Jacksonville Duplicate Bridge Club Discussion Page

This week's topic: Unscrewing The Inscrutable

What do the IRS, Mutual of Omaha, and the ACBL have in common? They have all created documents of such depth of detail and staggering dullness that only paid professionals and masochists have ever read through one of them completely. That's why sometimes we find ourselves saying in surprise: "I can't deduct my pet's therapy?" or "I'm not covered for lava flows?" or "Why can't I tell my partner what was played on that last trick?"

One of our club's resolutions for this year is to go through some of the rules and proprieties that either come up with some regularity or that people have questions or misunderstandings about. Before getting into specifics, please be aware that these subjects are being addressed in order to make your bridge more enjoyable by helping to decrease the number of problems that come up during play. Printed copies of the material will be available at the club for non-Internet folks or those who just want a hard copy. If you know of a topic that should be discussed, let us know via Email or by bringing it up at the club. Finally, copies of the relevant sections in the ACBL rulebook will be included for those who wish to read and/or print them.

Last week's discussion of opening leads was a part of this process, but I actually got the cart before the horse. Where we should start is with what to do when an irregularity occurs, and that is the first of two topics for this week. This is an easy one--CALL THE DIRECTOR! I know the temptation is to say that it's OK and to let something pass or to make your own ruling because you've heard the rule before (or that one of our many certified directors is playing at the table). And it is fine to do this.

But what happens when later you think about the situation and feel that you were penalized improperly or got a bad score you didn't deserve? It's too late for the director to discover the facts and deal with the situation in a way that's fair to all. And this postmortem realization happens--you know it does! Therefore, please call the director. You'd do that at a tournament, and you may as well do the same in the club game. I don't know anyone who would resent your doing the right thing. Laws 9-11 apply here.Click here to link to a PDF copy of these laws.

Our second topic deals with the mechanics of the bidding box. The ACBL wants people to use them, so there is a good deal of latitude with rules in this area. Please be aware of the following:

1. Don't "finger" the cards as a way of expressing uncertainty about the proper bid. Decide on the bid and then reach into the box.
2. Look at your bid as you place it on the table to make sure it's the right one. There is no penalty for changing it at this point.
3. Most importantly, know your rights when you pull the wrong card but do not discover this, and you don't make the correction immediately. You may change the bid legally up to the point that your partner makes a bid or call, even if your LHO has bid. To understand this point, let's look at part of the rule (a link below connects to the complete law) and the logic behind it.

Law 25: LEGAL AND ILLEGAL CHANGES OF CALL

A. Immediate Correction of Inadvertency Until his partner makes a call, a player may substitute his intended call for an inadvertent call but only if he does so, or attempts to do so, without pause for thought. If legal, his last call stands without penalty.

The troublesome issue is "without pause for thought." The spirit of the rule applies to situations where you make the bid, perhaps take a sip of coffee, and then see your error. The change you wish to make must not be due to a subsequent decision that a better bid was possible but should be one that will correct the mechanical error you made in removing the bidding cards from the box. The director should allow the change when the bidding and/or your hand make this obvious. What about when LHO has bid? Again, let's consider a part of the relevant rule.

B. Delayed or Purposeful Correction: Until LHO calls, a call may be substituted when Section A does not apply.

1. Substitute Call Condoned The substituted call may be accepted (treated as legal) at the option of offender's LHO; then, the second call stands and the auction proceeds without penalty. If offender's LHO has called before attention is drawn to the infraction and the Director determines that LHO intended his call to apply over the offender's original call at that turn, offender's substituted call stands without penalty, and LHO may withdraw his call without penalty (but see Law 16C2).

Again, the director must determine the reason for your change of call. The rules of bridge are not intended to punish you for a lack of manual dexterity! Mike Flader, who writes the "Ruling the Game" column for the ACBL, said on this issue, "He [the bidder] is supposed to change it [the bid] or attempt to change it as soon as he becomes aware of the fact that he has pulled the wrong card... Occasionally, it will appear that a player's attention has been drawn to his error because of an alert or response to a question by his partner. The League has advised its tournament directors to allow a change of call in these cases, based on the presumption that a player by looking at the auction, which is authorized, would have noticed his own error in a timely fashion even without the unauthorized information created by the alert, question, etc."

Of course, the best thing is to check your bid as you put it down, but that won't happen every time. Please remember that a simple physical error is something for which you do not have to suffer. If you do discover your error before partner bids, stop the bidding, call the director and explain what happened. In most cases you will have no problem retracting the mistaken bid and making the proper one. Have a good bridge week!

Click here to see all rules relevant to change of call.

Click here to access past articles from this discussion page.

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