his opening bid.

Answer 14

There is a conflict between Law 28B and Law 29A.

Law 28B As it was the turn of South his call is in rotation. The right to penalise East is forfeited and “the auction proceeds as though the opponent had not called at that turn”.

but

Law 29A: South is the LHO of East and so “may elect to call thereby forfeiting the right to penalise” The call is condoned and is NOT cancelled

There was no indication from East at the time of what he intended. His later statement suggests that in his mind his One Diamond was an opening bid. To the other players, not so concerned with this nicety, it was probably an overcall. As he did not positively “elect to call”, it could be assumed that he did not intend Law 29A to apply and the One Club stands.

In this example the indecision affects only the identity of the declarer. It could have a more significant effect but the introduction of the new rules on announcing and alerts in 2006 has removed many of the opportunities for uncertainty.

David Stevenson, the Editor of the Orange Book and the White Book advises that when their is doubt Law 28B takes precedence over Law 29A. (email to GDE 30/8/05).

See also Note D Calls out of Rotation (aide- memoire)

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Situation 15 Pass out of Rotation Return to Index

North opens One No-Trump announced as ’12 to 14’ followed by an out-of-rotation Pass from West. How does the TD rule?

Later it is revealed that West has a Yarborough!

Answer 15

See Note B - Calls out of Rotation (aide memoire)

For passing when it is his partner’s turn to call (Law 30B2), West is obliged to pass for the rest of the auction and East may not double at that turn.

Later it becomes clear that West, holding a worthless hand, has been saved the embarrassment of responding to a likely penalty double by his partner. Depending upon the outcome, the TD might consider imposing an adjusted score such as 1 NT redoubled + several, as West could have known that the opponents could have been damaged by the infraction. (Law 72B1)

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Situation 16 Opening Lead out of Turn Return to Index

South is the “putative” declarer when East makes a face-up opening lead out-of-rotation. What are the five remedies from which South can choose?. Are there any other restrictions upon EW?

Answer 16

The application of the relevant Laws (54, 53, 41, 56 et al) are encapsulated in the five well known choices for the assumed declarer.

1 Accept the lead and spread dummy

2 Accept the lead and let partner play the hand

The lead is npt accepted and becomes a penalty card and

3 Lead of that suit is forbidden

4 Lead of that suit is required

5 No lead penalties

For a fuller description, see Note B Opening Leads

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Situation 17 Opening Lead out of Turn Return to Index

South is declarer in a contract of six hearts when East faces the five of diamonds out of turn.. South listens to his five options from the TD, rejects the out-of-turn lead and requires West to lead a Diamond.

West cannot comply. Can South now impose any other condition?

West then leads a club to East’s Ace. What restrictions are there upon the next lead by East?

Answer 17

See Note B Opening Leads

It is too late for declarer to impose other restrictions. (Law 59). That West has no diamonds is authorised information for all so East may lead whatever he wishes.

The knowledge that West could ruff hearts was exposed not from the transgression by West but rather from the misjudgement by South.

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Situation 18 Error in Hand passed from another Table Return to Index

a) North has 14 cards, East has 12 cards. Neither North nor East has looked at their hands.

b) North has bid one club before realising he has 14 cards.

c) West has found the hand record for East in his slot before looking at his hand.

d) South has 13 cards but none agrees with the hand record

e) The auction has finished and the opening lead faced before it is realised that dummy has only 12 cards.

Answer 18

The hands must be corrected as described in Law 13A. A TD participating in the competition who has yet to play the board will rely upon players at the previous table to carry out the corrections.

If no player has seen another’s cards, then the board can be played normally.

The TD may decide that the corrections were not significant even though some may have seen cards from another hand. With the agreement of all the board can be played and scored normally.

Otherwise artificial adjusted scores will be assigned as specified in Law .12C1 according to the responsibility of each contestant for the irregularity

If the irregularity could have been detected without exposing the cards (e.g. wrong number of cards in a slot) the